RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s prime contractor for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), Bechtel National Inc., and its employees donated more than $590,000 to community organizations in 2015.

   “Bechtel has a corporate commitment to enhancing the communities in which it works through charitable contributions and personal stewardship, and we encourage our employees to do the same,” said Project Director Peggy McCullough.

   “However, the generosity of employees on this project exceeds anything I’ve seen on other projects and in other communities,” she said.

   Most recently, the employees donated thousands of toys and more than $35,000 to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots campaign.

   Additional recipients included the United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties, Second Harvest, Junior Achievement, March of Dimes, and others.

   The largest single contribution was to Friends of Badger Mountain. In June, Bechtel donated $100,000 to help create a preserve on Candy Mountain in Richland.

   The Candy Mountain gift is the most recent in a number of legacy projects Bechtel has supported in the Tri-Cities over the last 20 years. Other legacy projects include the Hanford REACH Interpretive Center, Bechtel Planetarium at Columbia Basin College, Family Fishing Pond, and Playground of Dreams.

   Bechtel, a contractor to EM’s Office of River Protection, is designing, constructing and commissioning WTP, the world’s largest radioactive waste treatment plant for DOE. When complete, WTP will process and stabilize 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste currently stored at the Hanford Site.