City representatives attend Energy Communities Alliance conference, meet with DOE officials

 

Oak Ridge City Councilman Chuck Hope and City Manager Mark Watson recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend a conference sponsored by the Energy Communities Alliance, or ECA. The ECA is the membership organization of local governments that host or are located near U.S. Department of Energy sites. The ECA supported attendance at the meeting with travel grants to the participants.

The two-day conference focused on DOE’s Environmental Management program. DOE staff made presentations on topics such as waste disposition, accomplishments in the cleanup mission, fiscal year 2017 budget planning, and a “view from the secretary’s office,” a press release said.

Additional sessions were held on the local government role in cleanup agreements, and working with local communities to improve contracting, the press release said. Hope helped lead a session on fiscal year 2017 appropriations and implications for DOE cleanup, while Watson was a panelist in a session on the future of DOE contracting.

“The conference was very informative, particularly when you hear what’s happening at the DOE headquarters level and from local officials at the other major DOE sites,” Hope said. “These discussions help provide perspective on the many assets we have in Oak Ridge, but also some of the challenges we face here and across the complex, particularly when budgets are tight.”

“We were able to have some good conversations with DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration staff about City of Oak Ridge issues,” Watson said. “We spoke about the need to continue modernizing our infrastructure, and to enhance our housing stock to attract more of DOE’s and contractor employees to live in the community in which they work. We were also pleased to see the high levels of interest in the ongoing implementation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.”

Other DOE communities represented at the conference included Aiken, South Carolina; Richland, Washington; Carlsbad, New Mexico; Idaho Falls, Idaho, Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Kennewick, Washington.

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