Washington River Protection Solutions, the EM Office of River Protection tank operations contractor at the Hanford Site, has awarded three subcontracts worth nearly $19 million to a local company for construction projects to support tank waste projects.
Office of Environmental Management
July 6, 2021
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RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the EM Office of River Protection (ORP) tank operations contractor at the Hanford Site, has awarded three subcontracts worth nearly $19 million to a local company for construction projects to support tank waste treatment.
WRPS awarded the subcontracts to Fowler General Construction Inc., a company based in Richland, Washington. Two subcontracts totaling $13.5 million are for projects at Hanford’s Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF), which stores and treats wastewater generated by numerous Hanford remediation activities. A third subcontract worth $5.3 million is to construct a 17,600-square-foot office building at Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory. The laboratory provides analytical support for continued safe storage of tank waste and the waste treatment mission.
“Upgrades to these facilities will help ensure critical infrastructure is in place to treat tank waste through the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program at Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP),” said Delmar Noyes, manager of the ORP tank farms project division.
One of the ETF subcontracts is to design and build a system to remove a hazardous chemical, acetonitrile, from the liquid waste stream generated at the WTP during the process to vitrify, or immobilize in glass, tank waste.
The second subcontract is to expand the ETF’s existing load-in station and to construct a backup load-in station for waste tanker trucks. While most of the wastewater sent to the facility is pumped via underground piping, a smaller amount is delivered by tanker truck.
“During tank waste treatment operations, about 1.2 million gallons of liquid waste per year is expected to be trucked from Hanford’s Integrated Disposal Facility to the ETF for processing,” said Brandon McFerran, WRPS manager for the ETF.
The Integrated Disposal Facility will provide a permanent, environmentally safe disposition site for immobilized low-activity waste containers from WTP. Water from precipitation and dust suppression will be collected and sent to ETF for treatment as well.
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