The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection

A team of professionals from the Hawthorne Army Depot, State of Nevada, U.S. Army Environmental Center, U.S. Army Munitions & Armaments Command, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Day & Zimmermann Hawthorne Corporation, and Tetra Tech., partnering together have won the Vice President’s Hammer Award for their submittal titled, “Team Hawthorne: Reinvention of a Low Cost, Low Technology Environmental Cleanup Solution of Energetically Contaminated Soils.”      The Vice President’s Hammer Award is reserved for teams of pioneers who create an innovative and unique process to make government work better and achieve results Americans care about. This Award recognizes accomplishments that are not repetitive of other awards. Hammer Awards go to teams who have shown large impacts on customer service, bottom-line results, streamlining government, saving money and exemplary achievements in government problem solving.      A successful pilot program involving 2,800 cubic yards of energetically contaminated soil was performed proving the Hawthorne innovations were successful. The method employed for cleanup is to mix compost containing hay, water, manure, wood chips and potatoes with the explosives-contaminated soil.      The compost, shaped into windrows that promote the bioremediation process, allows the microorganisms contained in the compost to multiple rapidly and consume the explosives. Team Hawthorne was able to show that bioremediation would remediate ammonium picrate, a unique and difficult explosive to cleanup. Due to the combination of weather and geology at Hawthorne, use of concrete pads or buildings were not required, thus avoiding a major cost.      The cost savings concepts used at Hawthorne have been successfully employed at other installations and will result in future savings to the Army in potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in site cleanup. Intangible results of this teaming effort are the relationships developed between the various entities in resolving HWAD/Army wide problems at substantial cost savings.      A ceremony was held at the Hawthorne Army Depot for the Vice President’s Hammer Award, January 31, 2001. Lieutenant Colonel Anne L. Davis presented the award to the following recipients,    Hawthorne Army Depot Herman Millsap Jewell Benscoter Vernon Shankle    U.S. Army (Support Command) Wayne Sisk Henry Crain Kevin Tiemeier    Army Corps of Engineers Judy Soutiere Glen Mitchell Dennis Potter    State of Nevada (NDEP) Art Gravenstein Eric Noack    Day & Zimmermann Hawthorne Corporation Floyd Justus Mark Philliber    Tetra Tech Dick Brunner      See Award Photo Page Press Archives Back to Hawthorne Home Page Site Map NDEP Home Page