Collective expertise, enduring partnership continues to advance FUSRAP

By Jenn MillerDecember 17, 2020

Collective expertise, enduring partnership continues to advance FUSRAP
1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Five-thousandth shipment of FUSRAP-related material prepares to leave the Luckey Site in Luckey, Ohio, on July 31, 2020. Each truckload averages approximately 16.5 tons of material. (Photo Credit: Susan Blair) VIEW ORIGINAL
Collective expertise, enduring partnership continues to advance FUSRAP
2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Department of Energy's Office of Legacy Management (DOE-LM) have been working together for more than two decades to advance the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). In this photo, USACE and DOE-LM teammates visited FUSRAP sites in St. Louis, Missouri, in May 2019. (Photo courtesy of DOE-LM) (Photo Credit: George Gonzalez) VIEW ORIGINAL
Collective expertise, enduring partnership continues to advance FUSRAP
3 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – USACE completed cleanup efforts at the Colonie FUSRAP site in Colonie, New York, and transferred the site to DOE-LM for long-term management in 2019. Pictured here: active construction in 2005. (Photo Credit: JoAnne Castagna) VIEW ORIGINAL
Collective expertise, enduring partnership continues to advance FUSRAP
4 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – USACE completed cleanup efforts at the Colonie FUSRAP site in Colonie, New York, and transferred the site to DOE-LM for long-term management in 2019. Pictured here: completed site in 2019. (Photo Credit: JoAnne Castagna) VIEW ORIGINAL

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Department of Energy's Office of Legacy Management (DOE-LM) have been working together for more than two decades to advance the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), cleaning up sites with contamination resulting from the Nation’s early atomic energy program.

Through this long-standing partnership, USACE and DOE-LM continue to make progress in their collective efforts to remediate sites that can then be restored for beneficial reuse within local communities across the country.

“Our goal is to safely and efficiently clean up FUSRAP sites to ensure protection of human health and the environment,” said John Busse with the USACE Headquarters Environmental Division. “Once our cleanup efforts are complete, we then transfer the sites back to DOE-LM for long-term management and stewardship.”

In June, Busse was promoted to Chief of the Environmental Support Branch, one of three branches located within USACE Headquarters Environmental Division. Busse will oversee the execution of approximately $1 billion annually in environmental service work for Department of Defense (DOD) and non-DOD partners.

In addition to the work his team performs under FUSRAP, he also oversees the decommissioning of Army Deactivated Nuclear Power Plants, and environmental work for the Air Force, Army, National Guard Bureau, and Reserves.

His team also assists the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated sites under U.S. EPA’s Superfund Program, and supports a wide array of non-DOD agencies under the Interagency and International Services – Environmental (IIS-E) program.

“Under the IIS-E program, we provide environmental technical support to agencies across the globe,” said Busse. “The primary objective of the program is to provide stakeholders with a quality product, on time, and within the established budget, leveraging expertise across our USACE enterprise.”

The program provides a multitude of professional services and technical products to non-DOD federal agencies, state and local governments, tribal nations, private U.S. firms, international organizations, and foreign governments.

It is under the IIS-E program that USACE further supports DOE initiatives. This includes the dismantlement of previously decommissioned nuclear reactors on behalf of DOE, such as ongoing work at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, to dismantle and dispose of a decommissioned three megawatt research reactor. For this project, USACE is providing project management, construction management, technical support, and contracting to DOE-Environmental Management.

Additionally, USACE is providing ongoing technical support to DOE-LM for the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center in Missouri. For this project, the team is providing services for project management, engineering, design, exhibit design and installation, construction contract procurement and management, quality assurance, and safety inspections.

“Under the IIS-E program, our assistance is customized to meet the needs of our federal partners. Our support can vary from only providing highly specific technical advice to complete program management,” explained Busse. “We are able to leverage our technical and contracting competencies across the entire USACE enterprise for our federal partners’ initiatives and quickly pull together multi-disciplinary teams with a wide variety of capabilities.”

A good example of this is USACE’s execution of FUSRAP.

"One of the things that I like about FUSRAP is that it draws together, and maximizes the strengths of two federal agencies,” said Gwen Hooten, DOE-LM Environmental Team 2 Supervisor. “There's a real synergy between us. USACE brings their expertise in remediation and LM brings our expertise in long-term stewardship. Together we make a great team."

USACE consists of a headquarters, geographic divisions with subordinate district offices, as well as centers, labs and an Army engineer battalion. In total, six districts from three divisions are working on 21 active FUSRAP sites across eight states.

Districts currently supporting FUSRAP projects are Buffalo and Pittsburgh districts from the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division; St. Louis District from the Mississippi Valley Division; and Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia districts from the North Atlantic Division. USACE’s Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise and the Kansas City District also provide technical assistance.

Busse is very familiar with working on FUSRAP at the district level. Prior to working at USACE Headquarters, he served in several roles including Project Engineer and Manager and Program Manager at USACE Buffalo District for more than eight years.

“It is so rewarding to be able to witness first-hand 20-plus years of progress within FUSRAP, going back to my days as a private consultant,” said Busse. “Increasing the efficiency and timeliness of recent site closeouts, like the Colonie Site in New York, is a direct result of strengthening the existing partnership we have with DOE-LM. Together, our collective expertise will continue to streamline the site closeout and transfer process.”

"Historically, LM and USACE have always worked well together,” said Cliff Carpenter, DOE-LM FUSRAP Program Manager. “Because of John Busse's first-hand knowledge of FUSRAP, we will be able to successfully tackle the more challenging and complicated issues at our remaining sites."

Ensuring a common operating picture is critical in executing FUSRAP. This is accomplished through interagency work groups for each of the 21 active FUSRAP sites.

“Regular communication and meeting together annually helps ensure that we have everyone in the room when we are discussing these projects,” said Nicki Fatherly, FUSRAP National Program Manager with USACE Headquarters Environmental Division. “Using interagency work groups to tackle difficult issues enables constructive dialogue between us, which improves the site transfer process.”

Fatherly has been providing national-level programmatic leadership for FUSRAP for nine years. In her position, she champions this program at the USACE Headquarters level. She develops and defends national program budget development and oversees program execution performance metrics in close coordination with USACE Divisions and Districts. She is also the primary point of contact for DOE-LM HQ staff.

“As we are completing cleanup efforts on FUSRAP sites and transferring them back to DOE-LM, there is also ongoing, concurrent coordination to assist DOE-LM in identifying and facilitating beneficial reuse for these properties where possible,” said Fatherly. “So, while we continue to make progress, there is also more work to be done and together, we will continue to accomplish the mission.”

Learn more about USACE's Environmental Programs at: www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental