A two-year project to improve a publicly available website has brought more ease to government officials, stakeholders, and others
Office of Environmental Management
July 23, 2019
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RICHLAND, Wash. – A two-year project to improve a publicly available website has brought more ease to government officials, stakeholders, and others in search of documents related to the Hanford Site cleanup.
Managed by EM Richland Operations Office contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA), the website allows members of the public to search for and view documents the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and Washington State Department of Ecology use to make cleanup and permitting decisions. Those agencies signed the Tri-Party Agreement, which governs cleanup at Hanford.
The collection of documents, called the Hanford Site Administrative Record/Public Information Repository, has been in use for many years. The upgraded website replaces an outdated application that made searching difficult, had security vulnerabilities, and lacked modern website features. MSA replaced the application with a solution that allows users to search the full text of the collection, then sort, filter, export, and download search results.
“While these upgrades improve the system, improving access to information and cultivating the public’s trust was the project’s key driver,” said Ben Ellison, the Hanford Site chief information officer. “What good is information if you can’t find it?”
MSA also made it simpler for DOE to add new information to the website.
“By deploying this technology, we’ve laid the groundwork for DOE to manage additional collections without long development times or sizable investments of time and funding,” said Suzanne Johnson, MSA project manager for software engineering services.
Access the updated website here.