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CH2M Hill’s Hanford cleanup contract extended

Workers remove waste near two dormant nuclear reactors on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, near Richland. CH2M Hill signed a five-year contract extension to manage the site cleanup. (Associated Press)
Annette Cary Tri-City Herald

RICHLAND – The Department of Energy has extended CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co.’s contract for Hanford environmental cleanup work for five more years.

DOE notified CH2M Hill on Thursday of the contract extension, valued at about $2.1 billion.

“DOE has determined that CH2M Hill remains the best value to the government,” Hanford employees were told in a memo.

CH2M Hill was awarded a contract for central Hanford and groundwater cleanup in 2008 after a bidding process.

The contract, initially valued at about $4.5 billion total, included an initial five-year period and an option for a second five years of work.

For the first five years, the contract value was increased to about $3.6 billion because of $1.3 billion in one-time funding from the American Recovery Act.

“DOE’s decision to continue working with CHPRC is due to your work in meeting and exceeding our client’s expectations in cleanup and safety,” John Fulton, CH2M Hill president, said in a message to employees Thursday.

DOE announced in April 2012 that it planned to extend the contract for five years.

Not only did CH2M Hill remain the best value on the basis of price and other factors, but extending the contract also would ensure continuity as major projects are finished over the next five years, Matt McCormick, manager of the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office, said then.

DOE considered CH2M Hill’s performance in meeting cost and schedule goals, the quality of its work and its success in taking on additional work paid for with federal economic stimulus money, DOE said in 2012.

CH2M Hill and its main subcontractors had about 1,800 employees then, but that has dropped to 1,400 now.

CH2M Hill will continue work to prepare the Plutonium Finishing Plant for demolition.

It will remove radioactive sludge from the K West Reactor Basin and move it to central Hanford, protecting the Columbia River.

It also will continue to operate plants that pump up contaminated groundwater, clean it and then return clean water to the ground. CH2M Hill treated a record amount of groundwater this year.

CH2M Hill also is responsible for operating waste treatment and storage facilities in central Hanford.

If money is available, CH2M Hill’s work over the next five years also could include retrieving temporarily buried radioactive waste and shipping it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for disposal.

It also could add more methods for protecting the Columbia River from contaminants in the groundwater and could speed up the treatment or shipping of waste now at Hanford’s Central Waste Complex.