RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Richland Operations Office and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) are finding creative ways to manage resources and accelerate Hanford Site cleanup. Workers recently completed a demolition project along the Columbia River shoreline that included tearing down several old groundwater treatment buildings and disposing of thousands of pieces of equipment.

   The CH2M Soil and Groundwater Remediation Project’s maintenance and operations crews specialize in eliminating hazards in buildings before their scheduled demolitions. Buildings are frequently challenging and require extensive investigation to ensure they are safe and compliant for demolition. Some requirements include removal of chemical hazards, disposition of equipment, and coordination of power removal.  

   The demolition preparation along the Columbia River was not scheduled for several years, but the crews felt they could handle the task of preparing them for demolition this fiscal year. With this goal in mind, they accelerated this work by carving out time to support transition to the demolition project in addition to their daily work activities. 

   “We worked hard to find time in our schedule to ensure a safe transition of the buildings. Every chance we had, we worked to make headway on hazard elimination in addition to our normal work, and little by little we made progress,” said Rich Stephenson, field work supervisor with maintenance and operations who has been working on the Hanford Site for 40 years. The work included disposing of thousands of pieces of remediation equipment. “This success proves we can get creative to progress on cleanup and protect the Columbia River,” Stephenson said. 

   Once the transition work was complete, demolition crews took down a former pump-and-treat facility used to treat contaminated groundwater, two pump-and-treat transfer buildings used to transfer groundwater, and an old warehouse.  

   “We are consistently finding ways to raise the bar and be more efficient, and this is a prime example of that,” said Karen Wiemelt, vice president of Soil and Groundwater Remediation for CH2M.

   Due to worker efficiencies, demolition crews finished the demolition work ahead of schedule, saving time and expenses, while allowing demolition teams to get an early start on other projects.