ENVIRONMENT: CLEANING UP
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Orange County environmental engineering companies saw robust growth in 2001, with billings at the 30 largest companies growing 16% to $437.5 million in 2001, according to the Business Journal’s list.
Last year’s gain comes after a 9% increase in billings in 2000, posted by the companies on last year’s list.
Employment at the companies followed the same track, growing 15% in 2001 after a 9% increase in 2000.
There was no movement on the list among the county’s five biggest engineering firms, ranked by billings. Once again, the Irvine office of Monroeville, Penn.-based IT Corp. led the industry locally. IT recorded $54.6 million in billings, but saw a staff reduction of 3%, down to 263.
IT reported that 93% of its projects are public works. Public works generally account for a majority of billings industrywide.
With the public sector generating a lot of environmental projects, companies expect to see continued growth regardless of the current economic slowdown,public works are not as sensitive to economic cycles as private projects.
Moreover, environmental engineering companies are fewer in number now than a decade ago.
“The remaining firms are doing more of the work,” said Steve Pear-son, senior vice president with the Santa Ana office of San Francisco-based No. 2 URS Corp. “So you’ll see growth among the key players in the industry as they pick up work from firms that have gone away.”
The trend started about 10 years ago and accelerated to a rapid pace about five years ago, and is continuing today, according to Pearson.
“I expect the trend to continue,” he said. “There’s been a lot of consolidation in the environmental business and I expect that will continue as well. We’ve seen that all over the place, in oil and gas, chemicals and power and that’s been a good part of our growth.”
URS declined to provide specific numbers, but a Business Journal estimate indicates the company had billings of $52.5 million. URS this year was the big-gest county emp-loyer among environmental consultants, with an estimated 300 staff.
Denver-based CH2M Hill’s Santa Ana office again was No. 3, with little billings growth for a total of $49.5 million. The company added 20 OC employees for a total of 294, a 7% increase.
The biggest gainer in billings and in new hiring easily was the Irvine office of Cambridge, Mass.-based Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., which again was No. 5 on the list. The firm grew billings 134% to $40 million, and added 75 employees for a total of 250,a 43% increase.
Public works account for 82% of the firm’s billings, and Camp Dresser picked up a lot of work heading the design and build of a groundwater replenishment system for the Orange County Water District involving wastewater treatment.
The highest ranked locally headquartered company, P & D; Consultants Inc., jumped two spots to No. 6 on this year’s list. The company gets an estimated 60% of business from public works, and grew billings 12% to $16.9 million. P & D; added 14 employees for a total of 136,an 11% increase.
Major P & D; clients include the Metropolitan Water District and the Transportation Corridor Agencies.
At No. 7 is the Irvine office of Atlanta-based GE/Energy & Environmental Research Corp. GE declined to provide numbers. Business Journal estimates put the company at $15 million in billings.
Santa Ana-based Tait Environmental Management Inc. moved up a notch to No. 8, growing billings 8% to $14 million. The company also added 15 employees,a 25% increase to 75.
President Thomas Tait said the company is picking up more environmental compliance work, especially in the private sector, which accounts for 80% of Tait’s billings.
“A lot of our growth is out of new legislation from Sacramento,” Tait said. “We’re getting a lot of MTBE-related work.”
MTBE, a gasoline additive, was originally mixed with gas to help the environment. It has been added in relatively low concentrations to increase octane ratings in premium grade fuels since the late 1970s. More recently, MTBE has been added in much higher concentrations of up to 15% to enhance gasoline combustion and reduce tailpipe emissions.
Tait has a patented process that cleans MTBE gas additives from soil and groundwater. While MTBE has helped significantly reduce carbon monoxide and ozone levels, it becomes carcinogenic if it leaks from gas storage tanks into soil and groundwater.
The Huntington Beach office of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geosyntec Consultants moved up one spot to No. 9, growing billings 12% to $13.5 million. The company shed five workers for a total of 65 employees in OC.
Rounding out the top 10 was the Santa Ana office of Novi, Mich.-based Clayton Group Services Inc., which grew billings 7% to $12.3 million. Clayton saw a 9% jump in county employment for a total of 48 people.
The biggest debut was No. 23 Huntington Beach-based Asset Group Inc., which grew billings 125% to $4.5 million. Asset Group clients include The Irvine Company, Boeing Co. and the Huntington Beach City School District.
Falling down the list 19 spots was the Orange office of No. 30 Omaha, Neb.-based HDR Inc., with billings down 74% to $3 million. The company had saw a spike in billings the previous year through a big fiber-optic cable project on inter-city routes among Nevada, Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix for Broomfield, Colo.-based Level 3 Communications Inc.
HDR handled agency coordination for the project, as well as field monitoring associated with permit compliance to ensure the project didn’t hinder endangered species.
“That was a blip that we’ve had over the last year-and-a-half,we weren’t able to capitalize and diversify with other projects, hence the decrease,” said HDR Vice President James Owens. “We still have a strong program, just not as strong as when we had that big project.”
Two names dropped off the list: The Santa Ana office of Germany’s McLaren Hart/Jones, after Westford, Mass.-based ENSR International merged into it; and the Anaheim office of Tampa, Fla.-based Terra Vac Corp., which saw billings fall 31% to $2.9 million.
