Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Hanford remains
an extreme risk
One of the consequences of living sites including the tunnels are on the
U.S. Department of Energy’s to-do
near an enormous watershed is that
list, with appropriate plans in place
we must be on guard about major
to safeguard workers and the public.
pollution threats nearly everywhere
“As work continues to complete
in the France-sized Columbia Basin.
The most ominous of these problems cleanup along the Columbia River
Corridor, a long list of cleanup
remains the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation.
activity remains outstanding on
the Central Plateau, including
Awareness of the enormous scale
of toxins at the former Cold War
remediation and demolition of more
weapons site has been growing since than 1,000 waste sites, 500 facilities,
and contaminated
a shroud of secrecy
soil and groundwater
started to lift with
collapse of the Soviet
The public is — much of which is
contaminated
Union in the 1980s.
only starting highly
with radioactive and
Facilities once used to
toxic waste,” the
manufacture radioactive
to become
lawmakers noted in
bomb ingredients at
aware of the their May 24 letter to
astounding expense
GAO.
now are the subject
kind of abuses the There’s
ample
of a corresponding
expensive cleanup.
of trust that reason to keep an
eye on Hanford.
Almost pulsating with
happened at eagle
Even now, the public
potential for harm,
is only starting to
some of Hanford’s vast
the facility.
become aware of the
stretches of desert will
kinds of abuses of
effectively be off limits
trust that happened there — activities
for thousands of years.
What is new is the partial collapse that placed the reservation’s
of a rail tunnel at Hanford’s PUREX downstream neighbors at risk.
For example, the Nobel
plant, a hulking factory devoted to
Prize-winning Physicians for
production of plutonium. Intended
Environmental Responsibility
as a makeshift dump for large
note, “By 1957 eight plutonium
equipment rendered deadly by
production reactors dumped a
plutonium contamination, the tunnel
daily average of 50,000 curies
was partially constructed of wooden
of radioactive material into the
railroad ties. Strong radiation like
Columbia. Perhaps the most
that in the tunnel eventually causes
dramatic of these events was the
wood to crumble. The structural
“Green Run” in December 1949,
integrity of PUREX tunnel 1 has
when 8,000 curies of iodine-131
been compromised, leading to a
recent emergency alert at the nuclear were intentionally released ...
Although the plume covered an area
reservation. There is at least one
of 200 by 40 miles, no warnings
more tunnel we’re aware of.
were given and no follow-up of
This comes on top of other
area residents was conducted. By
longer-term problems with the
comparison, only 15 to 24 curies of
cleanup, including failure of
iodine-131 were released at Three
some underground storage tanks
Mile Island,” the famous 1979
that contain radioactive sludge,
reactor accident in Pennsylvania.
a byproduct of the nuclear-fuel
Given all this context, it probably
manufacturing process.
is unwise to cut Hanford’s $2
A bipartisan group of federal
billion annual cleanup budget by
lawmakers from Oregon and
$120 million, as President Trump is
Washington, including Democratic
proposing. While there undoubtedly
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Maria
has been financial waste during the
Cantwell and Republican Reps.
cleanup, the tunnel collapse shows
Greg Walden and Cathy McMorris
us that enormous unfunded expenses
Rodgers, are insisting that the
lie ahead.
Government Accountability Office
Keeping more deadly
conduct a review of this daunting
contamination out of the Columbia
mess. Their demand is broadly
River must be a top national priority.
intended to make sure legacy toxin
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Budget proposal a fantasy
built on a house of cards
By Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
W
here’s the real Paul Ryan when
we need him? You know, that
wonky digging-in-the-weeds
guy who knew every budget forward
and backward and upside down and
inside out?
We ask because Ryan today is
supporting a dream world fantasy of a
Trump budget that purports to balance
the budget in 10 years on a house
of cards. (“What I see is a president
keeping his promises,” Ryan told Fox
News). Others aren’t as blind in their
loyalty. Sens. Lindsey Graham and John
McCain weren’t the only congressional
leaders to call it “dead on arrival.”
In fact, “dead on arrival” is the
best news we’ve heard about the
Trump budget, which may be the least
conservative in decades. If this were
to somehow survive the sharp knives
in Congress, the country would be in
real trouble with millions left without
services they need, a weaker defense and
a massively growing deficit.
First, the numbers are literally
unbelievable.
Among the problems: Critics say the
budget double counts its tax cuts and
includes revenue from an estate tax that
it would eliminate, reports Business
Insider. It also projects a 3 percent
growth in the economy that virtually no
one believes can happen. And it includes
basic errors that former U.S. Treasury
Secretary Lawrence Summers said in the
Washington Post “would justify failing
a student in an introductory economics
course.”
While giving the president points
for setting a good fiscal goal, The
Committee for a Responsible Federal
Budget said in a release that the budget
is “based on overly optimistic economic
projections” and that the president
is “relying on phony growth and
unachievable cuts.”
As to allocating spending, the budget
increases defense spending but in the
wrong way: The National Interest
reports that the budget “begins to repair
but does not rebuild the U.S. military,”
and “does not live up to congressional
expectations to better align resources
with strategy after years of a growing
mismatch.”
At the same time, social programs
are being gutted, which should worry
states. Medicaid would take a $600
billion hit on top of the cuts proposed
in the American Health Care Act,
leaving states “looking at a more than $1
trillion reduction in Medicaid spending”
Governing magazine reports.
Ryan has in the past offered scathing
criticism of Democratic budgets, and he
was right to do so. But the Trump budget
blows them all out of the water. Ryan
needs to take off his political blinders
and join those who are taking a realistic
look at Trump’s nonsensical budget and
saying “dead in the water.”
OTHER VIEWS
While other controversies
rage, work on border wall
moves forward
N
ew revelations come almost
there are more than 650 miles along
by the minute in the Trump-
the border with something on them —
Russia affair. A reasonable
vehicle fence, simple pedestrian fence,
observer might conclude that is
whatever. That means the government
has already gone through the land
all that is happening in the Trump
acquisition and approval process
administration. But even as those
required to erect a barrier.
troubles fill news sites and cable
There’s no doubt that hundreds of
TV, administration officials are
miles of truly impenetrable barriers
quietly moving ahead on one of the
Byron
would have a huge effect on illegal
president’s top campaign promises: the
York
construction of a wall on the U.S.-
border crossings. Talk to some experts
Comment
Mexico border.
who favor tougher border enforcement,
and they will say that even as few as
Although it hasn’t received much
100 well-chosen miles of barrier would make
attention relative to the president’s many
a difference.
problems, extensive planning for the wall is
Once planners decide where to build,
under way, officials are evaluating specific
there will then be the question of what to
proposals, sites are being studied, and yes,
build. If the decision is to build a wall, then
there is money available to get going. The
the question is: a wall of what? Planners
work is being done under President Trump’s
have decided that concrete will definitely be
executive order of Jan. 25.
involved, even though it hasn’t played much
“The executive order calls on the authority
of a role in earlier barriers. Why concrete?
in the Secure Fence Act for us to begin
“It’s an interpretation of the vision,” the
immediately,” said a senior administration
senior administration official
official who recently provided
explained. By “vision,” he
an extensive update on the state
meant it is a way to make
of the wall project. In March,
Trump’s oft-repeated promise
U.S. Customs and Border
of a “big, beautiful wall” a
Protection sent out a request
reality. Trump didn’t mean a
for proposals for companies
fence.
to bid on the construction of
On the other hand, using
prototypes — not little models
concrete presents one obvious
to sit on someone’s desk, but
problem. Whatever barrier is
full-scale sections of proposed
built, Border Protection agents on the U.S. side
wall designs that will be put in place on the
need to be able to see through it. That’s always
border. So far, Border Protection has received
been a requirement with earlier barriers. So
more than 100 proposals.
now, officials are looking for creative ideas for
“We are evaluating what started out as
a wall that will still allow them full sight of the
a solicitation to industry and request for
Mexican side.
proposals — 18 to 30 feet high, concrete,
That touches on the most important
impenetrable, hard-to-scale, the correct
consideration for planners. A wall isn’t just a
aesthetics,” the official said.
wall. It is a system — a “smart wall,” as they
There are some important points to
call it. It involves building a barrier with the
remember before going any further. First,
monitoring technology to allow U.S. officials
there is no intention to build a wall to stretch
to be aware of people approaching; to be able
the entire border, from San Diego, California,
to track them at all times; to have roads to
to Brownsville, Texas. In his campaign, the
move people around; the facilities to deal with
president made clear that the wall need not
the people who are apprehended; and more.
cover every mile of the border. Certainly,
At this point, it’s impossible to say what
no expert who supports more barriers at the
building a smart wall will cost, because
border believes it should, either.
officials haven’t yet decided on a plan.
And the wall does not always mean a wall.
Republicans on the Hill argue that they got as
The Jan. 25 executive order defined “wall” as
“a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly much money in the recent spending bill as they
could for the project, given that they had to
secure, contiguous and impassable physical
barrier.” Planners say that in practice, that will work with Democrats to avoid a government
shutdown and fund the government through
certainly mean extensive areas with an actual
Sept. 30. “We weren’t going to get anything
wall. But other areas might have the type of
passed that said, quote-unquote, ‘wall,’” noted
fencing outlined in the Secure Fence Act, or
one GOP staffer.
some other barrier yet to be designed.
The next funding hurdle will come when
And that leads to a third point: The border
Congress considers spending for 2018.
barrier will not look the same at all points
Most House and Senate Democrats appear
along the border. The terrain of the border is
determined to stop a border barrier. They say it
different — some parts are so imposing they
will be expensive and ineffective, while some
don’t need a barrier at all — and officials plan
Republicans believe Democrats oppose the
to design walls and barriers that fit each area,
wall mainly because they fear it will work.
rather than one long, unchanging structure.
After the recent spending bill passed, some
Right now, officials are studying how
opponents of the wall declared the project
many “buildable miles” will need a barrier. At
dead. But any victory dance right now is
the moment, planners believe that about 700
premature. Yes, it’s certainly possible the wall
“buildable miles” of the border will require a
won’t be built. But it’s also possible it will be
wall or other barrier. That just happens to be
about the same amount called for in the Secure built, or that significant parts of it will be built.
The work is already under way.
Fence Act.
■
Does the government have that much
Byron York is chief political correspondent
land available? The answer is mostly yes.
Remember, from the numbers cited above, that for The Washington Examiner.
If the decision
is to build a
wall, then a
wall of what?