The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo, N.Y., district fits into the Corps' mission of serving the public while knocking down barriers for government agencies, districts, employees and small businesses.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) Buffalo, N.Y., district does its part to control and protect nature across its 38,000-square-mile district and beyond, while benefiting small businesses, the economy and environment, according to Richard Reffner.

Reffner serves as contract specialist, acting chief of contracting, contracting officer and district grants officer for the district, which includes the U.S. drainage basins for the lower Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.

The Buffalo District traces its roots back to 1824, with its first permanent Corps office opening in Buffalo in 1857. Reffner says the district was created for shoreline protection and harbor improvement along the Great Lakes, “primarily to take care of the waterways and shoreline for Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.”

More than a century later, the district still has plenty of work to do - providing flood control; navigation; shore protection; environmental restoration; hazardous, toxic and radiological waste site management; and water resource management and regulation. “In more recent years, we've done more environmental work and geared ourselves toward environmental cleanup and remedial investigation with the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program [FUSRAP],” Reffner notes.

USACE is the lead federal agency working on decontaminating radiation at the former Linde site in Tonawanda, N.Y. The 105-acre site was previously owned by the Linde Division of Union Carbide and was used to process uranium ores under contract with the Manhattan Engineering District, also known as the Manhattan Project, from 1942 to 1946. One of the buildings was used as a lab and pilot plant for uranium separation.

The district is particularly innovative in performing challenging environmental cleanup efforts that require extensive study and meeting strict regulations, Reffner asserts. “Most of these environmental contaminants have been left here since the Manhattan Project,” he notes.

In addition, the district oversees maintenance of Great Lakes ports. This includes 100 miles of federal channels and 38 miles of dikes and breakwaters. The district provides dredging for several rivers and harbors on the Great Lakes. Reffner says dredging is vital for the region's economic viability. “Keeping lake harbors, whether recreational or commercial, open and usable is important for the region,” he says.

The Buffalo district also maintains the Mt. Morris Dam, a flood control structure on the Genesee River, as well as the Black Rock Lock on the Niagara River.

Reffner says the district has become more involved in supporting other government agencies, such as the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services, now known as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It recently installed a docking facility on the Niagara River for the Coast Guard. For Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the district is in the process of building a $5 million Massena, N.Y. border patrol station on the St. Lawrence River. “It has been a positive experience working for other agencies, and I think we've done well in that area,” Reffner states.

Supporting Small Businesses
Throughout its projects, the Buffalo district strives to support small businesses. The district has an active small-business program and works to meet federal goals to help disadvantaged and small businesses. “We try to utilize the small business community as much as possible because they are really what make the country and New York run,” he states.

The Buffalo district also requires large contractors to meet certain goals utilizing small businesses. “We are actively involved with the Small Business Administration in Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. We often utilize their small, disadvantaged, woman-owned and veteran-owned firms,” Reffner notes.

The district has a small business representative who also serves the Detroit and Chicago Districts to promote small businesses.

In addition, Reffner and other district representatives regularly attend small business conferences to reach out to small businesses. He says the district tries to meet with small business representatives regularly and listen to their ideas about how they can help the USACE.

In the future, Reffner anticipates greater collaboration between USACE districts and government agencies. “We are going through a process now where we are looking at more regional and national ways of operating,” he says. “We are looking at Corp-wide resources in manpower and other capabilities that we don't have here that we can use either electronically or through some other means. Rather than thinking every district has to maintain these capabilities, we are looking at regional ways of doing business for cost savings and to use our manpower more effectively and efficiently.”