Senior TriParty Managers Meet, Decide an "Holistic" Approach Would Be Nice; Plan on Involving "Public" in the Future

Received Tuesday, August 01, 2006 09:23 am

"This is a joint statement from the Tri Party Agreement Agencies

In June and July, 2006 two meetings were held involving senior management from the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) agencies: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Representatives from the DOE Headquarters’ Office of Environmental Management also attended and participated in the meetings. The purpose of the agency meetings was to launch a collaborative process to understand cleanup challenges and their relationship to TPA commitments, and to begin to chart a process whereby the agencies can mutually understand and agree on the scope of the challenges and develop key assumptions, logic ties, and end states related to the schedule and cost for key cleanup activities. A major objective of this effort will be to develop a common understanding of the master planning schedule for cleanup work, the associated planning assumptions, as well as insight into the uncertainties associated with cleanup challenges and yet to be completed regulatory agreements. Technical staff are working together to understand the scope of the current challenges and lay the groundwork for a collaboratively-developed, holistic approach to cleanup. Their work will include clarifying assumptions in existing cleanup schedules, resolving outstanding technical challenges, and developing recommendations on the planning and prioritization of cleanup activities. It is anticipated that the results of the work and technical discussions may be used by DOE in refining existing baselines and in the development of revised baselines for key projects at Hanford. The subsequent holistic approach to Hanford cleanup and baselines for key activities may ultimately become the basis of negotiation of critical TPA milestones. When that occurs, the prescribed process for public involvement mandated by the TPA will be followed and there will be additional opportunity for broader involvement. The agencies will continue to solicit and consider input from the Tribes, stakeholders, Hanford Advisory Board, the public and others regarding values and priorities for completing the cleanup of Hanford."