New subcontractor chosen to manage waste

Contact: David Lyons, (505) 665 9198 (00-076)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 9, 2000 -- The Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory has awarded a multi-year subcontract to Waste Management Federal Services Inc., to manage various wastes at Los Alamos.

The three-year, $15 million subcontract covers the collection, characterization, packaging, transportation, treatment and disposal of approximately 2,100 cubic meters of hazardous, radioactive, chemical and mixed waste generated by Los Alamos annually. Los Alamos will continue to manage its transuranic and low-level radioactive solid wastes.

The subcontract also includes two optional one-year extensions worth an additional $10 million. Waste Management, whose bid was selected over four other competitors, began waste management operations at Los Alamos on June 1.

"We liked the fact that Waste Management Federal Services has extensive experience in this field, particularly with other DOE facilities that generate comparable or larger volumes of similar waste," said John Kelly, deputy group leader for Solid Waste Operations in Los Alamos' Facility and Waste Operations Division. "This company scored extremely well in our technical evaluations."

Waste Management, based in Lakewood, Colo., provides environmental services to several DOE sites, including the Hanford site and Oak Ridge and Brookhaven national laboratories, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the Fernald Environmental Management Project.

The subcontract also calls for Waste Management to implement a Northern New Mexico Annual Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Program.

Over the next six months, Waste Management will implement a program to collect and properly dispose of hazardous materials and products typically found in or around the home, such as motor oil, antifreeze, paint, pesticides and batteries.

"We felt the household outreach program would be a good way for the subcontractor and Los Alamos to still give back to the local communities by helping them better deal with their own hazardous wastes," Kelly said.

The program will begin in one Northern New Mexico community. Waste Management then will select one community a year in the region that also wants to participate in the program, he added.

More news releases from the Facility and Waste Operations (FWO) Division