Schumer, Gillibrand Launch Push To Secure $75 Million In Fed Funding For The West Valley Demonstration Project In 2017 Budget-Program Has Been Shortchanged For Years&Continues To Pose Environmental Risk To WNY; Senators Say Funding Is Needed Funding Is Needed For Waste Cleanup At The Cattaraugus County Site

Press Release

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand today launched their push to secure $75 million in federal funding for the West Valley Demonstration Project in Western New York. Schumer and Gillibrand explained that the West Valley Demonstration Project in Cattaraugus County needs an allocation of at least $75 million per year for at least 10 years in order to complete the first phase of clean up at the former nuclear site, but it has been continually underfunded over the past several years. In 2008, the federal Department of Energy (DOE) issued an Environmental Impact Statement that said $75 million per year in federal funding would be the most cost-efficient way to clean up the site. However, to date, the West Valley Demonstration Project has been significantly underfunded in the President's budget and by Congress. Therefore, Schumer and Gillibrand launched their push to secure the needed $75 million in federal funding in the Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bill.

"Each year that the West Valley Demonstration Project goes underfunded, the amount of time and money it will take to decontaminate and remove the radioactive waste from this Cattaraugus County site increases. This program has been continually shortchanged, year after year, and it is high time we finally get the $75 million -- minimum -- this site desperately needs for the cleanup effort. The federal government cannot balk at its longstanding commitment to contain and restore the West Valley nuclear site," said Senator Schumer. "That is why I am urging my colleagues in Congress to keep their promise to Western New York, where this site has become both a public health and an environmental hazard, and restore full federal funding levels to $75 million in the 2017 appropriations bill."

"We need to provide the necessary resources to decontaminate the nuclear site in West Valley so we aren't putting the health and well-being of residents in Western New York at risk," said Senator Gillibrand, a member of the Environment & Public Works Committee. "I will continue to fight for increased funding for the West Valley Demonstration Project in the Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bill. Without increased funding for West Valley, the cleanup cannot be completed on schedule, which will result in higher costs to the federal government over time and prolong the environmental and public health risks associated with this contaminated site."

Each year since the Environmental Impact Statement was issued, the West Valley Demonstration Project has been underfunded, despite the fact that it remains an environmental risk to all of Western New York. Additionally, despite the DOE's suggestion of $75 million per year, in FY 2015, the West Valley site only received $60 million for cleanup efforts; in 2014, it received $66 million; in 2013, it received $61 million; in 2012, it received $66 million; and in 2011, it received $59 million. In FY 2016, the site received $59.2 million in funding. This is why Schumer and Gillibrand are urging federal appropriators to fund the program in FY 2017 at the agreed upon $75 million.

Schumer and Gillibrand have long fought to ensure the West Valley project is adequately funded. In March 2015, Schumer, during an in-person meeting, urged the President's nominee for the Office of Environmental Management at the DOE, Monica Regalbuto, to prioritize the complete cleanup of the West Valley Demonstration Project and support full federal funding for the effort. During their meeting, Schumer argued that the short-changing of West Valley is out-of-step with other DOE cleanup sites, which have seen either sustained or increased funding.

West Valley spends approximately $20 million each year on utilities, worker salaries, and other expenses so that decontamination work may continue. This money must be spent regardless, and therefore, the longer the project is underfunded, the more money the project will require in the long run. DOE's inability to adequately fund the West Valley cleanup site has put the effort significantly behind schedule and continued delays as a result of low funding only increase the public health risk posed by the contaminated material that remains at the site. Schumer emphasized in his meeting with Regalbuto that DOE should prioritize full clean-up in the most timely and economically efficient way possible. Schumer also urged Regalbuto to take into account the potential impacts of environmental factors, such as erosion, which could have increasingly negative effects if the project takes longer than originally projected. It is only through full and swift clean-up that the damage to public health, the watershed, and the surrounding community can be mitigated.

West Valley is the site of the first and, to date, only commercial reprocessing plant in the United States. After beginning operations in 1966 with a theoretical capacity to reprocess 300 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel per year, the facility processed a total of 640 tons of nuclear waste in six years before shutting down in 1972. The West Valley Demonstration Project Act, signed into law on October 1, 1980, required the Department of Energy to solidify and dispose of the high-level waste, and decommission the facilities used in the process.

The West Valley Reprocessing Plant was formerly an operational plant for the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel at West Valley, New York. It was operated from 1966-72. During this time period, 600,000 gallons of highly radioactive waste accumulated in an underground waste tank. Today, millions of gallons of radioactive waste remain at the site. The plant was shut down in 1972 after regulations at the time required plant modifications. These new regulations were deemed by plant operators to be economically infeasible.

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