COMMUNITY SUPPORT
DOE Requests Drastic Cuts to School and Emergency Response Funding for Communities Surrounding SRS and Hanford Only–ECA Requests Reconsideration
ECA Staff | 6/10/2020
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) budget request for FY 2022 proposes to eliminate payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding only the Hanford Site and Savannah River Site, the communities that bear the burden of the largest environmental cleanup projects in the United States.
PILT payments are used to support vital local government functions such as school and hospital districts, roads and other critical infrastructure, and emergency services such as police and fire departments. Additionally, a lack of PILT payments results in a lack of ability for communities to replace aging infrastructure or attract the new industry, best available workforce, and investment necessary for DOE to sustain weapons and environmental cleanup activities at its sites.
In a letter to the Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, ECA Chair Ron Woody writes that DOE should "ensure that future DOE budget requests include sufficient funding for PILT payments to all DOE-impacted communities currently eligible for receipt.” The full letter is available
here.
The communities around the sites support each other on these types of critical issues. No one wants to see the funding that supports the communities where the workers live and work cut without a discussion. ECA has asked DOE to rethink the request and to possibly clarify to Congress that the request on that issue is being changed by the Administration.
Each Administration since 1954 has supported PILT payments. The proposed elimination of such payments does not track with recent commitments ECA has heard from new DOE leadership about supporting communities.
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Community and Regulatory Support by Site (includes State Regulatory funding, SSAB funding and PILT funding) – within FY 2022 EM Budget Request
In thousands of dollars
Read about DOE's High Level Waste Interpretation
Have questions about DOE’s recent high-level waste (HLW) interpretation? Download ECA’s Key Points and FAQs on the issue to better understand what ECA believes are the potential benefits of implementation.
Interested in learning more? Read the ECA report “Making Informed Decisions on DOE's Proposed High Level Waste Definition” at www.energyca.org/publications
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ECA's new site profiles detail DOE's 13 active Environmental Management cleanup sites and national laboratories, highlighting their history, missions, and priorities. The profiles are a key source for media, stakeholders, and the public to learn more about DOE site activities, contractors, advisory boards, and their surrounding local
governments.
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