EM is using an innovative system at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site to streamline an annual inspection process and reduce resources needed to complete reports.
EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition’s (IEC) Environmental Restoration (ER) program monitors approximately 122 sites with restricted access where cleanup has been completed across the 890-square-mile INL Site.
Until recently, personnel inspecting those sites filled out paper forms and took photographs. Then they scanned the forms and downloaded and sorted images of each site they inspected upon returning to their offices. It was a time-consuming process that generated a lot of paperwork.
Knowing there could be a better way, ER technical support staff members Kristina Alberico and Rick Powell created an application for computer tablets that converted the entire process from paper files to electronic folders.
Auditors recently identified the automated inspection method as a specific system strength.
It’s a streamlined system that ER Director Rich Abitz says saves time and uses significantly fewer resources.
“The new app helps everyone involved with annual inspections by capturing the photos and data and transferring them to a server in real time,” he said.
Chris Vilord, a technical specialist with the Environmental Restoration program for EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC), surveys a landfill site at the Test Area North at the Idaho National Laboratory Site using an automated inspection process developed by IEC employees.
Donna Nicklaus, Waste Area Group 10 manager for IEC, said data collected from the automated inspection method goes into an annual report, and the state of Idaho and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can go online to download a report to see the status of all sites.
“The agencies love it,” she said of the automated inspection method. “They went out to the site with us, and they were pretty impressed.”
EM is a partner with the state of Idaho and EPA to implement the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order signed in 1991. It outlines a plan to investigate and clean up, if necessary, more than 500 individual waste areas within the INL Site.
Nicklaus said the ER program must replace signs at sites with restricted access due to the harsh desert weather. She said employees also monitor for soil subsidence — which is the gradual caving in or sinking of soil — vegetation and even animal intrusion by badgers and other burrowing animals.
She said the automated inspection method makes everything much easier and eliminates the potential for human error in filling out the many data fields.
“It’s really slick,” she said.
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Source: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management
