Emergency Response Management and Oil Pollution

Space Shuttle Columbia Recovery

U.S. EPA Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) Region 6 and Weston Solutions, Inc. (Prime Contractor)

East Texas

After the tragic breakup of the Space Shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003, dse was called upon as an EPA START subcontractor to Weston Solutions, Inc. to provide personnel to help locate, document, and recover parts of the Columbia Shuttle in Texas and Louisiana. As the scope of the recovery efforts grew, dse was tasked with recruiting other small firms to provide personnel to the five ICPs located from north central Texas to east Texas. dse coordinated with over 20 firms to provide personnel for administrative, data processing, and field recovery duties to the various ICPs that needed them. The field recovery operations consisted of “point recovery” and “search and recover” phases. The point recovery phase entailed small teams comprised of one representative each from the EPA, NASA and START and two to three hazmat technicians, utilizing global positioning systems and dead reckoning to locate previously identified but unrecovered shuttle parts.

The search and recovery phase entailed larger teams comprised of representatives from EPA, NASA, START, hazmat technicians, and twenty-person crews of USFS fire fighters. When a part was located, the USFS personnel would alert START and NASA personnel to determine if the piece in question actually was a part of the Columbia and if the part in question posed any special hazards or handling needs. If the piece in question was determined to be nonhazardous, it was assigned a unique identification number, located with a hand-held GPS unit, photographed, sealed in an appropriate container, and then transported to a central collection depot located at each ICP for further processing and evaluation by NASA personnel. Hazardous pieces, or other items requiring special handling, were identified, their locations were marked and safeguarded, and an appropriate team of hazmat or other specialists were called upon and dispatched immediately to handle the item properly.