Hanford NRDA Expert

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office seeks technical support for DOE and the Hanford Natural Resource Trustee Council (HNRTC) in the planning and execution of the Hanford natural resource damage assessment. The HNRTC is undertaking a Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) process at the Hanford Site to address injuries to natural resources from releases of hazardous substances. The HNRTC consists of federal, state and tribal governmental organizations asserting trustee status pursuant to the National Contingency Plan (40 CFR Part 300): United States Department of Energy (DOE), United States Department of the Interior (DOI), State of Oregon, State of Washington, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation (YN), Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and non-voting participating agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The trustees, with a diverse set of interests in the trust resources at Hanford, have been working collaboratively on the NRDAR under a memorandum of agreement. The HNRTC has focused on the injury assessment phase of the NRDAR process (43 CFR 11.61) and has developed key documents and related work products, including: • Pre-Assessment Screen • Preliminary Estimate of Damages • Injury Assessment Plan • Project Execution Plan • Conceptual Site Model Report • Injury Thresholds Report • Aquatic Working Group Work Plan • Terrestrial Working Group Work Plan • Draft Aquatic and Terrestrial Restoration Planning Documents • Annual accomplishments reports • HNRTC governance documents (e.g. bylaws, memorandum of agreement, operational agreements) • Data Management Plan • Quality Management Plan While significant progress has been made in assessing injuries to groundwater, aquatic, and terrestrial resources, the HNRTC has identified a need for specialized NRDAR expertise to assist trustees in guiding the completion of the overall NRDAR process, including injury determination, development and implementation of injury quantification approaches (43 CFR 11.70), planning for other phases of the assessment, including damages determination (43 CFR 11.80) and restoration, and development of final assessment documents.