Heidi Henderson (Environmental Engineering)

Heidi Henderson (Environmental Engineering)

About DOE Fellow
Heidi Henderson is currently pursuing her master’s degree in environmental engineering at Florida International University, focusing on water resources. Heidi was born and raised in Tallahassee, FL, and received her bachelor’s degree in civil/environmental engineering at Florida State University. She has five years of consulting experience in land development throughout Central and South Florida. In December 2009, she accomplished one of her career goals by obtaining her license as a Professional Engineer. From June 6 to August 12, 2011, Heidi interned at DOE Headquarters in Washington, DC, with the Environmental Management International Program under the supervision of Ana Han, Lead Foreign Affairs Specialist. In November 2011, she was awarded “DOE Fellow of the Year” by the DOE/FIU Science and Technology Workforce Development Program. Heidi interned at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN, with the Environmental Science Division under the supervision of Eric Pierce, Applied Remediation Science Lead. Heidi is currently working at CPH inc.

DOE Related Projects
Heidi is currently developing a water balance model to simulate surface water and total suspended solids transport at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory using XPSWMM modeling software in order to quantify flow rates and predict where potential contaminant build-ups may occur. The model will be calibrated and validated based on actual data provided by DOE.

As an independent study, Heidi conducted a statistical analysis with senior researchers utilizing MATLAB software by creating a customized algorithm to analyze 9 years of mercury concentration data and surface water flow rates in order to calculate the mercury loads within DOE’s Y-12 National Security Complex. These results may be applied to predictive analysis for similar situations. The customized algorithm created will be utilized for additional site analysis.

On a separate task, Heidi undertook an accounting of the innovative technologies and methodologies used over the past fifteen years to perform deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of DOE facilities. In addition, Heidi was responsible for gathering information on currently available technologies and methodologies that may be utilized for future D&D projects. This information was made available to the D&D community via the D&D Knowledge Management Information Tool.

Previously, Heidi assisted the DOE’s Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) by developing lessons learned and best practice documents. These documents are based on recent D&D projects at DOE facilities across the nation and describe issues that arose during the projects and their solutions in hopes of providing insight to contractors that might be dealing with similar situations.