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Private Work Spurs Billings Growth; Public Sector Isn’t So Bad

Orange County environmental consulting companies reversed two years of flat results to post slight growth in billings during the past year.

The gain came despite fears that the state’s budget woes would eat into public works projects and crimp growth.

But companies said they saw a boost in work from the private sector, particularly in redevelopment and homebuilding. And state cuts in funding for public works projects didn’t turn out to be as bad as people had feared.

“Anything with state money is still a struggle, but it’s better than before,” said Terrance Brennan, chief executive of Irvine-based No. 23 Leighton Consulting Inc. “There’s been some stability with the new governor that they know where he’s going. There have been projects that had been idle that they’ve started to release money for.”

The 31 biggest environmental consultants in OC recorded billings of $412.9 million in 2004,up 2% versus a year earlier. This week’s Business Journal list ranks environmental consulting companies by billings generated out of their OC offices.

Estimates were made for seven companies that declined to provide figures. Without those estimates, the remaining 24 consultants posted 3% growth in local billings.

Consultants continued to show signs of economic recovery, growing their workforces 2% to 2,492.

Environmental consultants often see big swings in billings when big, long-term projects come to an end. Many projects begin or rely on government funding at the local, state and federal levels.

Maintaining the No. 1 spot was the Santa Ana office of Denver-based CH2M Hill Cos., which the Business Journal estimated had billings of $50 million.

Moving up two notches was No. 2 Windsor, Conn.-based TRC Cos. The company’s Irvine office grew billings 6% to $42.7 million.

TRC’s local office does work for Exxon-Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Inc. TRC grew its OC employment 20% to 220.

The Irvine office of Baton Rouge, La.-based Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure Inc. fell one spot to No. 3, with $40 million in billings, unchanged from a year earlier, according to a Business Journal estimate.

The Santa Ana office of San Francisco-based URS Corp. tied for No. 3 with Shaw, despite a 5% drop in billings to $40 million.

Santa Ana-based Tait & Associates Inc. held on to its No. 7 spot, growing billings 11% to $17.5 million.

“We’ve expanded our environmental consulting and environmental compliance work,” said President Thomas Tait. “We’ve got a patented process to clean up contaminated groundwater called BubblexSM and that’s expanding. And on the compliance side there are a lot of new regulations regarding underground storage tanks that are driving work.”

The company also grew employment 7% to 102.

Tait said he estimates the company will grow revenue and staff by at least 10% this year.

One of the list’s biggest gainers was the Irvine office of Denver-based Arcadis Geraghty & Miller Inc., which moved up seven spots to No. 13 on billings growth of 67% to $10 million.

“A lot of focus has been on redevelopment and that is driving our billings increase,” said Mark Fenner, senior vice president. The company’s redevelopment work includes a former NASA site near Downey.

The highest debut on the list was No. 15 Fountain Valley-based Pacific Advanced Civil Engineering Inc., which grew billings 64% to $9.2 million. The company grew its local staff 25% to 70.

The housing market helped spur Pacific’s gains, said business development manager Michelle Grau.

“Residential development is the majority of our business,” she said. “Also you can attribute the uptick to the growing number of regulations related to water quality of storm water management.”

The only other newcomer on this year’s list was the Costa Mesa office of Psomas. The Denver-based company earned the No. 22 slot on billings growth of 7% to $4.9 million, according to a company estimate.

A big percentage gainer was Leighton Consulting, which moved up five spots to its No. 23 position on billings growth of 41% to $4.8 million. The company’s chief executive, Brennan, attributed much of the jump to redevelopment contracts. Leighton did work at the former Tustin Marine base.

“We also do a lot of work for school districts like Saddleback,” Brennan said.

The Irvine office of Alpharetta, Ga.-based Mactec Engineering & Consulting Inc. fell eight spots to No. 27. It reported a billings decline of 34% to $4 million.

Dropping off the list was the Irvine office of former No. 15 Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co., which said it had no OC projects in 2004.

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