Jacobs Engineering intends to compete for two major environmental remediation projects at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, a senior executive said Tuesday.
That demonstrates the Dallas-based company’s commitment to working at the massive cleanup program for the long term, according to Terry Hagen, Jacobs’ chief operating officer and president for its aerospace, technology, environmental, and nuclear business.
Speaking at a community breakfast organized in Richland, Wash., Hagen confirmed Jacobs plans to join bids for both the Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup Contract and Tank Waste Cleanup Contract. He did not discuss specific teaming arrangements for the bids, saying “we’ll let that play out.”
The Energy Department’s plan to ask potential contractors to propose “end states” they would work toward for the new Central Plateau Cleanup Contract “is a good concept,” Hagen said. It could be the first DOE contract to be awarded based on a scope of work proposed by the potential contractor, a concept favored by Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White to promote a completion mentality for environmental cleanup.
The end states the contractor could select for the 10 years of the Central Plateau Cleanup Contract would cover decontamination and demolition of structures and waste site remediation; managing transuranic waste; preparing legally mandated documents to support goals associated with the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement, and closure of underground waste storage tanks. The end states selected must speed up the remediation timeline for Hanford while reducing environmental risk and liability, according to the draft request for proposals.
Hagen’s 31-year career at Jacobs included 12 years on cleanup at Fernald, a DOE site where uranium was processed in southwest Ohio. The site transferred to the DOE Office of Legacy Management in 2006. “At Fernald we turned a corner when we got our arms around an end state,” he said.
Jacobs-owned CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. completed its original 10-year contract at the end of September, but received an extension of up to a year valued at an estimated $500 million. Its original contract period was valued at $5.8 billion, plus $1.3 billion of economic stimulus work under the Obama administration.
The draft request for proposals for the contract draft request for proposals has been released, with comments and feedback due Oct. 24. The award is anticipated by February 2020. When it released the draft RFP, DOE estimated the contract value at about $6.5 billion over up to 10 years. The DOE Environmental Management major procurements list released Oct. 1 projects a dollar range of $7 billion to $12 billion.
Washington River Protection Solutions holds the current tank waste contract, which was valued at $7.1 billion for its first 10 years, which ended in September. The contractor has been awarded an extension of up to a year at an estimated value of $630 million, primarily for management of tank farms that hold 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste from Hanford’s former plutonium production mission for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The Energy Department anticipates awarding the next tank waste contract by September 2020. The Environmental Management procurements list says the draft request for proposals could be released this winter and puts the estimated dollar range at $10 billion to $15 billion.
Jacobs would also make a play for the Hanford Mission Essential Services Contract if it could, Hagen said. The company or team of companies that win that contract are restricted from working on other DOE prime contracts, including the tank farm and central Hanford programs. The restriction is intended to prevent a conflict of interest. The winning contractor will provide site-wide services, including security, firefighting, infrastructure, land management, and information technology.
Jacobs Engineering Group was part of the team that owns Mission Support Alliance, which holds the current site-wide services contract. But after Jacobs acquired CH2M in late 2017, it had a conflict of interest because the purchase included CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation. It resolved the conflict by selling its share of Mission Support Alliance to Leidos.
The Mission Essential Services Contract is expected to be awarded by October 2019.
