Pursuing leads. - Continued

DOE-EM-STD-5505-96

Furthermore, to pursue leads effectively, an assessor must:

Seek supporting information and evidence through follow up observations, interviews, and

document reviews

Investigate the programmatic aspects (Is there a programmatic breakdown or widespread

problem, or is this an isolated case?)

Be tenacious and persistent until satisfied with the answers obtained

Use good judgement when determining how much time is to be spent on one issue (If pursuit

of a lead will result in time constraints on the assessment, discuss the issue with the team

leader.)

Pursuing leads is a vital part of the operations assessment process. It is not sufficient to just

identify apparent deviations from requirements. In order to develop well-supported findings and

concerns, the assessment team must confirm all findings and develop concerns that direct activity

management's attention to the underlying causes.

To illustrate the process of pursuing leads, consider an operator pumping a wastewater retention

basin to the environment through a permitted outfall via a natural creek flowing next to the site

boundary. During the assessment, an assessor notes that one operator bypasses the pH meter

when starting the discharge to the creek. This action is not stated in the procedure. This is a

deviation from the expectation that operators should follow a procedure and should not take

important action which is not covered in a procedure.

The assessor needs to determine why the operator took an action which was not covered in the

procedure. Bypassing alarms, warning devices and instrumentation is a serious operational

matter. For instance, the assessor could decide to interview the operator during the basin

pumping operation. During the interview, the operator states that she always bypasses the pH

meter on starting the pump because the shift supervisor has instructed her to do so. Now the

situation has changed in that it is not necessarily one operator who is not following procedures; it