Mark T. Janaskie
USDOE
ABSTRACT
The Environmental Restoration (ER) Program at the Richland Operations Office and the Office of Northwestern Area Programs at Headquarters, EM-44, have worked together with the site regulators and stakeholders during the past several years to establish the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) at the Hanford site. The purpose of the ERDF project was to plan and design a disposal facility that was capable of managing all of Hanford's current and future environmental restoration waste, yet protected the environment and was still cost efficient.
In pursuing the goal for a "better, faster, cheaper" disposal facility, the ER program turned to innovative regulatory and contracting strategies to complete the project. For the regulatory strategy, the Environmental Restoration (ER) program worked with regulators and stakeholders to secure a CERCLA ROD for the ERDF by integrating RCRA and NEPA requirements into the CERCLA process. This enabled ER to address the regulatory/compliance concerns normally associated with land disposal facilities, without having to enter into the lengthy and detailed RCRA permitting process. The strategy to obtain a CERCLA ROD, rather than a traditional RCRA permit, allowed the Department greater flexibility in determining what type of disposal facility would best fit the needs of the ER program.
When it was time to construct the facility and consider how best to operate it, ER employed a unique contracting strategy which subcontracted out the construction, operations and waste transportation functions of the project to private sector firms. Three different subcontracts were awarded through the Environmental Restoration Contract (ERC) at the site, via a competitive bid process. This practice enhanced the project's success because it has fostered an atmosphere of cooperation amongst the subcontractors. Because each company is responsible for a major part of the ERDF's operational success, they are compelled to work together to ensure that the project remains successful.
The regulatory and contracting strategies used to establish the ERDF serve to demonstrate that the ER program does not have to follow conventional project management guidelines in order to be successful. In fact, the practices employed for the ERDF project actually improved it, reducing planning, design and construction time from about four years to 14 months, while still producing a cost-effective and "environmentally-friendly" disposal facility. More importantly, the commitment by the ER program to employ innovative regulatory and contracting strategies provides a working example that others in the complex can follow.
INTRODUCTION
Successfully integrating the requirements of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) has led to the establishment of an innovative disposal facility at Hanford for managing remediation wastes. Hanford's Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) is the primary disposal facility for the Richland Operations Office's Environmental Restoration program (RL-ER), and is the result of a multi-year effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Washington State Department of Ecology, and Hanford stakeholders to construct an on-site facility for managing wastes from Hanford's environmental restoration program.
Designed and constructed to comply with the technical requirements of the RCRA, but authorized under CERCLA, the ERDF occupies a 1.6 square mile area on the central plateau of the Hanford site, approximately 200 feet above groundwater. It is a large-scale landfill consisting of a double liner and leachate collection system. The initial trench has two cells, each 500 feet wide x 500 feet long and 70 feet deep, and is designed so that it can be expanded in additional two-cell increments, while still allowing disposal operations to continue. This "expanding trench concept" allowed the DOE to shrink the initial facility footprint from 6 square miles to 1.6 square miles, while still providing adequate disposal capacity for the restoration program.(1)
INNOVATIVE REGULATORY STRATEGY
The Environmental Restoration (ER) program worked with regulators and stakeholders to secure a CERCLA ROD for the ERDF by integrating RCRA and NEPA requirements into the CERCLA process. This regulatory strategy enabled RL-ER to address the regulatory compliance concerns normally associated with land disposal facilities, without having to enter into the lengthy and detailed RCRA permitting process. The strategy to obtain a CERCLA ROD, rather than a traditional RCRA permit, allowed the Department greater flexibility in determining what type of disposal facility would best fit the needs of the ER program.
Arriving at the Decision for CERCLA During the early stages of the project, the regulators and the DOE became concerned about the lengthy regulatory process that could result if the RCRA/CAMU permitting pathway was pursued for the ERDF. With Hanford's stakeholders also voicing their concerns about the potential for missed milestones in the Hanford Tri-Party Agreement, all of the parties quickly recognized that CERCLA had significant advantages over the RCRA/CAMU process in terms of speed of implementation. In addition, the DOE enhanced the strategy by designating the ERDF as the pilot project to integrate NEPA values into the CERCLA regulatory process. With the speedier CERCLA process allowing for RCRA's technical requirements to be integrated as ARARs, while integrating NEPA values into CERCLA, the parties agreed that the ERDF should be designated as a CERCLA facility.
The final CERCLA-only ERDF regulatory package was submitted in September 1994. It included the RI/FS, a Proposed Plan, a NEPA road map describing where in the regulatory package the NEPA values were captured, and the ROD, which was issued on January 20, 1995. The public involvement schedule, beginning with the initial siting meetings and finishing with the approval of the ROD, encompassed less then 15 months. This compares to a schedule that normally takes up to three years to complete.(2)
INNOVATIVE CONTRACTING STRATEGY
After the CERCLA regulatory process was completed, and the ROD signed in early 1995, the DOE began working with Bechtel Hanford, Incorporated (BHI), the Environmental Restoration Contract (ERC) contractor for RL-ER, to implement an innovative contracting strategy that would expedite construction and operation of the ERDF, as well as reduce overall project costs. The strategy called for BHI to offer competitive, fixed-price and unit-price contracts for three major phases of the project--construction, operations, and waste transportation. BHI published competitive proposals for each of the phases and awarded contracts to three different private firms.
By establishing three separate contracts, the DOE made each company responsible for a major part of the ERDF's operational success. This practice has not only compelled the companies to work together to meet schedule and budget milestones, but has fostered an atmosphere of cooperation and teamwork among the subcontractors and the DOE.
The first ERDF contract awarded was for construction. The contractor had a clear objective: to build the ERDF within budget and project schedule. Construction began in May 1995 and was completed in April 1996, several months ahead of schedule. When facility construction was complete, this contractor's work on the ERDF ended, and the project moved forward to the next phase. The second contract, for operations, was awarded in January 1996. The operations contractor is responsible for managing the overall facility, specifically the day-to-day operations of ERDF, such as waste placement, grading, daily cover, dust control and container decontamination. It is important to note that the operations contractor does not transport waste any waste. Rather, they accept waste shipments brought to the ERDF by the transportation contractor, and then decontaminate the waste containers for further use by the transporter.
The third contract covered the waste transportation phase, and was awarded in April 1996. Similar to the construction contract, the transportation contractor has one major objective: to move waste from the remediation sites to the ERDF, as efficiently as possible.
Currently, for the ER program at Hanford, the entire remediation-to-disposal process involves three contractors: the ERDF transportation contractor, the ERDF operations contractor, and the remedial action contractor (RAC) in the 100 Area. (Please note that the RAC contract is a contract awarded through the remedial action projects, not the ERDF project, and therefore is not included in the contracting strategy text.)
LESSONS LEARNED
The innovative regulatory and contracting strategies implemented for the ERDF project have been a major success for the Department. These strategies enabled DOE to establish a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly disposal facility, while completing the ERDF project three months ahead of schedule and $20 million under budget.
The ERDF project is an excellent example of what the DOE and its contractors can achieve when they depart from conventional thinking about project management. More importantly, the commitment to employ innovative regulatory and contracting strategies provides a working example that can be followed by others in the DOE complex.
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