Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Mr. Chair, I rise to offer an important amendment that would provide a $5 million increase in funding for the Department of Energy Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup account.

My amendment is offset by reducing a small portion of funds for nuclear energy research programs. I believe this offset is appropriate because the contamination that must be cleaned up was directly caused by past Department of Energy nuclear energy research programs.

In the past, inadequate safety protocols and lax environmental standards resulted in severe soil and groundwater contamination at sites across the Nation. The DOE Office of Environmental Management is responsible for cleaning up 107 sites across the country whose areas are equal to the combined area of Rhode Island and Delaware. A few of these sites the DOE is responsible for cleaning up include: the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, of which we've spoken today; the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, which is adjacent to my district and to many of my constituents impacted by this facility; the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York; and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The President's fiscal year 2014 budget requested $212 million for environmental remediation and site cleanup. However, this bill provides only $194 million for these environmental cleanup activities.

I understand that the Energy and Water Subcommittee was forced to make difficult choices due to an inadequate budget allocation. However, I believe that the cleanup of these sites should be a top priority. We should not continue to fund new nuclear energy research while communities across the country are told to wait for the cleanup of our past mistakes.

For instance, the Energy Technology Engineering Center, which is part of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, is highly contaminated due to a partial nuclear meltdown of a sodium reactor in 1959. This partial nuclear meltdown, which was covered up until 1989, contaminated the soil and groundwater in the entire area and has resulted in cancer clusters among nearby residents and my constituents. In fact, many of those who worked at the facility or who lived nearby died due to illnesses caused by the widespread nuclear fallout of the 1959 meltdown. Cleaning up the soil and groundwater contamination at Santa Susana and at other sites across the country is our responsibility to our constituents who suffer from the effects of these past mistakes.

My amendment simply increases this cleanup account by $5 million for a total of $199 million, which is still below the $212 million requested by the President.

I urge my colleagues to support my commonsense amendment to increase funds for the Department of Energy Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup account. As I conclude, I believe it is critically important that Congress provide funding to clean up areas contaminated by past Department of Energy activities and mistakes. I urge Members to support my amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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