May 19, 2011
Use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Funds on Solid Waste Project Activities at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site
The Department of Energy's (Department), Richland Operations Office (Richland), awarded a contract, effective October 1, 2008, to CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) to remediate Hanford's Central Plateau. Part of the contract's scope included solid waste cleanup activities associated with retrieval, treatment, and disposal of low-level and transuranic (TRU) waste at the Hanford Site (Hanford). The Department allocated $315 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) funds to support Hanford's Solid Waste Project under the CHPRC contract. The Department's goals for Recovery Act funds were to accelerate cleanup, reduce life-cycle project costs, and provide jobs to stimulate the economy. Performance metrics were established to measure actual work accomplished, as compared to planned, and to determine if goals were met for Recovery Act funds obligated to the Solid Waste Project. Because of this significant increase in funding, we initiated this audit to determine if the Department effectively managed Hanford's Solid Waste Project Recovery Act activities.
Topic: Environmental Cleanup
