Energy Department contractors Bechtel and AECOM will pay a combined $125 million to settle allegations that they spent federal dollars on non-nuclear-certified parts and services for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the U.S. Justice Department announced late Nov. 23. Bechtel’s payment also covers claims that it improperly used federal funds for lobbying purposes.
Bechtel’s share of the settlement is $67.5 million. AECOM’s share is $57.5. Bechtel affiliate Bechtel National is the prime contractor on the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), which starting in 2022 will turn some 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste left over from Cold War plutonium production at Hanford into more easily storable glass cylinders. AECOM is a major subcontractor on the pact, which is valued at just over $11 billion.
The Justice Department joined a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged the two contractors “improperly billed the government for materials and services from vendors that did not meet quality control requirements, for piping and waste vessels that did not meet quality standards and for testing from vendors who did not have compliant quality programs.” Justice also said Bechtel and Bechtel National “improperly claimed and received government funding for lobbying activities” in violation of various statutes that ban using federal funds for such purposes.
Bechtel, which said it settled to avoid a distracting court battle, vigorously denied the allegations of the whistleblower lawsuit, which was filed on the government’s behalf in 2012, and which the United States joined this year.
“Bechtel National, Inc. expressly denies the allegations, which relate to events that happened some years ago,” Bechtel spokesman Fred deSousa wrote in a statement published online Wednesday. “We have performed our work at the WTP project ethically and professionally.”
AECOM likewise said it agreed to settle to avoid getting bogged down in litigation.
“This resolution reflects no admission of wrongdoing and a desire to avoid the distraction of protracted litigation, in order to continue our focus on the important cleanup work at the Hanford site’s Waste Treatment Plant,” company spokesman Keith Wood wrote in a Wednesday email. “We are disappointed that the Department of Justice intervened in what we believe was an unwarranted lawsuit.”
The lawsuit was filed under seal in 2012 by Donna Busche and Walter Tamosaitis, former employees of URS Energy Corp,, and former DOE vitrification plant engineering director Gary Brunson. AECOM acquired URS Energy in 2014, after the alleged wrongdoing by URS described in the lawsuit.
Whistleblowers can file lawsuits under seal on behalf of the U.S. government. If the government agrees with a suit’s legal claims, it may join the lawsuit.
The Waste Treatment Plant is slated to be fully online by 2036. In 2012, the Energy Department halted construction on portions of the plant after safety concerns raised by Tamosaitis.
Editor’s Note, 12/05/2016, 11:52 a.m. Eastern: The story has been corrected to reflect that neither Bechtel nor AECOM were fined as part of the settlement.
