Recycling earmark draws fire from Ariz.; W.Va. project funded with help of Mollohan an example of wasteful spending, lawmaker says
BYLINE: JAKE STUMP
DAILY MAIL STAFF
An electronics-recycling project based in Wood County has garnered the attention of an Arizona congressman intent on cutting the flow of funds to pet projects.
In a "60 Minutes" piece Sunday on CBS, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., vented his frustrations over the $600,000 the government gave to the Mid-Atlantic Recycling Center for End-of-Life Electronics (MARCEE).
MARCEE is a partnership project between West Virginia University and the Polymer Alliance Zone, which is based in Davisville just south of Parkersburg.
The MARCEE project was established in 1998 with funding secured by Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va. Mollohan has been criticized for funneling federal dollars toward special projects in his district.
Mollohan has helped provide additional funding for MARCEE over the years, including $3 million in 2004.
The Davisville-based project aims to recycle computer parts in an economically feasible and environmentally friendly way.
But Flake, an adamant opponent of the federal earmarking process, sees the use of these funds as wasteful.
Flake said when he first noticed this year's $600,000 earmark for the recycling project, he had trouble understanding MARCEE's purpose.
"When I first saw this earmark, this is for the Center for End-of-Life Electronics in West Virginia, I thought it might have something to do with improving treatment technology for terminally ill patients," Flake said on the House floor in May. "It is not."
Most earmarks are never debated in Congress. This year Congress doled out about $70 billion in government earmarks, most designated for small-scale projects that benefit select groups or industries in a particular district.
Since May Flake has debated other congressional members, including fellow Republicans, on the House floor in what is dubbed the "Flake Hour." At the end of spending bill debates, he asks earmark sponsors to justify why taxpayers should pay for their pet projects.
Flake offered an amendment to reject this year's funding to MARCEE, but could get the support of only 60 other members so his amendment failed.
Flake said there was no explanation or justification in the bill or the committee report as to why MARCEE needed so much money.
"Again, no hearings, no authorization, no method of oversight here," he said. "Evidently, the program has received $3 million in the past. Now it needs another $600,000."
Polymer Alliance Zone President Karen Facemyer, who is also a Republican state senator from Jackson County, defended the MARCEE project.
Facemyer said some of the federal funding is used to buy equipment that helps break down plastics to their original form and makes it available for use in other products.
Facemyer believes critics are misinformed about the project.
"We're not upset," said Facemyer, referring to Flake's singling out of MARCEE on national TV. "I'm concerned that people aren't educated on it from that standpoint. I know it's an election year and they can take all the shots they can, justified and unjustified."
All seats in the House are on the General Election ballot today.
Facemyer said the funding also is used to entice businesses to a technology and research park in Wood County to help with the MARCEE project. She said a great volume of research must go into MARCEE and a workforce must be obtained to pick apart computer pieces, including metal, plastic and glass.
The $3 million federal earmark in 2004 helped build the Polymer Technology Park in Parkersburg and the Polymer Research Center at WVU in Morgantown. The funding also expanded Internet-based information exchanges for electronics recycling, a project headed by the Polymer Alliance Zone and Fairmont firm D.N. American.
Businesses such as SDR Technologies and Amandi Services also have located in the research centers because of the federal funding that was available.
Facemyer became president of the Polymer Alliance Zone in October and referred questions regarding the government funding to John Weete, vice president for research and economic development at WVU.
Weete did not return phone calls Monday.
"We're just trying to tear down computers and come up with useful ways to recycle them so they're not sitting in a landfill," Facemyer said.
The aim is to sell the recycled materials as raw materials for manufacturing operations.
Flake sees the appropriation as unnecessary and unfair to other projects similar to MARCEE.
"What federal role does this particular center fill?" Flake asked Sunday. "How should we explain this one to the taxpayers of Missouri or Connecticut or Arizona or any other state outside of West Virginia? I welcome the justification for a federal function in this case.
"If this recycling operation and others like it or any organization of business wants to exceed and excel, we should let them compete freely in the marketplace," he said. "Let's keep Congress out of it."
The earmarking process became notorious in 2005 when $223 million was earmarked for a bridge connecting an Alaskan town of 8,900 to an island of 50 people. The bridge was nicknamed "Bridge to Nowhere," and the earmark was removed after an uproar.
Flake says earmarks are still shrouded in secrecy because it's often difficult to determine who sponsors them and who benefits from them.
Contact writer Jake Stump at jakestump@dailymail.com or 348-4842.