The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday issued the formal solicitation for nuclear cleanup around St. Louis, Mo., under its Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
Under a single-award task order the Army Corps hopes to issue in 2019, the selected contractor would provide “any and all remediation work for remedial actions including general conditions, field engineering, radiological/safety support services, remediation of contaminated soil, and management services,” according to the notice from the Army Corps St. Louis District. “The work anticipated under this contract is primarily for, but not limited to, low level radioactive contaminated material removal. Radiological contaminates are primarily thorium, radium and uranium, with co-located non-radiological contamination such as cadmium and arsenic.”
The minimum value of the contract would be $25 million and the maximum value $95 million, according to the solicitation.
Bids will be evaluated on four factors: technical capabilities for field engineering and remediation; management approach; past performance; and price. The first two factors will be most important in the decision, while price will be significantly less key.
Environmental remediation would encompass two locations: the St. Louis Downtown Site, contaminated by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works uranium processing operations for the federal government from 1942 to 1957; and the St. Louis North County Sites, which cover several properties that for decades stored waste residues from the Mallinckrodt operation.
The Army Corps believes 5,000 bank cubic yards of contaminated material remains to be dug up at the St. Louis Downtown Site, while 20,000 bank cubic yards remains at the North County Sites, the solicitation says.
Bidders have until 2 p.m. Central time on May 9 to respond to the solicitation. A site visit is scheduled for April 16, starting at 9 a.m. at 110 James McDonald Blvd. in Hazelwood, Mo.
The current cleanup contract, issued in March 2016, is held by radiological remediation specialist HydroGeoLogic, of Reston, Va. Including all options, the contract would be worth $50 million through March 2021. The company this week did not respond to queries regarding whether it will bid for the follow-on contract.
FUSRAP, established in 1974, is charged with identification and remediation of properties that were radioactively contaminated from the 1940s to 1960s by nuclear-weapon and energy operations of the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission.
The Trump administration budget request for fiscal 2020 proposes returning the program to the Department of Energy, which under congressional order transferred the program to the Army Corps in 1997. While DOE’s Office of Legacy Management would assume top-level oversight, with $141 million in funding for the next budget year, the Army Corps would continue to manage on-site operations on a “reimbursable basis.”
It remains to be seen whether Congress will take up the plan. The House and Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittees write the first drafts of the annual funding bills for the Army Corps and the Department of Energy.
At a March 27 hearing of the House panel, Ranking Member Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) appeared skeptical of the proposal – noting FUSRAP was turned over to the Army Corps in the first place due to congressional dissatisfaction with the Energy Department’s management of the program.
The topic was not raised Wednesday when Army Corps leaders testified on their budget before the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee.
