Richland, Wash. – EAS’s extensive knowledge of the Hanford Site’s ecological systems and experience with successful restoration and revegetation efforts on the site earned the company a new contract in June 2014. CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) hired EAS to create a mitigation action plan for the 200 West Pump and Treat system. Construction of the groundwater treatment system impacted previously undisturbed old growth sagebrush habitat, which is considered essential to the biological diversity of the Hanford Site and Columbia Basin Ecoregion.

Over the next three months, EAS’s restoration experts will administer shrub-steppe revegetation on the Hanford Site in support of CHPRC’s 200 West Pump and Treat mitigation work scope. Based on experience, EAS will develop a schedule defining the optimum timing and season for planting or seeding, identify candidate mitigation sites, and prepare a site-specific mitigation plan. This plan will include details on site soil composition and adjacent vegetation, site preparation techniques, seeding rates and species composition, methods of seeding application, planting rates for shrubs, mechanical contouring methods, and proposed implementation of irrigation.

To ensure successful revegetation at the sites EAS also will oversee collection of native forbs and shrubs at multiple locations, as well as propagation, delivery, and installation of seedlings. Revegetation implementation activities for this project are expected to be completed by September 30, 2014.

Mitigating the loss of mature sagebrush habitat on the Hanford Site assists CHPRC and U.S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office (DOE-RL) achieve long-term stewardship goals and meet cleanup and revegetation requirements mandated in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, other federal and state laws, and DOE directives.