Employees with EM Richland Operations Office contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company recently marked 1 million miles of safe driving.
Office of Environmental Management
December 10, 2019
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RICHLAND, Wash. – Employees with EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) recently marked 1 million miles of safe driving to dispose of cleanup debris at the Hanford Site’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF). Check out this video for a day in the life of an ERDF driver.
CHPRC’s safe driving record goes back to August 2016, when the contractor took over operations of the site’s disposal facility for low-level waste after the previous contractor’s contract was completed.
Since ERDF began operating in 1996, the facility has received more than 18 million tons of contaminated soil, debris and solid waste from cleanup — most of it from areas along the Columbia River. The 107-acre facility — roughly the same area as 52 football fields — has supported the demolition of more than 800 facilities and remediation of more than 1,300 waste sites.
“ERDF has been a critical component of Hanford’s cleanup strategy for more than 20 years,” said Mark French, RL project and facilities division director. “The facility played a key role in moving most of the contaminated material away from the Columbia River, and it will continue to support our risk-reduction work on Hanford’s Central Plateau, where much of the nation’s plutonium was produced.”
Since the facility began operating in the 1990s, ERDF drivers have logged nearly 30 million miles in support of environmental cleanup efforts across the 580-square-mile Hanford Site.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team,” said Tammy Hobbes, CHPRC vice president for the river risk management project. “Seeing the ERDF trucks moving across the site has become a daily reminder of the ongoing progress in Hanford cleanup.”