Wildlife Tracking at Pueblo Plant Important for Safety and Schedule

/ PCAPP News, Environment, Safety
Wildlife Tracking at Pueblo Plant Important for Safety and Schedule

Wildlife Tracking at Pueblo Plant Important for Safety and Schedule

Environmental permitting engineers at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant notify workers through signage to avoid fledgling owls like this one near the Modified Ammunition Vehicles dock. The owls spend a few weeks low to the ground as they learn to fly. The environmental compliance team regularly tracks wildlife and plans for incidents that might impact the closure schedule or worker safety.

Wildlife Tracking at Pueblo Plant Important for Safety and Schedule

Wildlife Tracking at Pueblo Plant Important for Safety and Schedule

Environmental permitting engineers at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant notify workers through signage to avoid fledgling owls like this one near the Modified Ammunition Vehicles dock. The owls spend a few weeks low to the ground as they learn to fly. The environmental compliance team regularly tracks wildlife and plans for incidents that might impact the closure schedule or worker safety.

Wildlife Tracking at Pueblo Plant Important for Safety and Schedule
Environmental permitting engineers at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant notify workers through signage to avoid fledgling owls like this one near the Modified Ammunition Vehicles dock. The owls spend a few weeks low to the ground as they learn to fly. The environmental compliance team regularly tracks wildlife and plans for incidents that might impact the closure schedule or worker safety.

Since the Pueblo plant’s groundbreaking in 2004, environmental engineers have regularly tracked the high desert wildlife that co-exists alongside the chemical stockpile destruction mission.

Brenna Hjelle and Kristy Gerards, environmental permitting engineers, Bechtel Pueblo Team, count wildlife spotting and remediation among their job duties, but spend the majority of their time on other things that affect plant progress.

“We try to leave the wildlife alone, if possible, and will only address the situation if safety or project schedule is impacted,” Hjelle said. “We work with area and state wildlife organizations to mitigate risk to the animals while closure activities are ongoing.”

Environmental permitting engineers at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant notify workers through signage to avoid fledgling owls like this one near the Modified Ammunition Vehicles dock. The owls spend a few weeks low to the ground as they learn to fly. The environmental compliance team regularly tracks wildlife and plans for incidents that might impact the closure schedule or worker safety.
Environmental permitting engineers at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant notify workers through signage to avoid fledgling owls like this one near the Modified Ammunition Vehicles dock. The owls spend a few weeks low to the ground as they learn to fly. The environmental compliance team regularly tracks wildlife and plans for incidents that might impact the closure schedule or worker safety.

The environmental compliance team inspects all buildings daily and conducts a weekly in-depth inspection using binoculars. Hjelle said a newly purchased drone will complement these routine observations, providing more eyes and views from a different perspective.

This data is used to update a bird nest map as well as a monthly report noting sightings and encounters with all kinds of wildlife, including badgers, coyote, fox, deer, antelope, bobcats, bats, snakes, scorpions and many species of raptors and migratory birds. The latest addition to this list is the endangered black-footed ferrets that were released on the installation last year and already have produced newborns.

Hjelle said workers observed more than 600 bird nests in the main plant last year but just 30 at the Static Detonation Chamber (SDC) complex, primarily because of the slick nature of the structure covering. Gerards said that number could rise during closure as the structures housing the SDC units are disassembled and the coverings removed to reveal a skeleton frame with I-beams and 90-degree angles that the birds favor.

The team monitors nests that appear abandoned by parents before the eggs have hatched or before the nestlings have fledged. If abandoned, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is called to pick up the nest. The pair also recently caught an owl that was blind in one eye and unable to hunt.and delivered it to the local Nature & Wildlife Discovery Center’s Raptor Center.

Over the years, the compliance team has notified the workforce to avoid everything from sunning snakes to nursing bobcats and mating tarantulas. The team will continue to monitor wildlife until the plant completes closure.

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