[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 95 (Tuesday, July 8, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6959-S6960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FUNDING ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as a country we have congratulated 
ourselves time and time again on our enormous victory in winning the 
cold war. But today I want to remind my colleagues that the cold war 
was won at a cost, a very steep cost, and one of the biggest debts owed 
remains unpaid: the environmental devastation created at places like 
Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south-central Washington State.
  Later today, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations 
Subcommittee will mark up its fiscal year 1998 appropriations bill. We 
will have a lot of work to do to make up the shortfalls found in both 
the Senate Armed Services defense authorization bill and the House 
national defense authorization bill. Rather than funding the cleanup 
bills, the authorizing committees have taken nearly $1 billion--
billion--from the defense environmental

[[Page S6960]]

management accounts of the Department of Energy and moved them into 
procurement and other Department of Defense accounts.
  Let me tell you the effect this move will have on one place in my 
State. Probably the single biggest environmental problem on any of our 
former defense nuclear weapons sites is the 177 storage tanks filled 
with chemical and high-level radioactive waste at Hanford. Each of 
these tanks contains from a half million to a million gallons of toxic 
waste. Some of that waste is rock solid, some of it is soupy sludge, 
some of it is liquid, and some is poisonous gas. Several tanks have 
``burped'' their noxious gases.
  We have only recently begun making real progress in learning what 
chemicals and radioactive waste were put into these tanks and what 
substances have now been created through indiscriminate mixing of 
wastes.
  The most troubling aspect of these tanks is that they are leaking, 
moving these vile substances into ground water and toward the Columbia 
River.
  Let me say it again. These tanks are leaking, and they are located 
next to one of this Nation's greatest rivers. They are upstream from 
Richland, Kennewick, Pasco, Portland, and many smaller communities in 
Washington and Oregon. And their toxic waste is slowly migrating toward 
the Columbia River, which many view as the lifeblood of the Pacific 
Northwest because it provides fish, irrigation, power generation, 
recreation, and much more.

  In this year's budget, the Department of Energy requested $427 
million in budget authority to continue a privatization initiative, 
called the tank waste remediation system, and another $500 million plus 
for other environmental management privatization efforts. My colleague 
in the Washington delegation, Representative Adam Smith, was successful 
in getting the House National Security Committee to place $70 million 
in the defense authorization bill for tank waste, nearly $350 million 
short of the budget request, but the House gave no other sites any 
funds. Our Senate Armed Services Committee bill provides $215 million 
for four privatization projects, including $109 million targeted to 
tank waste. This is simply not adequate.
  Yesterday, I submitted an amendment to the Department of Defense 
authorization bill that would increase these privatization accounts by 
about $250 million. Most of that money goes toward solving the tank 
waste problem which almost everyone familiar with this issue agrees 
must be our top priority, but money is also added at Savannah River, 
Oak Ridge, Idaho Falls, and Fernald.
  In addition, my amendment would facilitate the riskiest part of this 
privatization venture by helping to ensure DOE is able to meet its time 
lines for delivery of this toxic waste to a private company for 
vitrification or immobilization. I added $50 million for this initial 
stage of characterization and remediation of the tank waste. The 
offsets come from noncleanup programs and another privatization effort 
within the Departments of Energy and Defense.
  Mr. President, I am talking about deadly risks to human health and 
the environment, and so far, this Congress is choosing to ignore them. 
Simply wishing that these enormously costly projects will go away will 
not make them disappear. It will only make them worse and more costly 
to clean up later.
  The Department of Energy has proposed an innovative method of solving 
these problems by privatizing them and letting some of the best, most 
established companies in the world use their expertise to clean up 
these sites. In order for industry to succeed, this Congress must 
demonstrate its commitment to the privatization program by funding it. 
Going from a Presidential request of $1 billion to $70 million in the 
House and $215 million in the Senate will not give the capital markets 
or private industry the confidence they need to make this work.
  We need more money for the tank waste remediation system and other 
cleanup priorities. Let me remind my colleagues that even if my 
amendment prevails, this authorization bill will still contain about 
$500 million less than was agreed upon by the President and Congress in 
the recent historic budget agreement. The President finds this funding 
shortfall so serious that he has issued veto threats on both defense 
authorization bills, citing this as one of his primary concerns.
  I urge my colleagues to stand with me as we work to get our former 
defense nuclear weapons sites restored or at least stop them from 
causing further harm to our rivers, our air and our land. We cannot 
turn our backs on the nearby communities that have sacrificed so much 
for this Nation in the past. Let's make our victory of the cold war 
complete by leaving our children and our grandchildren a safe, healthy 
environment, not a contaminated wasteland that sites, like Hanford, 
will become without sufficient Federal cleanup dollars.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor, and I suggest the 
absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Inhofe). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Enzi). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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