Awarding a cleanup contract for the Columbia River through Hanford has been delayed until early 2003.

The Department of Energy announced Monday that it still is negotiating with bidders and allowing them to revise their proposals. DOE declined to release additional information about the bids.

This is the second time DOE has delayed awarding this contract. It received bids from at least three corporate teams in May and was supposed to name the new river corridor team Aug. 26. That decision was delayed to November, and now to early 2003.

The river corridor contract is a key piece of DOE's master plan to accelerate cleanup at Hanford, and it will replace Bechtel Hanford's current environmental management contract.

Right now, Bechtel is in charge of removing contaminated soil from Hanford's Columbia River shore area, plus sealing off the old plutonium reactors while demolishing their outer buildings. Bechtel transferred its ground water cleanup duties to Fluor Hanford last summer in anticipation of the new river corridor contract being awarded.

The new contract will cover the contaminated soil removal and sealing the reactors, with the addition of cleanup and demolition of much of the 300 Area.

All this work is supposed to be done by a proposed deadline of 2012. The overall project has been tentatively expected to be split in two consecutive phases, and the upcoming contract is to handle the first phase.

Past DOE estimates said the new contract is expected to cost $150 million to $210 million annually. Bechtel Hanford's work in fiscal 2002, which ended Oct. 1, was budgeted at $149 million.

Originally, Bechtel Hanford's contract was to expire in June. That expiration date was extended to Sept. 30, then to Dec. 31. Bechtel Hanford's contract will be extended again until 90 days after the new contractor is named, said DOE spokeswoman Colleen Clark.

While DOE has declined to name the bidders, the Herald has independently confirmed the existence of at least three bidding teams. CH2M Hill and Bechtel National, which is the corporate parent of Bechtel Hanford, are on one team. Fluor Corp. and Washington Group International are on a second team. And Foster Wheeler Environmental Co. is on a third team.