Fort Ord
KEMRON was awarded a five-year, $84 million CPFF and FFP hybrid task order to clean up munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) and hazardous and toxic waste (HTW) in site soils at the former Fort Ord in Monterey, California. The scope of work includes mechanical and manual clearing of vegetation, prescribed burning of vegetation, surface MEC removal, subsurface MEC removal, digital geophysical mapping, advanced classification geophysics, and removal, certification, and recycling of munitions debris (MD) and range-related debris. Various other work tasks within the scope include provision of an Administrative Records Coordinator in the Army’s BRAC office on site, managing several complex databases, managing two project websites, preparing the CERCLA 5-Year Review report, and performing various erosion control projects across the former Impact Area. KEMRON is managing this program under our earned value management system with a WBS structure of several hundred unique tasks and associated cost codes.
The following major work elements (projects) comprise the work under this contract: Impact Area Munitions Response Area MEC Remediation; Bureau of Land Management Area B MEC Remediation; Basewide Range Assessment (HTW soil remediation); Erosion Control at Various Range Sites; various Restoration projects: Advanced Classification Geophysics remediation and technology pilot study projects; MMRP Database, GIS and Website Management; and Biological Support.
KEMRON has performed both mechanical and manual mastication of planned fuel breaks for planned prescribed burns in the former Impact Area and nearby Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Area B. Through 9/17, over 600 acres of containment lines have been cleared of vegetation using two subcontractors with Feller Bunchers and two subcontractors with 7-8 person manual cutting teams. Manual cutting also included significant brush clearing and tree limbing of canopies up to 8 feet above ground surface, so that the risk of “crowning” during prescribed burns would be minimized. All manually-cut vegetation was collected and stockpiled for two different chipping operations. Chipped material has been reused all across the Impact Area for various erosion control projects.
KEMRON has completed all field work at Impact Area Unit (IA) 5A (33.4 acres), Unit 09 (81 acres), Unit 11 (62 acres), Unit 12 (107 acres), Unit 23 (347 acres), Unit 25 (95 acres), and Unit 28 (101 acres). We have completed portions of the following IA units: Unit 31 (57 acres), Unit 13, (17 acres), Unit 17 (4 acres), and Unit 20 (10 acres). KEMRON has recently completed performing field work for a portion of BLM Area B, Unit A (55 acres), and primary containment lines for future prescribed burns in BLM Unit B (81 acres) and Unit C (64 acres). The work in these units included vegetation cutting, grid/boundary staking, and surface MEC removal. DGM is now ongoing in these units. Also ongoing is the completion of 2 cut-only units in BLM Area B, Unit B-2A (72 acres) and Unit B-3 (169 acres). KEMRON has also finished preparations for the prescribed burning of up to 5 units in 2017, including containment line preparation, aerial and ground support staffing, wildland fire training, dip tank and piping/pumps setup, and coordination with the Army. These complex and extensive burn preparations were completed precisely on the schedule established several months ago to be “burn-ready.”
KEMRON has completed the digital geophysical mapping (DGM) of over 720 acres in the Impact Area and BLM Area B since the inception of the project. A towed array with three EM-61 sensors is utilized to prepare the subsurface anomaly maps that are eventually provided to the BLM and used for decision making regarding subsurface MEC removal efforts. Some person-portable DGM surveys have also been conducted in areas of special biological concern (eg, ponds) and to gather information around obstructions that was not able to be collected with the towed array assembly (eg, tree clusters).
KEMRON has performed several subsurface MEC removal projects on Fort Ord, including the Unit 23 New Access Routes, Units 1, 2, and 3 New Fuel Break Roads, Chinook Road Fuel Break Expansion, Nowhere Road Realignment, and Little Moab Road Construction. To date, over 330,000 pounds of MD have been removed, sorted, and certified for offsite smelter recycling, and 4,300 MPPEH items have now been collected and destroyed/to be destroyed in the course of numerous demolition operations, both consolidated shots and blow-in-place shots.
KEMRON employs an extensive quality control (QC) program to assure accurate and complete field activities and data collection. USACE’s 3-phase QC process is employed for every field activity in each Impact Area or BLM Area B unit, beginning with the conduct of a thorough preparatory meeting. All field personnel and managers, including client representatives, attend these kickoff meetings, and a detailed agenda covers specific work task processes, procedures, governing documents, biological protection issues, and safety issues. As the work proceeds, the required series of inspections from initial to final work stages by the project’s Contractor Quality Control Systems Manager (CQCSM) with client representatives is performed and documented.
For munitions cleanup QC, the project Unexploded Ordnance Quality Control Supervisor (UXOQCS) places QC seeds in near-term grids to be cleared with a target find rate of 1 QC seed per team per day. Through 9/17, spanning a period of 2.25 years, a total of 1,485 QC seeds have been recovered by KEMRON’s UXO teams with zero misses. The QC seed recovery rate to date has been 0.95 QC seeds found per team per day. In addition, 630 QA seeds, placed by USACE’s OESS, have also been recovered by KEMRON’s teams without any misses to date. The UXOQCS also personally sweeps a minimum of 10% of the grids by all teams as a further QC check on completeness, and he continually observes and coaches field team leaders and individual technicians on surveying techniques.
Prescribed burning for vegetation removal is a large part of the KEMRON scope of work for Fort Ord. All major burn subcontractors have been procured through KEMRON, including Burn Boss, Air Ground Operations Supervisor, air-ground communications, ignition and suppression helicopters, wildfire ground crews and fire engines, water trucks, other equipment, dip tank management staff, security staff, UXO staff, and others. When a meteorological window (for optimum smoke behavior to minimize local impacts) presents itself, KEMRON has only 48 hours to assemble the entire burn support team on site, with key partners coming from as far away as central Oregon. KEMRON’s Burn Boss and ASGS work closely with the Incident Commander, the Presidio of Monterey Fire Chief, on burn day operations.
KEMRON has successfully completed the innovative subsurface remediation of large, near-surface ordnance items in Units 11 and 12 using advanced classification (AC) geophysics (Metal Mapper) in order to safely conduct burns of these units. That AC project included 688 target excavations and the subsequent removal and destruction of numerous large and medium-sized ordnance items. Other AC projects to complete remedial actions involving TEMTADS and Metal Mapper 2×2 are ongoing.
USACE has included significant erosion control and range restoration projects within the KEMRON scope of work. Many of these projects have already been completed, with most including clearance of ordnance to depth prior to beginning site earthwork. KEMRON has also completed construction of the approximately 1-mile long Little Moab Road in BLM Area B. This roadway was brand new construction over some challenging, hilly terrain, and the project included some adjacent erosion control measures to protect nearby biological resources and preserve the roadbed for a longer period of time. In conjunction with the Army and BLM, KEMRON designed the road alignment and then performed the earthwork, base compaction, rock placement, and final grading in the field.
KMERON is also engaged in HTW cleanup activities at Fort Ord. The Basewide Range Assessment (BRA) program is a final step after the completion of MEC remediation activities to carefully examine site soils for both lead and explosives contamination. A combination of historical site research, known range usage, current site features, other site reconnaissance, and then, if warranted, multi-composite soil sampling a varying depth intervals is conducted to thoroughly examine the potential for HTW contamination. Through 9/17, KEMRON completed evaluations of 2 IA units (with 1 successfully petitioned for no further action without any sampling), was currently evaluating soil sampling results for 1 unit, and was preparing sampling work plans for 3 additional units.
Watch a controlled detonation below.