Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

DOE withholds Yucca money from counties

Department reviewing audits of how funds are being spent

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy is withholding more than $1.5 million from Nevada counties while it reviews audits detailing how the local entities are spending federal money to monitor the Yucca Mountain Project, county officials said Monday.

Officials in Lincoln and Nye counties said half of their 2003 funding for the Yucca program has been set aside. Clark County has yet to learn whether any of its $1.8 million allocation is being withheld, nuclear waste planning manager Irene Navis said.

The development comes as the DOE inspector general completes audits of federal money that local governments receive to weigh the impact of the proposed Nevada nuclear waste repository.

Congress allocated $7 million to be shared this year by nine Nevada counties and Inyo County in California. But following directions from lawmakers in last year's budget to initiate annual audits, DOE also has started examining county expenditures.

The initial audits, which covered 2001 and 2002, were conducted last fall. If the inspector general's findings are accepted by DOE, disallowed spending could be deducted from this year's county allocations, officials said.

Nevada officials said auditors are questioning more than $1 million in counties' expenditures, including certain research, travel and activities that auditors construe as political lobbying.

Auditors also are questioning whether counties can carry over unspent balances each year and gain interest on those amounts, officials said.

DOE and audit officials could not be reached Monday night.

The issue surfaced earlier Monday when Sen. Harry Reid., D-Nev., brought it up at a Yucca Mountain budget hearing in Congress. He urged resolution of the audits and release of nonchallenged funding.

"If the audits are revealing disallowed costs for one or two counties, I would prefer you release funding for the other units of affected government rather than sit on it all," Reid said to Margaret Chu, head of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

Lincoln and Nye county officials said they disagree with the audits, which have not yet been published but which they have discussed with DOE officials.

"We have been scrupulous in how we spend oversight money. We are just flabbergasted," said Les Bradshaw, Nye County manager of natural resources and federal facilities.

Bradshaw said about $1 million in Nye spending was questioned by DOE auditors, and about $1.1 million in county funding has been withheld.

"We have to drastically reduce our program," Bradshaw said. "They may ultimately give us the rest of the money but we don't know that right now."

About $400,000 earmarked for Lincoln County has been withheld, Commissioner Spencer Hafen said.

Navis said the audit identified $132,000 in questionable spending for Clark County out of $3 million examined.

Clark County sent a strongly worded letter demanding DOE release funds, officials said.

Navis said Congress directed the department to provide money to the counties "and they didn't do it."

In addition to Nevada counties, the state and the DOE also are in the midst of disagreements over Yucca funding.

A DOE audit has challenged $25,753 Nevada paid to technical adviser Steve Frishman, according to Bob Loux, director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects.

Loux said DOE questioned Frishman's presentations to out-of-state groups about Nevada's opposition to the Yucca Mountain Project.

Additionally, the state and DOE are at loggerheads over another $625,000 in funding being withheld from 2002, Loux said, and the state has not yet received $2.5 million in funding for 2003.