An executive with Stoller Newport News Nuclear said Wednesday she had not heard of her rumored consideration for nomination as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for environmental management.
An official in the defense cleanup industry told Weapons Complex Monitor recently that Stoller Vice President Barbara Mazurowski could be under consideration for the EM-1 post now held on an acting basis by DOE veteran James Owendoff.
“Boy, that’s news to me,” Mazurowski said when reached by telephone Wednesday. “All I can tell you is wow.”
When asked, she said she’d had no contact with the Trump administration about the post. While the idea of becoming EM-1 is interesting, Mazurowski stressed she had heard nothing about any consideration.
Mazurowski has been a vice president with Stoller for more than 11 years, according to her LinkedIn page. A branch of defense contractor Huntington Ingalls, Stoller is active in radioactive contamination cleanup for clients including DOE, the Department of Defense, and the commercial market.
Before entering the corporate world, Mazurowski had a long federal career at DOE at sites such as Rocky Flats in Colorado and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state.
Owendoff became acting head of EM in June, replacing another longtime DOE cleanup hand, Susan Cange. The EM-1 position oversees DOE’s roughly $6.5 billion annual program for defense waste remediation.
The Office of Environmental Management has not had a permanent chief since Obama-era appointee Monica Regalbuto stepped down after President Donald Trump took office in January. This summer, Atkins executive Alan Parker voluntarily withdrew his name from consideration for the job, according to industry sources. John “Rick” Dearholt, a former Jacobs Engineering manager, was also believed to be in the EM-1 mix earlier this year.
