LANL Recovery Act project hits hiring peak, exceeds job goals

Putting people to work

August 3, 2010—One of New Mexico’s largest Recovery Act projects will hit its hiring peak this summer when an additional 125 people are hired to work on an environmental remediation project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

The Lab received $212 million in Recovery Act funds to decontaminate and decommission  24 old buildings at Technical Area 21 (TA-21), install 16 groundwater monitoring wells, and excavate the Lab’s oldest waste disposal site, Material Disposal Area B (MDA-B).

Work began in July 2009. Currently, 13 of 24 buildings have been demolished, and 13 of 16 groundwater monitoring wells are complete. The excavation of MDA-B, a waste disposal site used from 1944 to 48, began June 30, , adding another 125 workers to the project and raising the tally of jobs created or saved from 408 to more than 500.

“As work on MDA-B ramps up this summer, we will add 12 additional crews to our workforce,” said LANL Recovery Act Director Bruce Schappell. “We originally estimated that these projects would create or save between 300 and 350 jobs, so with the addition of 125 more workers, we’ll have significantly exceeded our job goal.”

Most of the Recovery Act work at TA-21 has been performed by four small business subcontractors that were selected before the project began. The subcontractors submit bids to perform specific tasks and provide the personnel to complete the work. Jobs range from engineers and project managers to laborers and truckdrivers.

In addition to creating work for New Mexicans, the project will result in long-term environmental benefits for Northern New Mexico. The 6 acres that comprise Material Disposal Area B and the nearly 100 acres of Technical Area 21—minus the Manhattan Project and Cold War-era buildings that will be demolished—will be restored for potential land transfer and reuse.

“Putting people to work has a beneficial effect on families and communities,” Schappell said. “This project has long-term environmental benefits as well as the obvious economic benefits that job creation provides.”