Pasadena-based Tetra Tech Inc. announced May 28 that it has been awarded a $25 million contract for technical support services for assessment and remediation of contaminated sediment in the tidal portion of the Anacostia River, which flows into Washington, D.C.
Under the five-year contract awarded by the District of Columbia’s Department of Energy and Environment, Tetra Tech will define areas of sediment contamination in the Anacostia River and design the remedy using predictive modeling, field sampling and data analytics. Tetra Tech scientists also will conduct investigation, risk assessment and remedial activities at sites throughout Washington, D.C., to support the energy and environment department, the announcement said.
“We are pleased to continue delivering innovative solutions to return the Anacostia River to swimmable and fishable condition which will benefit DC residents, visitors, and neighboring communities,” Dan Batrack, Tetra Tech’s chief executive, said in a statement.
But the contract award comes amid controversy over another Tetra Tech project to clean up contaminated soil. The company has been under scrutiny for its management of radioactive soil cleanup at the 420-acre former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and nuclear research site in San Francisco.
In May 2018, two former supervisors working for Tetra Tech EC, a unit of Tetra Tech Inc., were each sentenced to eight months in federal prison for falsifying records for the nuclear radiation cleanup. In January, the Justice Department sued Tetra Tech EC for an unspecified amount in damages, alleging the company filed more than 200 false reports involving test results and other work on the Hunters Point Shipyard cleanup contract.
In a statement in January, Tetra Tech spokesman Sam Singer said the company stands by its work at Hunters Point and characterized the mishandling of records as the work of two “rogue employees.” A spokeswoman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose San Francisco district includes the shipyard site, said in January that Pelosi was concerned that the company was continuing to receive cleanup contract awards despite the Hunters Point controversy.
