The U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site is gaining a reputation for accomplishing cleanup. The key is in replacing the outmoded pump-and-treat approach with innovative technologies. According to Heenan, "If we want to have an affordable program, we have to do things differently from the way we've done them in the past."

A change in culture
Change was in the air at SRS back in 1994 when the site began using performance-based incentives in its award-fee contract with Westinghouse. Among the incentives was to employ innovative technologies. The site keeps score by comparing cost savings against the baseline.

Also in 1994, SRS held a vendor forum. The two-day event attracted about 1,000 potential contractors to hear about environmental problems and technology needs at SRS. Heenan says that through the forum, "We found people that had real good ideas and no market, and we had a niche problem and no solution." As a result, the site funded several vendors to demonstrate their technologies doing actual cleanup.

By September 1995, SRS was poised to have a series of breakthrough management sessions involving people from the site, DOE headquarters, and regulators. As Heenan puts it, they were committed to taking the SRS cleanup program "out of the doldrums and do something special with it." Those sessions resulted in a commitment statement signed by all the participants, including the regulators. Among the commitments was one to "incorporate innovative technologies" in cleanup operations.

SRS philosophy
Heenan says, "Dr. Fiori [the former SRS manager] is a fan of getting ideas from wherever they come in." In keeping with Fiori's philosophy, Heenan says SRS has had a lot of success with what they call "applications engineering"—bringing in an idea developed for a different application and modifying it for environmental cleanup. According to Heenan, "There are a lot of good practices in the oil industry that appear not to apply at first, but if you were to do some development, you can get a lot of innovation done." For example, SRS is using air injection recirculation wells in a line to stop a plume. The injection wells were originally developed to remediate hot spots. The site's successful use of horizontal wells, which have been widely used in the private sector, is another example of how SRS has benefited from applications engineering.

Heenan suggests an applications engineering program would be good for DOE's Office of Science and Technology to fund. He agrees that the biggest payoff for OST spending is in areas where there aren't cleanup solutions, such as tank remediation. At SRS, where the biggest problem is remediating subsurface contamination, Heenan says the focus is more on trying to find improved ways of doing cleanup. Rather than spend millions to develop new approaches, Heenan believes SRS would benefit from several hundred thousand dollars being spent to modify an existing idea to suit the site's needs.

Another philosophy at SRS is to get away from pump-and-treat cleanup. Heenan says they are "using a whole suite of things that together make the most cost-effective approach. I wouldn't say pump and treat never is the right answer, but the number of great ideas we've had working for other answers is just fantastic." For example, cleanup at the A/M Area at SRS, the world's largest water treatment project, began with pumping and treating. Now Heenan says there are about 10 other approaches being used to chase after a complicated plume.

Keys to success
According to Heenan, SRS has been successful in implementing new technologies because of the commitment from management. It's not simply a matter of supporting innovative technologies; management at SRS is pushing them so the site is on the leading edge.

One result of the push from management has been the Environmental Restoration (ER) Technology Panel. There was a time when technology developers in the laboratory and line program managers doing the cleanup weren't connected. Now they sit on the same panel where they can review site needs and discuss potential solutions together. At first, many of the technologies discussed were from people developing them at the site. Later, the panel started looking to industry for ideas. Most recently, the panel is working to increase communication with people at other DOE and Department of Defense sites that have similar problems.

The panel is jointly chaired by managers representing the line organization and the Savannah River Technology Center, so there is ownership from both organizations. The panel, which meets monthly, screens all new technologies before they are used at the site.

The site has also learned the importance of getting regulators involved early and has worked to build a mutual trust with them. SRS has a formal technology demonstration agreement with state and federal regulators that outlines the process everyone follows for selecting, evaluating, and deploying new technologies. Heenan says the people at EPA Region IV and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control "want to be smart regulators who drive actual accomplishment in a cost-effective way" and not generate paper delays. Heenan says three important things in cleanup are, "Don't move a lot of water, don't move a lot of soil, and don't move a lot of paper."

According to Heenan, the Citizens Advisory Board at SRS is also supportive of using innovative ways to accelerate cleanup. He says, "The SRS CAB is one of the most active in the country, and they see themselves as encouraging us to do smarter, more cost-effective things."

Some obstacles
One of the major things that stands in the way of using innovative technologies in cleanup, according to Heenan, is a lack of information exchange. He points out, "If the people that had problems knew about the solutions, things would be a lot better." That's why SRS recently sponsored the Groundwater Technologies End Users Conference—to bring people together from across the country that have ground water problems and solutions.

Another hindrance is an aversion to risk. However, Heenan sees the real risk in not applying innovative technologies. For example, pump and treat may appear to be low risk; but in the long run, it costs more and takes longer. Heenan explains, "People need to know that risk is incurred by sticking to the conventional approaches."

Another problem Heenan sees is when technology developers are lab focused. During a 1993 visit from Thomas Grumbly, then assistant secretary for environmental management, Grumbly said the site "needed to get out of the lab and get relevant." As a result, SRS began demonstrating technologies in actual cleanup applications rather than in laboratory settings.

Advice for technology developers
As a technology user sold on the benefits of innovative approaches, Heenan offers this advice to technology developers: "Focus on the value that you're adding." He says many technology developers focus on their technologies and how they work rather than sell users on the benefits of using them. Heenan also advises developers to get on board with the end user as early as possible. He says, "I can't overstate the importance of getting on board at square one rather than in year three. So many people are trying to get in after options have been evaluated, and it just doesn't work." To approach technology users at SRS, Heenan suggests developers contact ER Technology Panel Chair Bob Aylward at (803) 952-6853 or bobaylward@srs.gov. You can also e-mail Bruce Schappell, the engineering and technology manager for Westinghouse Savannah River Company, at bschappell@srs.gov. Another option is to view the technology needs statements on the SRS Site Technology Coordination Group homepage at http://www.srs.gov/general/srtech/stcg/home.htm. Each statement includes an end user and technical point of contact.

Heenan also recommends that the Office of Science and Technology use its funding to act as a technology advocacy organization that understands technology or cleanup needs and is able to transfer information about what is being used at other sites to address those needs. His advice is, "Track the savings [from using innovative cleanup approaches] and knock down the barriers on where the good ideas came from."