BWX Technologies-led Savannah River EcoManagement answered additional Energy Department questions this week about its revised proposal to become the next liquid waste manager at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, an industry source said.
Personnel from the partnership, which also includes Bechtel National and Honeywell International, were scheduled to make a brief presentation and answer questions from a DOE panel Wednesday in Aiken, S.C.
The Energy Department evidently has some questions about changes to the planned management team in the months since Savannah River EcoManagement won and then at least temporarily lost the contract, the source said. He did not know which specific managers have changed.
Savannah River EcoManagement won the 10-year, $4.7 billion contract in October, but all three bidding teams are in competition again after the Government Accountability Office upheld a protest against the award. The federal auditor agreed with an AECOM-CH2M venture that DOE had not sufficiently determined that EcoManagement’s technical approach for waste disposal would work properly. The GAO dismissed a separate protest from a Fluor-Westinghouse partnership, which is nonetheless still vying for the contract on the second go-around.
After the GAO ruling, the Energy Department called upon the three bidding teams to submit their last, best contract proposals, according to sources. The agency received revised proposals in April and is expected to re-award the SRS liquid waste management contract in late summer or early fall.
The industry source said the two other teams were not asked to answer more questions because they had not changed any key management personnel for the project.
The Energy Department does not comment on ongoing procurements. Likewise, the bidding teams involved declined to comment this week.
The winning team will manage storage, treatment, stabilization, and eventual disposal of more than 30 million gallons of liquid waste for the Savannah River Site. The contract also covers eventual operation of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at SRS.
Incumbent Savannah River Remediation is serving out a five-month contract extension, scheduled to end this month. The agreement is expected to be renewed again until a long-term contractor is picked, but DOE has not announced another extension. The agency said this spring it was considering a 10-month extension. The Aiken Standard reported this week DOE could authorize a shorter extension. The contractor is led by AECOM, with partners Bechtel, CH2M, and BWXT.
