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Local small business awarded cleanup contract

06.10.2009

RICHLAND, Wash.—Washington Closure Hanford has awarded a cleanup subcontract worth up to $4.2 million to Phoenix Enterprises NW, a local, woman-owned, minority small business.

The subcontract is for Phoenix to provide transportation services using heavy dump truck and dump trailer combinations, or truck and pups, to transport cleanup materials from Hanford waste sites located near the Columbia River. Phoenix will transport the waste material to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility at the center of the Hanford Site.

“As cleanup work accelerates at Hanford, the truck and pups, will give us additional flexibility in meeting waste transportation and disposal demands,” said Bruce Covert, Waste Operations director for Washington Closure.

Initially, the truck and pup operation will be used to haul waste from Hanford’s D Area to ERDF for permanent disposal. However, as cleanup work progresses, Washington Closure may exercise options in the subcontract for Phoenix to transport waste from other sites, as well.

Phoenix was the lowest, technically qualified bidder for the work.

In 2008, Washington Closure awarded more than 90 percent of its subcontracts to small businesses, significantly more than its 65 percent goal, which is the highest of any U.S. Department of Energy cleanup contractor.

Washington Closure manages the $2.2 billion River Corridor Closure Project for the DOE’s Richland Operations Office. The company is responsible for demolishing 486 buildings, cleaning up 370 contaminated wastes sites and managing ERDF, an engineered landfill for radioactive and mixed waste generated during Hanford cleanup operations.