Albuquerque Operations Office

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The Albuquerque Operations Office is located on Kirtland Air Force Base, directly south of the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

FACILITY MISSION

Historically, the Albuquerque Operations Office's primary mission has been to research, develop, produce, and maintain nuclear weapons. In recent years, this mission has evolved to include environmental management, science and technology, technology transfer and commercialization, and national energy objectives. In conjunction with its evolving mission, the Albuquerque Operations Office is charged through its Environmental Management programs with responsibility for the safe and efficient cleanup of national laboratories and production plants within its complex and within the Uranium Mill Tailings program, and administrative support to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

The only Environmental Management task at the Albuquerque Operations Office is to provide program direction to the following 11 sites operated by the Department of Energy: the Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute; the Los Alamos National Laboratory; the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico; the South Valley Superfund Site; the Uranium Mill Tailings Project Office (includes offsite locations); the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (administrative) in New Mexico; the Kansas City Plant in Missouri; the Grand Junction Project Office (includes offsite locations) in Colorado; the Pantex Plant in Texas; the Pinellas Plant in Florida; and the Sandia National Laboratories in California.

The Office of Defense Programs is the landlord at the Albuquerque Operations Office and is responsible for all infrastructure costs. The only Environmental Management costs at this site are associated with personnel requirements to fulfill the program management needs of the following activities: nuclear material and facility stabilization, environmental restoration, and waste management.

FUTURE USE

The Environmental Management program management activities are expected to remain on Kirtland Air Force Base for the foreseeable future. In early 1995, the Base Realignment and Closure Committee considered Kirtland Air Force Base for closure. Kirtland Air Force Base was removed from the Committee's review list after successfully demonstrating that base closure would result in transferring significant support activity costs to the multitude of residents, such as the Department of Energy, instead of providing net savings to taxpayers. Therefore, this report assumes that the future use of this site will remain Industrial, with access restrictions.

NUCLEAR MATERIAL AND FACILITY STABILIZATION

Activities associated with Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization are conducted under the purview of the Projects and Facilities Management Office. In part, site planning activities include: development, implementation, administration, evaluation, and enforcement of compliance with the Department of Energy and with Albuquerque policy and guidelines concerning site development, surplus facilities assessment, transfer, safe shutdown and future use.

Direct Program Management/Support

The office also conducts planning, management, use and control of facilities and capital equipment activities. The majority of Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization program near-term funding resources are allocated to the Pinellas Area Office for plant closure activities. The remainder of current resources assigned to the Albuquerque Operations Office are for compliance with the nuclear material and facility stabilization guidance to "quantify the total scope of the stabilization and deactivation challenge confronting the Department of Energy" by: 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 because of funding restraints; 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 at Albuquerque Operations Office sites.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION

The main function at the Albuquerque Environmental Restoration Office is to plan, coordinate, and implement the Environmental Restoration program, including remedial actions and decontamination and decommissioning to restore the environment.

Direct Program Management/Support

The environmental restoration activities include program management of the 11 geographical sites listed above. This encompasses assessment, site characterization and cleanup, closure, and site compliance monitoring. This office ensures development of technical environmental restoration policy and provides specific guidance in partnership with contracted plants and laboratories and performs reviews and ensures that performance improvements are identified and implemented. Additionally, this office ensures that there is 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. Further, this office ensures new and innovative technologies are used in the Environmental Restoration program to promote program efficiency at minimum cost. The office is also responsible for monitoring cost, schedule, and technical baselines to ensure progress is being achieved. All of these activities are completed with close interaction between the Environmental Restoration program and its stakeholders, including federal, state, county and city regulatory agencies.

The Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project has a specific environmental restoration mission to manage remedial action at 24 inactive sites nationwide. The office addresses specific aspects of the project, such as acquisition strategy, project control, public participation including state/Indian/local government coordination, quality assurance, and compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

The main function at the Albuquerque Waste Management Office is the proper management (that is, handling and disposal) of waste for all the production plants and national laboratories under Albuquerque jurisdiction. This office also provides technical, programmatic, or administrative support to the Grand Junction Projects Office and the Waste Isolation Pilot Project, programmatic direction for waste operations, and external interface on waste issues as appropriate. Technical waste management activities include continuity of operations activities, such as program management, training, documentation, and safety analysis; treatment; storage; disposal; minimization and pollution prevention; and corrective activities. Guidance and oversight of managerial areas include program formulation, execution, evaluation, and integration; funds management; and assurance that sites implement effective public participation programs.

Direct Program Management/Support

Challenges result from the diverse missions of the sites under the purview of the Albuquerque Operations Office Waste Management program. The mix of national laboratories, production plants and project offices presents Albuquerque Operations Office with waste generators from Defense Programs, Environmental Management and Energy Research. The Waste Management program attempts to provide consistency for program and schedule integration, cost estimation and funding allocation to ensure program efficiency and continuation of mission goals.

Albuquerque's approach to managing the Waste Management program involves an approved program baseline that provides a standard against which accomplishments, progress, and expenditures are measured. Elements of the management approach include program formulation, execution, evaluation, and integration. Developing the Albuquerque-wide budget often requires addressing different funding scenarios in the planning process. Prioritization depends on factors such as health or environmental risk, compliance agreements, federal and state regulations, and Department Orders. Program integration allows Albuquerque to build onsite capabilities and explore those capabilities and functions at other Department of Energy sites to achieve cost-effective programs.

The pollution prevention program at Albuquerque is funded in two parts: the Waste Management program funds site programs, and the Office of Pollution Prevention funds site projects. The site program includes the organization and infrastructure of the program (including the pollution prevention coordinator), pollution prevention training and employee awareness, waste tracking and reporting, technical support to generators, assessments of waste-generating processes to find ways to reduce waste, information and technology exchange, and program evaluation. Site projects supplement the programmatic side by accomplishing specific activities. In the past, this has included activities such as bench marking studies, chemical exchange programs, and cross-complex technical assistance. In FY 1996, this funding will be directed specifically at projects that show a high return investment to the Department, many of which require purchase of capital equipment to reduce waste generation.

Albuquerque has central oversight responsibilities for the pollution prevention program and directly manages funding. Program leadership at the sites is supplemented by federal employees at both the Operations Office and the area offices.

DESCRIPTION OF PERSONNEL

Current Composition

The current FY 1996 Full-Time Equivalent allocation of federal and contractor Full-Time Equivalents is presented by labor category in the following table. As an oversight office, the Albuquerque Operations Office specialities include: managers, general administrators, engineers, scientists, and administrative personnel. These numbers are expected to decline slightly over the next two years. The table includes the Full-Time Equivalents for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program, which is discussed later in the New Mexico section.

A support services contract is used to provide technical and financial consulting services to the Department. Technical expertise is related to resolving financial issues and their effects on compliance.

Site Management Structure

Management activities at Albuquerque include managing the Environmental Management program at the various Albuquerque sites. Responsibilities of the Assistant Manager for Environment/Project Management include management of environmental restoration and waste management activities, projects and facilities, and the Grand Junction Projects Office.

Technical Services Support Contracts at Albuquerque provide specialized technical engineering and cost estimation capability, and they provide program management support and project control analysis to the various programs. As with the downsizing faced by the rest of the Department, the magnitude of the contracts has recently decreased. Prioritization of requirements for the support activities has been similar to the downsizing requirements facing the Albuquerque national laboratories and production plants.

Program management oversight is provided to Albuquerque Operations Office facilities to ensure environmental management activities are conducted within a framework of managerial and financial control. Guidance is developed and updated routinely to help the facilities under the Albuquerque Operations Office establish and maintain management and project control systems, facilitate efficient work, and provide useful information about progress. Personnel annually review and refine work scopes, as well as construction and schedule estimates contained in the baseline documents of Albuquerque Operations Office sites.

Operations Office personnel conduct analyses of technical work plans, as well as health and safety plans. The office also conducts environmental compliance planning and oversight to ensure consistency with the objectives and goals of the Environmental Management program and compliance during implementation. In addition, Operations Office personnel provide oversight in the areas of public participation, preparing environmental documents (for example, Environmental Impact Statements), developing performance measures, and establishing risk-based priorities for facility environmental management activities. These initiatives help management plan effective outreach programs, institutionalize effective total-cost management practices, and ensure that activities to reduce risks to the environment and the public are performed in a timely manner.

Cross-functional teams address integration issues between the various Environmental Management programs. Because of the complexity of programs, missions, and funding sources at Albuquerque, close cooperation between programs is necessary to allow dissimilar sites to capitalize on the successes of other Albuquerque sites.

Future Full-Time Equivalent Needs

The level and mix of Full-Time Equivalents at the Albuquerque Operations Office is expected to remain relatively static during the near term. Outyear changes to the mix of Full-Time Equivalents may be related to a decrease in Environmental Restoration activities as work activities decline; however, occupations to support increased decommissioning and decontamination can be expected.

FUNDING ESTIMATE

The following tables present estimated funding information for the Albuquerque Operations Office.

COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS ESTIMATE

The most significant addition to the FY 1996 cost estimate is the inclusion of program direction costs. In last year's report, these costs for federal personnel support were apportioned across the various Albuquerque offices.

The noticeable overall decrease in annual funding for Albuquerque is a result of the decrease in activities, funding decreases, and initiated cost savings. Environmental Restoration activities were re-baselined for FY 96 which resulted in significant decrease in scope. The decrease is specifically related to further characterization, refined work scopes, and No Further Action decisions at the various Albuquerque Area Offices. Lower estimates are also the result of several Waste Management decisions that delayed or canceled programs.

The life-cycle estimates have been extended from the FY 1995 Baseline Environmental Management Report end goal of FY 2035 to FY 2070, thus increasing the estimate. This extension supports the concept that the majority of Albuquerque sites are assumed to maintain continuing missions. These sites include national laboratories and production plants in support of the Office of Defense Programs activities.