Recovery.gov - Track the Money

EM has demonstrated success in solid radioactive waste disposition, soil and groundwater remediation, and facility decontamination and decommissioning. EM will effectively spend the $6 billion in Recovery Act funding because these cleanup activities are associated with:
•Proven technologies—on-the-shelf plans and projects ready to be implemented
•Regulatory infrastructure in place—established regulatory framework with regulator and community support
•Acquisition structure in place—flexible contract vehicles allow quick expansion of environmental cleanup workforces
•Project Management structure in place—ability to track and measure performance

EM has identified opportunities at eight sites in six states that meet Recovery Act principles.

At the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action site, Non-Defense Recovery Act funds will be used to accelerate relocation of uranium mill tailings away from the Colorado River, resulting in an additional two million tons of mill tailings disposed by 2011, accelerating the completion of the site cleanup by three years (from 2028 to 2025). The Recovery Act work will be accomplished by increasing the number of railcars and shipments.

At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), funds will be used for a portfolio of projects that will include demolition and disposition of surplus contaminated facilities and remediation of contaminated soil. The ORNL investment will create jobs for the existing skilled workforce in eastern Tennessee. In addition, Recovery Act non-defense funds will be used to complete legacy material removal and disposition from four buildings at ORNL. The activities to be performed were part of EM’s scope to cleanup the ORNL but were not scheduled to begin until 2017. The soil remediation, waste cleanup and building demolition to be performed under this project will now be complete by 2011.

At the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) facility near Los Angeles, California, Non-Defense Recovery Act funds will provide funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct radiological assessments necessary to complete an environmental impact statement and enable completion of site cleanup. Recovery Act funds will also be used to supplement ongoing RCRA Facility Investigations and RCRA Corrective Action for soil and groundwater Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) and Operable Units (OUs).

At the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), funds will be used to accelerate excavation and disposal of contaminated soil and accelerate installation of groundwater treatment systems, completing the cleanup project one year earlier (2011 instead of 2012).

At the Brookhaven National Laboratory, funds will go to remove the graphite pile from the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor and demolish surplus ancillary structures. Recovery Act Non-Defense funds will also result in removal of contaminated soil and buried pipelines for disposal off-site, protecting the surrounding soil and groundwater. These activities were originally scheduled for completion in 2020 but will now be complete in 2011.

At the West Valley site, funds will be used to begin work on demolition of former process buildings and installation of a system to prevent migration of groundwater contamination. Radioactive waste treatment and disposal activities will also be accelerated to shrink the area of site contamination.

At the Argonne National Laboratory, funds will be used to accelerate demolition of excess contaminated facilities and waste cleanout activities. This new scope would have been transferred to EM in 2017 but is now being started in 2009.

At Los Alamos National Laboratory, funds will support accelerated cleanup of nuclear facilities and contaminated areas. Specifically, this work will result in the complete demolition of one non-defense facility (one building and four structures) approximately 16,000 sq. feet in area one year earlier (2011 instead of 2012).

The Department of Energy and the Office of Environmental Management (EM) will monitor and evaluate the performance of the program in two major areas: corporate control at the Department level and EM Processes at the EM level.

I. Corporate controls

Recovery Leadership & Operations
The DOE Recovery Office is the central point for implementation and execution of Recovery Act activities. A recovery operations team will oversee implementation management, such as monitoring project status, evaluating cost and schedule progress, ensuring thorough reporting, coordinating with external entities, and holding monthly performance and review meetings with senior departmental managers on the implementation status of specific recovery projects.

Recovery Funding Oversight, Performance
In addition to DOE’s standard funds control mechanisms, Recovery Act funds are subject to additional process controls to ensure funds are not co-mingled, are tracked to enable reporting, and are spent responsibly. DOE recovery funds are released for implementation in a staged approach. Programs develop initial project plans which include performance metrics which require management approval.

Office of Internal Review (OIR)
DOE’s OIR helps programs ensure that internal controls are in place, effective, and support the risk-based approach to managing Recovery Act activities. OIR programs are being implemented or expanded to ensure the Recovery Act objectives are met and DOE managers and partners are both held accountable for successful execution and also have the appropriate tools to ensure that success. These programs include coordinating DOE’s “Internal Control Acknowledgment” program, conducting agency-wide assessments and analyses and performing oversight of Recovery Act programs, including site and field visits. OIR worked with key impacted programs to produce initial vulnerability assessments identifying potential program specific and cross-cutting risks to ensure successful execution

II. EM Processes

At EM Headquarters, an Integrated Project Team has been established for the management and oversight of Recovery Act work at the EM sites. EM is engaging with other Headquarters offices such as General Counsel, the Chief Financial Officer, the Office of Management and Administration, the Office of National Environmental Policy Act Compliance and others to ensure all appropriate requirements for the use of Recovery Act funds are met. Independent assessments will be conducted for the EM Recovery Act projects.

At the EM sites, the vast majority of the work will be executed through the expansion of existing contracts. This approach greatly reduces the risk associated with project performance. Appropriate funding modifications will be enacted to implement and segregate the Recovery Act funds for reporting purposes. All projects will be executed by the contractors according to DOE Order 413.3A, Program and Project Management, with appropriate performance measurement baselines and DOE oversight. Acceptable performance on these projects will also be measured using performance metrics (e.g., cost, schedule, and scope) as established in baselines. Cost and schedule performance indicators (cost performance index and schedule performance index) according to DOE-approved Earned Value Management Systems will be used as required by DOE Order 413.3A.

In addition, the EM Headquarters Integrated Project Team will be conducting on-site reviews to examine the readiness to execute the EM Recovery Act scope and assist in understanding of guidance and requirements.

EM manages all of its work using project management protocols, and will apply the same rigor in managing the Recovery Act projects. Monthly, quarterly, and project-to-date project performance measures include cost and schedule variances, cost, and schedule performance indexes, contingency use, milestone status reports, and risk register updating/status reporting.

DOE leverages its existing corporate systems to track and report on Recovery Act activities and to ensure effective funds management. The DOE’s iManage Data Warehouse (IDW) is a corporate enterprise system integrating financial, budgetary, procurement, and program information to monitor project execution. Each Recovery Act program is tracked using unique Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbols (TAFS). Each component project is identified by a unique Project Identification Code (PIC).

IDW is a central data warehouse linking common data elements from each of the Department’s corporate business systems and serving as a “knowledge bank” of information about portfolios, programs or projects including budget execution, accumulated costs, performance achieved, and critical milestones met. The IDW contains information from multiple corporate systems and will be a tool used to meet information needs for Recovery Act oversight and reporting to Recovery.gov.

The Performance Measure Manager (PMM) is the Department’s performance tracking system. PMM tracks high-level budgetary performance and is being expanded to accommodate Recovery Act performance tracking needs. Performance evaluations will be organized and reported along with results from the Department’s annual budgetary activities in the Annual Performance Report (APR). Performance results will be uploaded into the IDW for required agency reporting.

See DOE’s Agency Wide Recovery Plan for additional information on DOE’s financial and performance tracking mechanisms, found here: www.energy.gov/recovery.

Separate budget and accounting codes have been established for Recovery Act work in order to manage, implement, measure and account for these funds. EM Headquarters will hold in reserve 20 percent of funding from the sites in order to ensure acceptable performance is met. Independent assessments will be conducted of the EM Recovery Act projects.

At the Sites, EM manages all of its activities using strict project management principles. Federal Project Directors responsible for managing the Recovery Act projects are required to be trained and certified for the magnitude and total cost of each project.

Contractor performance evaluations/information will be conducted in accordance with FAR 42.15, Contractor Performance Information. The link to the subpart is: http://www.arnet.gov/far/current/html/Subpart%2042_15.html#wp1075411

Also, FAR Subpart 15.3, Source Selection, covers the use of past performance information during source selection. The link is: http://acquisition.gov/far/current/html/Subpart%2015_3.html

At the EM Sites, appropriate funding modifications will be enacted to implement the AFP and segregate the Recovery Act funds for reporting purposes.

Not applicable to the EM Non Defense Program.