SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The Air Force has awarded three environmental contracts to private industry that are projected to expedite environmental cleanup at 11 former installations and save the Air Force millions.
The contracts are part of the Air Force's move toward Performance-Based Remediation (PBR) contracts, a partnership effort with private industry that cleans up contaminated land faster and to a higher standard. Although contractors execute day-to-day operations, the Air Force is ultimately responsible for all cleanup actions at these former Air Force installations closed under the Base Realignment and Closure Act.
The Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment awarded the first contract to FPM Remediations, Inc., an environmental and design-build management company. The contract is comprised of 45 sites at five former bases - Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas; Carswell, AFB, Texas; Eaker AFB, Ark; Homestead AFB, Fla; and Richards-Gebaur AFB, Mo. Twenty sites will be cleaned to unrestricted use, 14 more than originally planned.
"Unrestricted use" means there will be no restriction against developing the land for any particular purpose, including residential.
AFCEE awarded the second contract to FPM, spanning 144 sites at five former bases - Gentile Air Force Station, Ohio; Grissom AFB, Ind; Newark AFB, Ohio; O'Hare Air Reserve Station, Ill; and Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Ohio. The contractor will close 115 sites to unrestricted use, 60 of which were originally planned for closure with restrictions.
PBRs rely on the creativity of private industry to develop state-of-the-art solutions, according to Dr. Stephen TerMaath, chief of the BRAC Program Management Division at the Air Force Real Property Agency.
"Under PBRs, we are taking advantage of private industry's innovative ideas and best practices for environmental cleanup," TerMaath said. "At the end of the day, our goal is to clean up the land faster so the community can benefit from it, often resulting in unrestricted reuse."
The third contract went to AMEC, a global consultancy, engineering and project management company, to cleanup 12 sites at the former Williams AFB, Ariz. The contractor will close three additional sites for unrestricted use during the nine year period of performance, reducing the life cycle cost by $19 million. Under the contract, site operations that were previously scheduled to take 70 - 80 years are now projected to close in under 20 years.
The Air Force goal for BRAC installations is to have 95 percent of all sites under a PBR contract by 2014 and 90 percent of all sites in accelerated site completion by 2015.
AFRPA acquires, manages and disposes of Air Force-controlled real property worldwide. The agency's BRAC Program Management Division has managed the remediation and transfer of more than 77,500 acres of property at 41 former installations to local communities for economic development. For more information on the Air Force's BRAC environmental cleanup program, please call 866-725-7617 or email afrpa.pa@us.af.mil.