S. HRG. 110–442 Senate Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations Energy and Water Development Appropriations Fiscal Year 2008 110th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION H.R. 2641/S. 1751 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE—CIVIL DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Energy and Water Development Appropriations, 2008 (H.R. 2641/S. 1751) S. HRG. 110–442 ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H.R. 2641/S. 1751 AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOP- MENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2008, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES Department of Defense—Civil Department of Energy Department of the Interior Nondepartmental Witnesses Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 33–914 PDF WASHINGTON : 2008 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont TED STEVENS, Alaska TOM HARKIN, Iowa ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATTY MURRAY, Washington MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JACK REED, Rhode Island SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado BEN NELSON, Nebraska LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TERRENCE E. SAUVAIN, Staff Director BRUCE EVANS, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico PATTY MURRAY, Washington THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri JACK REED, Rhode Island KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado Professional Staff DOUG CLAPP ROGER COCKRELL FRANZ WUERFMANNSDOBLER SCOTT O’MALIA (Minority) BRAD FULLER (Minority) Administrative Support ROBERT RICH (II) CONTENTS Page WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2007 Department of Energy: Office of Environmental Management ............................................................ 1 Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management ........................................ 20 THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2007 Department of Defense—Civil: Department of the Army: Corps of Engineers— Civil ....................................................................................................................... 53 Department of the Interior: Bureau of Reclamation ............................................. 74 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2007 Department of Energy: Office of Science ............................................................... 167 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2007 Department of Energy ............................................................................................. 221 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2007 Department of Energy: National Nuclear Security Administration .................... 321 NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Department of Defense—Civil: Department of the Army: Corps of Engineers— Civil ....................................................................................................................... 393 Department of the Interior: Bureau of Reclamation ............................................. 460 Department of Energy ............................................................................................. 487 (III) ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2007 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 2:21 p.m., in room SD–138, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan (chairman) pre- siding. Present: Senators Dorgan, Murray, Domenici, Bennett, Craig, and Allard. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES A. RISPOLI, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF ENERGY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BYRON L. DORGAN Senator DORGAN. I call the hearing to order. Let me apologize for the delay, but we have had two votes on the floor of the Senate and they are just finishing. This is the first hearing of the Energy and Water Subcommittee this year and the first since I have assumed the chairmanship, and I am pleased to be in this role and working on so many interesting and divergent issues. I am also pleased to be working with my col- league Senator Domenici. I visited the National Laboratory at Sandia in New Mexico with Senator Domenici 2 weeks ago. I saw some of the scope of the subcommittee’s jurisdiction during that visit and was very impressed, very interested. Today we have two important programs to hear from, the Office of Environmental Management and the Office of Civilian Radio- active Waste Management. I am going to put most of my opening statement into the record so that we can hear the witnesses, but let me say that the Radioactive Waste Office has the immediate task of submitting a license for the Yucca Mountain waste reposi- tory to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 2008. The En- vironmental Management Office has the immediate and long-term task of cleaning up the contamination from nuclear weapons facili- ties that date back to the Second World War. It is clear to me as I look at the budget that we have some very serious budget prob- lems and we will evaluate some of those today. (1) 2 PREPARED STATEMENT I am going to put the rest of my statement in the record. I will be using a portion of that discussion during the question period. I want to thank both Mr. Sproat and Mr. Rispoli for being with us today. [The statement follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR BYRON L. DORGAN The hearing will come to order. Thank you all for being here today. This is the first hearing of the Energy and Water Subcommittee this year and the first of my chairmanship. I am happy to be in this role and excited by the prospect of working on so many interesting and divergent issues. I am also pleased to be working with my colleague, and long-time chairman of this subcommittee, Senator Domenici. I visited Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico with Senator Domenici two weeks ago. During that visit I saw some of the scope of this subcommittee’s jurisdiction and my colleague’s wealth of experience on these matters. Today, we have two important programs to hear from—the Office of Environ- mental Management and the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. The Radioactive Waste office has the immediate task of submitting a license for the Yucca Mountain waste repository to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June, 2008. The Environmental Management (EM) office has the immediate and long-term task of cleaning up the contamination from nuclear weapon facilities that date back to World War II. It is clear the proposed budget for the EM program is inadequate. The EM program has recognized the shortfall in requested funding and has pro- posed to focus fiscal year 2008 cleanup on the highest risk activities across the com- plex. This is obviously wise. But I’m concerned by the budget’s implied premise that it is okay to delay ad- dressing lower risk activities. It is very clear that this budget will lead to missed milestones set out in cleanup agreements with the States. In fact, the Department is already stating it intends to work with the States to modify these cleanup agreements. I find it unfortunate that the administration proposes to modify cleanup agree- ments based purely upon lack of funding. Nuclear waste cleanup is difficult work involving some of the most dangerous ma- terials on earth. We all understand that difficulties arise in this type of work that leads to missed milestones. But, as I understand it, the States are often understanding in these circumstances and have agreed to make changes to the agreements when legitimate obstacles to cleanup have arisen. It seems too much to ask that States agree to milestone changes simply because the Federal Government proposes to short-change such an important program. I’m also concerned by a fiscal year 2008 budget document statement that says the life-cycle cost of the EM program is estimated to have increased by $50 billion. We need a better explanation for this estimated cost increase and what the De- partment is doing to reverse this escalation. The Department of Energy’s own website has a section on the history of the EM program and its origins in the weapons programs that produced the contamination. The website notes that scientists in the weapons program early on advised that the resulting waste stream presented grave problems. DOE’s website then notes, ‘‘The imperatives of the nuclear arms race, however, demanded that weapons production and testing be given priority over waste man- agement and the control of environmental