Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management Manager Jay Mullis speaks to union construction crews, thanking them for their work on a project critical to future cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The frame of the new treatment plant for the Outfall Mercury Treatment Facility is visible in the background.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) has established a new workforce retention incentive that rewards the union construction team for progress as it builds the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility.

OREM Manager Jay Mullis and national labor union leaders recently met with the workforce at the construction site to announce the new program.

“This is our way of thanking you for your work to keep this critical project moving forward,” said Mullis. “The facility you’re working on enables us to ramp up major cleanup that will transform Y-12.”

The facility is an essential infrastructure project that makes it possible for OREM to begin addressing some of the greatest environmental risks at the Y-12 National Security Complex. It allows crews to start demolishing massive Manhattan Project-era buildings contaminated with mercury and address the soil beneath them.

“I’m grateful that DOE is recognizing this hardworking construction team, especially for their progress in such a tight and challenging footprint,” North America’s Building Trades Unions Field Services Director Kevin Adkisson told the workers. “I started my construction career here at the now-demolished K-25 plant, and it’s great to see your progress on this next chapter of the Oak Ridge cleanup program.”

The mercury treatment facility is comprised of two components at two locations — a headworks facility and a treatment plant — connected by a pipeline more than half a mile long.

The headworks facility will capture creek flow, store excess stormwater collected during large rainfalls, remove grit, and pump water through the pipeline to the treatment plant. The treated water will then flow back into the creek.

Construction is moving forward on both structures, and the recently announced incentive program ensures momentum continues until the project is finished.

The treatment plant’s structure is underway, and crews are installing a significant amount of concrete and rebar at the headworks plant. The team at the headworks facility has installed 200 tons of rebar and poured 700 cubic yards of concrete.

-Contributor: Ben Williams