Western Environmental Technology Office

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The Western Environmental Technology Office occupies a 21.2-hectare (53-acre) tract of land in southwestern Montana, approximately 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of Butte. The site is in close proximity to the municipal airport and the intersection of Interstates 15 and 90.

The facility was known initially as the Component Development and Integration Facility, which was an engineering test facility to support the national coal-fired Magnetohydrodynamics Program for electric power generation.

FACILITY MISSION

The Western Environmental Technology Office, which was established in 1994, provides environmental technology test, evaluation, demonstration, transfer/commercialization, and program support services of the Department of Energy Office of Science and Technology, other Department of Energy programs and federal agencies, private industry, and foreign countries/industries. The Western Environmental Technology Office serves as Department of Energy, Office of Science and Technology's primary multiagency technology test and evaluation facility and provides high quality, cost-effective pilot scale demonstrations of third party-owned technologies, integration of individual technologies into deployable engineering systems, technology transfer/commercialization, and program support services. The Office maximizes the effectiveness of technology development efforts by providing a highly diverse, collaborative test environment.

All Environmental Management program-sponsored work performed at the Butte facility relates to environmental technology development. All life-cycle costs for these activities are included in the Maryland/District of Columbia site summary under the Headquarters National Technology Development program costs. Programmatically, the facility is an organizational element of the Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center for administrative matters with regard to human resources, budget and finance, acquisition and assistance, counsel, environmental activities, and Safety and Health Compliance. There currently are no mandatory environmental restoration activities or other regulatory compliance issues at the facility.

FUTURE USE

The Environmental Management Office of Science and Technology has landlord responsibility for the Western Environmental Technology Office. To the maximum extent possible, multiple federal agencies will continue to sponsor projects, and Environmental Management will continue to provide support. The Department has teamed with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Defense and Interior to develop and demonstrate innovative and cost-effective waste treatment and environmental cleanup technologies. This multiagency arrangement fosters cooperative research cost-saving data sharing, resulting in rapid transfer and implementation of new technologies to solve the broad range of urgent cleanup problems across the nation.