Sewer Engineers (CH2MHill) Have a Problem

The engineering firm most famous for MMSD has another problem.

A Colorado-based consulting, engineering and construction firm, named CH2M Hill, was awarded nearly $2 billion from the stimulus to perform cleanup work at the Hanford nuclear site.

The company used those funds to hire roughly 1,300 employees.

They then inflated the hiring numbers by using a Department of Energy metric known as "lives touched", which allowed them to boast that the stimulus helped somehow helped or 'touched' three-and-a-half times as many people as they had actually employed.

When the stimulus funds ran out, so did the ability to support the jobs created or lives touched. Roughly 1,500 employees were laid off.

Net/net, Hanford Site lost 200 workers.

But that's not all!!

The Department of Labor has awarded a $1.3 million National Emergency Grant to help laid-off Hanford workers find jobs.

The largest portion of the money will be used for retraining former Hanford workers who lost their jobs as federal economic stimulus spending at the nuclear reservation came to an end.

Hanford Site will have contractors forever; it is a mess.  The mess isn't helped by "stimulus", nor by craven contracting practices.

HT:  AOSHQ