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AMC environmental program takes lead

  • Published
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AMCNS) --  Air Mobility Command’s environmental restoration program has moved forward aggressively in leading the Air Force’s performance-based management policy with the recent award of contracts for operation and long-term management of 41 cleanup sites at seven of its bases to include remedial process optimization.

“We achieve an immediate benefit from economy of scale by bundling the projects,” said Nicholas Linden, the AMC environmental restoration action officer for the effort. The command considered only those sites that have reached the remedial action phase of the cleanup process. “We expect to reduce our remedial action operation and long-term management costs by $500,000 through this 'warehouse store' approach,” said Mr. Linden. “We get a better 'price' per site.”

“This initiative is an excellent example of our efforts to gain greater efficiencies in environmental cleanup and return use of the land to sustain AMC’s airlift and air refueling capabilities,” added Brig. Gen. Del Eulberg, AMC Director of Installations and Mission Support.

The command was divided into east and west regions, with an operation and maintenance service contract and a long-term management contract for each region. Twenty-two sites at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C.; MacDill AFB, Fla.; and Pope AFB, N.C., are in the east region. TolTest, Inc., of Maumee, Ohio, will operate, maintain, monitor and report data from the various RA systems in the east region. Environmental Quality Management, Inc., of Cincinnati, Ohio, will provide the same services for the 19 west region sites at Fairchild AFB, Wash.; Grand Forks AFB, N.D.; McConnell AFB, Kan.; and Travis AFB, Calif.

Architect-engineer contractors will provide professional oversight, performing quality assurance, data analysis and regulatory reporting under the long-term management contracts. Those services will be provided by Earth Tech, Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., for the east region, and CH2M Hill, Inc., of Englewood, Colo., for the command’s west region.

Mr. Linden and technical teams from Booz Allen Hamilton spent four months last year visiting 10 AMC bases in a third-party assessment of the restoration programs to recommend potential savings and efficiencies. “AMC will leverage additional savings under the A-E contract,” Mr. Linden said. “The A-E contractors are required to evaluate and apply remedial process optimization measures after consultation with the base remedial program managers and their respective regulators. AMC will benefit from the savings realized by implementing RPO measures.”

The Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence provides contracting support for the endeavor. According to Gene Gallogly, former AFCEE chief, AMC and 11th Wing Support Division, AMC is the first command to separate the RPO engineering element from the remediation service work to gain greater cost efficiencies and align the contracts with the goals of performance-based acquisitions. He said both contractors will be highly motivated to save the Air Force money while improving service – one with an operational expertise focused on doing the job more efficiently and the other with a technical expertise focused on finding ways to eliminate unnecessary or ineffective tasks.

“As some ongoing RA and LTM contracts expire, we’ll fold those bases and sites into these contracts,” said Mr. Linden. “And, as more restoration sites move into later stages of cleanup, those sites will be added, and we’ll realize even more savings in years to come.”