Two bidding groups have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over the new contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
One of the protests submitted on Tuesday was filed for the AECOM-CH2M Savannah River Technology and Remediation LLC by an attorney with the law firm of Covington & Burling. The other was filed on behalf of Fluor-Westinghouse Liquid Waste Services LLC by an attorney with Greenberg Traurig. Both notices were posted on the GAO website Thursday, but do not state reasons for the protests.
Weapons Complex Monitor phone calls placed to the lawyers listed for the protests were not immediately returned.
The Energy Department announced on Oct. 12 that it had awarded the contract worth up to $4.7 billion over 10 years to Savannah River EcoManagement, a partnership of BWX Technologies, Bechtel National, and Honeywell International. The agreement includes a 90-day transition period, after which EcoManagement would officially replace current contractor Savannah River Remediation, a joint venture of AECOM, Bechtel National, CH2M, and BWXT.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management said it received three bid proposals for the contract. Along with the EcoManagement team, AECOM and CH2M remained partners in the procurement, while the third group involved Fluor and Westinghouse Government Services. All bidders were briefed on the contract award last week.
The GAO should decide within weeks if it will consider the protests. If it dockets one or both protests, the transition to the new contractor could be delayed until February. The brief filings on the GAO website indicate both protests have a “due date” of Feb. 8, which indicates the 100-day deadline for congressional auditors to render a decision.
DOE does not publicly comment regarding ongoing procurements, a Department spokesman said.
If the Government Accountability Office agrees to hear the protests, either the agency or intervenors could file requests for dismissal of the case within 30 days, according to the GAO website.
Official spokespeople for BWXT and Fluor declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for AECOM confirmed the protest, but would not comment on the basis for the objection to the awarded contract.
“Both teams are doing it because they don’t think the evaluation was fair,” said an industry source with knowledge of the situation. The losing parties were told the winning project offered technology the others did not. However, the solicitation material from DOE had seemed to indicate the department was looking for established technology, said the source, who did not indicate what specific type of technology was cited.
The same industry source said the BWXT-Bechtel-Honeywell group offered a bid that is $130 million less annually than the current contract. The source was skeptical the winning bidders could achieve that degree of cost savings.
Another industry source, however, said DOE took take great care in the solicitation process, which will now be extended by the contract protests.
The work involves overseeing existing radioactive facilities for storage, treatment, and disposal of about 35 million gallons of Cold War-era liquid waste at Savannah River. It also calls for eventually taking over operation of the Salt Waste Processing Facility that has been built by Parsons.
