The Department of Energy is more closely tracking daily activities of Washington Closure Hanford, Keith Klein, manager of DOE's Hanford Richland Operations Office, said Thursday.

That is one of several changes made by DOE and its contractor after problems were discovered at Hanford's Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, according to speakers at a House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus briefing in Washington D.C. organized by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.

The Hanford briefing had been scheduled one day after the Environmental Protection Agency fined DOE $1.14 million for problems at the low-level radioactive waste landfill in central Hanford.

"We think we're doing the right things to fix it," Klein said. "We're going to learn from it, improve and move on."

Chuck Spencer, the new president of Washington Closure, said he's been discussing possible changes in the contractor's organization with Klein as it tackles increasingly complex work with more hazardous material.

That includes a discipline of operations function - strictly following work protocols - that would report directly to Spencer to focus on emergency preparedness, work control and training.

Spencer also is emphasizing subcontract management to make sure subcontractors understand requirements, he said. About 65 percent of the value of the Washington Closure contract is passed through to subcontractors.

Washington Closure said in a statement when the fine was announced that its subcontractor managing the landfill, S.M. Stoller "has not met our expectations and we have reinforced with them exactly what our operational expectations are."

Problems at the landfill included falsified data on compaction testing and compaction testing that was incorrectly done, according to EPA.

In addition, an automatic pumping system for water that collects on its upper liner was damaged during a storm and went undetected for months. Weekly checks of the system were not done or not done to regulatory standards, EPA said.

S.M. Stoller said that its assessment processes after it took over management of the landfill from a previous subcontractor uncovered the falsified data.

An employee had been entering data for tests not conducted for both Stoller and the previous subcontractor.

S.M. Stoller had been conducting weekly inspections of the system for collecting water from the upper liner that "fully complied with its contractual and regulatory requirement," it said. "The inspections were performed according to approved procedures."

It also said that the data that would have indicated a malfunction of the automatic features of the pumping system are not maintained by Stoller.

No matter who was responsible, inspections that met requirements were not done, said Dave Einan, EPA environmental engineer.

"My concern is that leachate was allowed to collect," he said. That had the potential to damage the lining system, although EPA and DOE agree the landfill was not harmed.