How to Reduce Risk by Assessing and Modernizing Environmental Data Workflow

Data Management Enterprise GIS

Case Study: US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management

The Situation

Created in 1989, the mission of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE EM) is to address the nation’s environmental legacy of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research from the Manhattan Project through the end of the Cold War. This legacy includes some of the world’s most dangerous radioactive sites with large amounts of spent nuclear fuel, excess plutonium and uranium, and contaminated facilities, soil, and groundwater.

Since the signing of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, DOE EM facilities have played a crucial role in site environmental remediation. The development and management of site-specific DOE EM database systems have been used to track and report environmental remediation progress since the organization was created. Initially homegrown by each of the individual EM facilities, these systems have evolved as technology advanced.

The Challenge

Any system, no matter how good, needs to be continuously updated. While the DOE EM environmental sampling program data systems grew organically to satisfy needs, they inadvertently created inefficiencies and security risks. To compensate, stakeholders often developed ad-hoc workflows, increasing both the work time, cost, and data risk.  

The Solution

Several DOE EM facility sites engaged ddms to assess current workflows, build modern database systems using commercial software, and automate stakeholder regulatory reporting and analytics. The goal was to streamline data management and enhance security.

ddms performed an assessment to evaluate the current system and determine future-state data workflows, addressing security and efficiency concerns with use of up-to-date industry technology and clear stakeholder responsibilities.  By identifying how the data needs could also satisfy regulatory requirements, the assessment helped organize roles and responsibilities. This alignment helped streamline the work so the team could focus on high priority functions, understand their data assets, and identify duplicative processes. In essence, the assessment workplan provided the DOE site with benefits and implementation dependencies allowing them to prioritize system improvements based on cost and value.

After reviewing the workplan, ddms and the client finalized an implementation timeline.  ddms then applied technology and process improvements focusing on high-impact workflows like laboratory analysis and field monitoring, leveraging automation for data ingestion and quality control. To make the implementation more manageable, ddms broke the overall workflow into the components of the data journey by program and regulatory compliance, for example: a sampling plan, then field data collection, and laboratory analysis, concluding with data consumption and analysis. 

Once the implementation was complete, ddms provided ongoing support, training, and consulting to maintain data management practices and help new employees get up-to-speed quickly.

The Results

DOE EM sites report improved data quality, reduced reporting time, and increased data security. Stakeholders understand their roles better, making change management easier. Increased automation reduces errors and search time, allowing staff to focus on data analysis.

ddms is a team of experienced scientists and data experts who understand environmental data from the ground to the cloud. ddms partners with organizations dealing with scientific data that need to be securely stored, seamlessly managed, and expertly interpreted to turn data into actionable insights.