Thanks to the joint efforts of Georgia and South Carolina Congress members, next year’s funding for the University’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) will be reduced instead of completely eliminated.

All funding for the SREL was cut last February when President Bush announced his budget request for the 2006 fiscal year.

The laboratory, located in South Carolina, studies the environmental effects of the nuclear weapons site it was built on, and has been operated by the University since 1951, according to a University press release.

It provides ecological and environmental research to the scientific community and general public.

The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $4.3 million in funding to the lab for the 2006 fiscal year, said lab director Paul Bertsch.

This amount, however, is still a 47 percent decrease from the $8 million the DOE initially provided.

As a result, 51 positions — one-third of the lab’s faculty — have been eliminated in order to keep the laboratory functioning in spite of the budget cuts, which take effect on Oct. 1.

Five tenured faculty members of the University whose positions were eliminated will return to teaching and research positions within the University.

Travis Glenn, an Associate Research Scientist at the SREL, said people are also leaving because of the lack of job stability.

“I have lost and will continue to lose good people because it has shaken people’s belief in the viability of the SREL,” Glenn said.

I. Lehr Brisbin, a Senior Ecologist at the SREL, said he is left with files full of unarchived research. Even though he did not lose his position, he can no longer document his research or continue his personal research on the Savannah River Site because of a lack of technicians.

The abandonment of the Savannah River Site will have “major, major environmental impacts” as a result of the radioactive isotopes that are present at the site, Brisbin said.

Funds to the lab were cut because environmental matters are not a main concern of the government, Bertsch said in an e-mail.

“Environmental issues are very low on the administration’s agenda,” he said. “This, coupled with a very difficult budget climate, led to a number of environmental programs to be cut from the 2006 budget.”

The DOE acknowledged the high quality of research conducted by the SREL and made it clear the cuts were not based on a lack of merit on the lab’s part, Bertsch said.

There have been positive discussions with the DOE-Environmental Management and in the National Nuclear Security Administration about funding for the laboratory in 2007, he said.

The laboratory will rely on a variety of sources other than just the DOE, he said. The Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation and other organizations currently provide an additional $3 million in funding for the lab.