The Department of Energy on Tuesday finalized the membership package to reconstitute the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB), which has been unable to establish a quorum to conduct business for three months.
Membership for about half the members of the board expired at the end of June. Half of the members and their alternates for 32 seats must be appointed or reappointed each year by DOE headquarters.
The board of local community members is intended to provide “informed recommendations and advice” to DOE on the massive cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state. It conducted some business through August, but in September the last of five full meetings set for fiscal 2017 was canceled due to lack of a quorum. The board also was told in early September that it could not conduct any further business, according to the panel’s leadership. That caused the board to cancel scheduled telephonic planning meetings for members in September, along with meetings of HAB committees in early October.
HAB Chairwoman Susan Leckband, who was among the members waiting for reappointment, called the halt to board activities “incredibly frustrating.”
The Washington state Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program said in a statement Monday that “HAB provides invaluable guidance, resulting in much better decision-making at Hanford.” The board provides advice not only to DOE, but also to Hanford’s regulators: the Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency. Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program said it wanted DOE to reconvene the board, but if needed it has the authority under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to convene a community advisory board.
The Energy Department said Monday it would schedule the next meeting of the HAB “in the near future.”
The leaders of site advisory boards for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management complex will discuss waste cleanup with DOE officials, and members of the public, on Oct. 18-19 in Kennewick, Wash.
The chairs and vice-chairs of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) local boards meet twice per year to get updates on cleanup progress as well as budget and other issues affecting DOE sites. A number of EM officials representing each site as well as members of headquarters staff in Washington, D.C., typically attend.
There are eight advisory boards representing DOE sites at Hanford, Idaho, Northern New Mexico, Nevada, Oak Ridge, Paducah, Portsmouth, and Savannah River. The boards represent various DOE community stakeholders from local and tribal governments, environmental and civic groups, labor, and other interested citizens. The panels work under guidelines set by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
The most recent meeting of the board chairs occurred in May in Paducah, Ky. Participants were briefed on EM milestones including the resumption of waste emplacement at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and the tear down of five gaseous diffusion plants East Tennessee Technology Park at Oak Ridge.
Minutes and other material from the meetings are typically posted online within 60 to 90 days of the event.
The upcoming meeting will be held at Red Lion, 1101 North Columbia Center Blvd., in Kennewick, one the Tri-Cities near the Hanford SIte. For more information, contact David Borak at (202) 586-9928 or [email protected].
The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) last Thursday announced the award of two contracts for support services at its sites.
Trinity Engineering Associates, of Cincinnati, took home a four-year, $4 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for professional support services. The small-business vendor will provide professional support in areas including records management, administrative support, and financial administration. The deal involves work at DOE sites in Cincinnati; Niskayuna, N.Y.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; and elsewhere.
Trinity Engineering Associates was awarded a four-year, $4 million contract from DOE in March 2015 covering support services in areas including quality assurance, safety, radiological protection, and emergency management.
Separately, Chenega Professional & Technical Services of Anchorage, Alaska, received a five-year contract for up to $8 million for technical support covering technical writer/editor, special projects support, and general acquisition support. The work will be provided for the DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center and EM’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management.
Chenega, which it described as an Alaska native small business, provides services to federal agencies including DOE, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, among others.
