Looking for a MORP for ORP

Paige Knight, Hanford Watch
January 21, 1999

By congressional mandate the Office of River Protection (ORP) has been established within the U.S. Dept. of Energy to manage its largest and most complex environmental cleanup project. This office will be responsible for managing all aspects of the tank waste program including those portions under tank privatization contracts to Hanford DOE.

ORP will report directly to DOE's Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management (EM) and the ORP Manager will be empowered under this act to make key decisions in an expedited manner. DOE is looking outside its own staff for highly skilled professionals.

Congress, through this act, requested "an integrated management plan for all aspects of the Hanford tank farm operations." ORP's focus is to be on management accountability and responsibility, and getting the myriad Hanford contractors and subcontractors to work closely together.

The Hanford Advisory Board has had some time to digest this new office. As a member of the board I have been skeptical. It has the earmarks of another layer of management at a site not known for good management, adding anywhere from 29-60 new jobs without the elimination of any current management positions.

Doug Riggs, a former aide to Representative Doc Hastings had a hand in helping conceive of this new office. He feels that if the right person is hired as the MORP (Manager) who can then hire people s/he trusts to do the job right then we have some hope of getting the cleanup on track and getting Congress to stabilize cleanup funding, which has continually shrunk over the past five years.

I agree that the right person must be found, and found outside the DOE mindset. S/he must also be given direct authority and the accompanying accountability. If this is a way to get more accountability into this "game" then we may benefit from this new creation.

Along with these new developments, a new Manager for the Hanford site is being sought with the resignation of John Wagoner in January. We need an aggressive, visionary person who will make hard decisions; hold Hanford contractors feet to fire; support and respect full public participation in the cleanup and future use decisions at Hanford; and fight for funding that supports the legal commitments of the Tri-Party Agreement to the public to insure us a healthy and safe environment and a robust economy for the Northwest Region.