Pantext Plant

Pantex Plant is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Superfund site undergoing environmental restoration since the early 1990s. The environmental restoration process is overseen by both the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

In 2001 Pantex Plant initiated an effort with its State and Federal regulators to accelerate the completion of its $30M environmental restoration project and achieve completion of the project by September 2008. Significant and real milestones had to be achieved in order to move from the investigation phase to completing construction of all remedial or corrective actions. The underlying keys were:

• Establishing a collaborative Core Team of DOE, EPA and the State of Texas which focused on identifying the requirements for making the decisions necessary to conduct the project and confirmed those requirements were met.
• Establishing a project baseline to continuously track progress.

Sapere was retained by B&W Technologies, LLC to lead the Core Team and ensure that a completion strategy for the project was developed collaboratively and agreed to by DOE, EPA and TCEQ. Decisions identified in the completion strategy were made consistent with the project baseline. In addition, Sapere provided expert advice on development of CERCLA documentation such as the proposed plan and record of decision.

The project is on track to be completed by September 2008. To date, all investigations, risk assessments and feasibility studies have been completed and approved.  The proposed plan has been reviewed by the public and record of decision signed. While several construction activities were performed as early actions remaining elements of the remedy should be completed by September.