DOE awarded three EM sites with Sustainability Awards - Hanford, Oak Ridge and Paducah.
Office of Environmental Management
October 24, 2023
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DOE bestowed three Sustainability Awards and an honorable mention last week to a trio of EM sites for achievements in innovative water management practices, strategic partnerships to strengthen the workforce, high performance sustainable building construction and water conservation.
Oak Ridge received two awards, the Office of River Protection (ORP) at the Hanford Site received one and the Paducah Site was given honorable mention. The awards were presented as part of DOE’s first Sustainability Summit.
Also at the event, the Department presented the Idaho Cleanup Project and Portsmouth Site with Green Fleet Awards. Read EM Update’s coverage of those two awards here.
In the outstanding sustainability program/project category, the Department recognized Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) contractor UCOR for its unique water management practices at OREM’s onsite disposal facility, the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. Crews installed an enhanced operational cover that sheds clean stormwater runoff from the landfill.
During fiscal year 2022, Oak Ridge received 54 inches of precipitation, and the cover helped divert water away from the facility and return more than 22 million gallons of clean water back to the local ecosystem.
“We are very proud of the positive results of this innovative design to protect our environment,” said Emily Day, UCOR’s regulatory strategy and integration manager. “Over the past decade, the enhanced operation cover has returned nearly 175 million gallons of clean water back to the local ecosystem, which means we don’t have to actively manage this water or transport it to a treatment facility.”
In the strategic partnerships category, DOE recognized UCOR’s work in Oak Ridge’s Scarboro community. The contractor hosted a meeting with community leaders and other residents to share information, build relationships and remove communication barriers. At the meeting, community members expressed interest in local employment opportunities supporting EM’s cleanup mission. As a result, UCOR developed a pilot program to spotlight those opportunities to residents.
At a follow-up workshop, UCOR shared a variety of career information, including local apprenticeship programs like the East Tennessee Apprenticeship Readiness Program. The meeting generated enough registrations to fill the entire next class, and all Scarboro community residents who completed the class were hired as full-time UCOR employees.
“We were so pleased with the success of the pilot program that we have developed our ‘UCOR in a Suitcase’ initiative,” said Sonya Johnson, UCOR director of public affairs and stakeholder management. “The goal is to build on the success of the Scarboro Workforce Workshop in other underserved communities in East Tennessee.”
The Department recognized ORP with a High Performance Sustainable Building Award for its new workshop completed last year for craft workers supporting Hanford's tank waste storage and treatment mission. Watch a video about the project here.
The building layout of the 27,000-square-foot Multi-Craft Maintenance Facility improves efficiency by providing craft spaces for workers under the same roof, according to Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS). The tank operations contractor teamed with the craft workers, starting with the design phase, to make sure the facility would meet their needs. It replaces multiple smaller facilities.
Environmental considerations influenced some features of the building, including repurposing excess equipment from contractor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions. Leftover building materials will also be repurposed for future building projects.
“Having a centralized location for the crafts improves efficiency and creates a greater sense of collaboration,” said Jim Lynch with the ORP tank farms program division.
The facility allows projects to transition easily from craft-to-craft workspaces within the building. As many as 100 people could be working in the facility throughout any given day, including electricians, carpenters, tool crib attendants, painters and insulators, pipefitters and millwrights, and instrument technicians.
Lynch also said the facility plays an important role in moving Hanford projects forward, including preparation to treat tank waste under the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program.
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Paducah received honorable mention in the outstanding sustainability program/project category for its installation of a replacement raw water pump, at left, that has conserved approximately 1 million gallons of water per day and reduced electricity usage by approximately 63%. The pump supplies the C-611 Water Treatment Plant. The project was completed as part of ongoing utility optimization at the site. |
Contributors: Susanne Dupes, Dylan Nichols, Matt Roberts
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