Oakland Operations Office

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The Oakland Operations Office is located in the federal building in downtown Oakland, California, which is approximately 16 kilometers (ten miles) east of San Francisco.

FACILITY MISSION

The mission of the Environmental Management program at the Oakland Operations Office is to manage environmental risks at former weapons production and research facilities under its authority that are contaminated with various hazardous and radioactive materials. This includes responsibility for the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites and facilities; characterization, treatment, minimization, storage, and disposal of Department of Energy waste; development, demonstration, testing, and evaluation of new cleanup technologies; and support for environmental safety.

The primary mission of the facilities managed by the Oakland Operations Office involves nuclear energy and defense research. Byproducts of this mission include transuranic and low­level radioactive waste, hazardous waste, and mixed waste. The contamination resulted from operations at these sites and includes a wide variety of radionuclides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and volatile organic compounds.

The Assistant Manager for Environmental Management oversees the management of the waste generated at the active sites and facilities and provides environmental, safety and health assistance as well as program direction to the following nine California sites: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Main Site and Site 300, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the Energy Technology Engineering Center, the Laboratory for Energy Related Health Research, General Atomics, General Electric, and the Geothermal Test Facility. This includes oversight of research and development program management, business management, managing and operating institutional management, and regional responsibilities associated with the effective conduct of Oakland Operations Office programs.

FUTURE USE

The Environmental Management program management activities are expected to remain, and the Oakland Operations Office will continue to lease space in the federal building for the foreseeable future.

NUCLEAR MATERIAL AND FACILITY STABILIZATION

It is anticipated that about 50 facilities at the Energy Technology Engineering Center will enter the Oakland Operations Office Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization program and incrementally begin stabilization in 1997. Site activities include: facility deactivation and surveillance and maintenance; bulk sodium disposition; removal of hazardous materials; negotiation on waste and excludable recyclable materials requirements with state and federal regulatory agencies; planning for facility remediation; negotiation with the Community Reuse Organization; and development, evaluation, and enforcement of compliance with the Department of Energy and with the Oakland Operations Office policy and guidelines concerning site development, surplus facilities assessment, transfer, safe shutdown, and future use.

Direct Program Management/Support

The Oakland Operations Office conducts planning, management, use and control of facilities and capital equipment activities. The Oakland Operations Office seeks compliance with the Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization program guidance to "quantify the total scope of the stabilization and deactivation challenge confronting the Department of Energy" by the following means: exploring new options to reduce the mortgage costs of maintaining surplus facilities, which the Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization program will be unable to accept due to funding constraints; helping to develop guidance for facility shutdown, deactivation, and development of specific transition plans; developing funding profiles for transition management and support; and planning and scheduling facility shutdown profiles for the Oakland Operations Office sites.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION

The primary functions of the Oakland Operations Office Environmental Restoration program include decontamination and dismantlement of surplus facilities, monitoring, analysis, and cleanup activities.

Direct Program Management/Support

Environmental Restoration program management includes activities at the Oakland Operations Office sites. Program management costs include federal and contractor personnel and state grants; these costs also include the management of assessment, site characterization and cleanup, closure, and site compliance monitoring efforts. The Oakland Operations Office's Environmental Restoration program ensures development of technical environmental restoration policy, provides specific guidance, and performs reviews to identify and implement performance improvements. The Oakland Operations Office also ensures compliance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requirements regarding waste generation, handling, storage, transportation, and disposal. The Environmental Restoration program uses new and innovative technologies to promote program efficiency and minimize cost. The Environmental Restoration program responsibilities include monitoring cost, schedule, and technical baselines to ensure timely program execution. All these activities are completed in close coordination with stakeholders, including federal, state, county and city regulatory agencies, as well as the local community.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

The mission of the Waste Management program at the Oakland Operations Office is to provide safe, environmentally sound, and cost­effective management of waste generated, handled, treated, stored, transported to, or disposed of at facilities under the authority of the Oakland Operations Office. The Waste Management program must ensure that the public, workers, and the environment are protected from the hazards associated with waste materials; production of future waste is minimized; and all activities are conducted in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations and in compliance with the terms and conditions of all agreements. The primary functions of the Oakland Operations Waste Management program include the proper treatment, storage and disposal of radioactive, hazardous and mixed waste generated by various programs at the Oakland Operations Office sites.

Direct Program Management/Support

Included in the Waste Management program at the Oakland Operations Office are the following activities: identifying needed waste management projects; recommending priorities for waste management projects; reviewing and approving work plans, schedules, and budgets; managing expenditures; providing direction and oversight to contractors and evaluating their performance; and working with federal, state and local environmental regulators. The Waste Management program at the Oakland Operations Office provides consistency for program and schedule integration, as well as for funding allocation to ensure program efficiency and accomplishment of mission goals. In prioritizing Waste Management programs and project development, the Oakland Operations Office considers factors

such as health, safety, environmental risk, compliance agreements, federal and state regulations, Department of Energy Orders, mortgage reduction, and best management practices.

Program management costs include those for federal and support contractor personnel, Federal Facility Compliance Act implementation, agreements with the state, waste minimization and pollution prevention planning, and waste management projects at various Oakland Operations Office sites, which will be discussed within the relevant site summary narrative.

The Federal Facility Compliance Act of 1992 imposed numerous requirements pertaining to management of mixed waste, including development of the site­specific treatment plans for mixed waste generated as a result of Department of Energy activities. The State of California has issued Consent Orders for most of the Oakland Operations Office sites. The cost estimate provided for the Oakland Operations Office includes costs for continued management of low-level mixed waste as required by the various compliance orders.

The Oakland Operations Office also manages the Pollution Prevention program. The objective of the Pollution Prevention program is to reduce significantly the generation and release of all forms of waste and pollutants produced by contractor operations, through the development and implementation of efficient and cost- effective pollution prevention technologies, practices, and policies. Pollution Prevention program activities include organization and infrastructure, program development, employee involvement and awareness, the tracking and reporting of waste generation and waste minimization progress, the establishment of source reduction/recycling/reuse programs, technical assistance, information and technology exchange, and program evaluation. Pollution prevention activities at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and the Energy Technology Engineering Center are included in program management cost estimates.

DESCRIPTION OF PERSONNEL

Current Composition

The Oakland Operations Office Environmental Management program staff composition is provided in the following table. These numbers are expected to decline slightly over the next two years. The Oakland Operations Office specialities include managers, general administrators, engineers, scientists, and administrative personnel.

* The Projections for Full-Time Equivalent employees are based on FY 1996 planning baselines (see Reader's Guide).

Site Management Structure

The Oakland Operations Office's Assistant Manager for Environmental Management has responsibility for and manages all environmental management-related activities and reports to the manager of the Oakland Operations Office. Program management oversight is provided by the Oakland Operations Office to its sites to ensure environmental management activities are conducted within a framework of managerial and financial control. Guidance is developed and updated to assist the sites in establishing and maintaining management and program control systems that facilitate efficient work. The Oakland Operations Office reviews and refines work scopes, as well as schedule and cost estimates contained in baselines and other similar documents. The Operations Office conducts analyses of technical work, health and safety plans, and environmental compliance planning and oversight to ensure consistency with the objectives and goals of the Environmental Management program. In addition, the Oakland Operations Office personnel are involved in public participation, as well as in developing environmental documents, performance measures, and risk­based priorities for facility environmental management activities. These initiatives assist management in planning effective outreach programs, institutionalize effective cost management practices, and ensure activities reduce risk to the environment and the public in a timely manner. Because of the complexity of the mission, established cross-functional teams address integration issues between programs.

Future Full-Time Equivalent Needs

The level and mix of Full-Time Equivalents at the Oakland Operations Office is anticipated to remain relatively the same for the forseeable future. Outyear changes to the mix of Full-Time Equivalents may be related to a decrease in environmental restoration activities as work declines; however, an increase in personnel to support increased decommissioning and decontamination activities can be expected.

FUNDING ESTIMATE

The following tables on the next page present estimated funding information for the Oakland Operations Office.

COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS ESTIMATE

Overall, last year's life-cycle cost estimate is lower than this year's cost estimate. The main differences are due to the extension of the life-cycle estimate endpoint from FY 2030 to FY 2070, an increased scope, and an accelerated cleanup through the Small Sites Initiative, which reduces the mortgage in the outyears. In the FY 1995 Baseline Report the Oakland Operations Office costs were apportioned across the Oakland Operations Office sites, while this year costs appear separately in this narrative section. In addition, in the FY 1995 Baseline Report program management costs appeared as a stand-alone section, and in the FY 1996 Report program management costs are allocated across the programs.