November 3, 1999

Jerry DeMuro, Parametrix, Inc.

By SAM BENNETT
Journal Staff reporter

Jerry DeMuro

DeMuro

A. We provide engineering and permitting services to public and private sector clients in the areas of sanitary and industrial water treatment, natural resources and endangered species management, solid and hazardous waste, environmental and engineering services, and transportation planning and design services. We also have a subsidiary that specializes in municipal architecture. We feel best about projects that are really important to the region.

Q. Tell us about a few projects you particularly proud of?

A. We are the water quality and storm water permitting contractor for the Sea-Tac airport the third runway which has involved a considerable amount of wetlands delineation and wetlands mitigation design for the Port of Seattle. It's a project we've been involved in for three years, in which we assisted in assessing the environmental impacts of the third runway construction on properties and developing measures to mitigate those impacts.

For downtown Puyallup we were the contractor for design and construction of the downtown Main Street reconstruction program. This was a program in which the whole roadway and sidewalk structure was redesigned and reconstructed. It was a complex project because it involved a number of interactions with local businesses. We were able to successfully stage construction to minimize business impacts.

We've also been involved in a number of projects that deal with assessing the impacts of industrial chemicals on water quality and wildlife habitats. We recently completed a program for the Alcoa Corp. in Texas assessing the impacts of mercury that had been released on an aquatic system and helping them develop measures to cleanup the problem.

Q. How has the Endangered Species Act affected projects you're involved with?

A. Since much of our work deals with infrastructure and infrastructure improvements, the impact of the Endangered Species Act on those improvements has been quite significant and it's caused us to respond quite aggressively to be able to address the challenges. The salmon listing last spring had the potential to delay a number of projects that were either slated for construction or in construction or in design. We have always maintained a very strong natural resources component and through that we're able to respond quite effectively, providing biological assessments to assess the impact of roadway improvements or stream crossings on biological resources.

Q. Is ESA compliance an emerging source of work for your company?

A. I think it's emerging, principally because what we're seeing is much of the endangered species recovery has been geared toward wildlife and birds.

Now it's shifting toward fish. Fish and their habitats are much more widespread than, for example, the spotted owl. One of the major impacts to the endangered species is inadequate storm water management. So any impervious surface, or any building, increases the impact to endangered species. More fish species will be listed next year, which will have greater impacts on developments throughout the region.

Q. What work have you done for the mining industry?

A. We've historically done a considerable amount of work for the mining industry in regards to looking at the impacts of mining activity and management of mining tailings on the environment. We were hired by an international mining interest to assess the impacts that doubling the capacity of a copper mine in Indonesia would have on the ecological population in a mountain stream. Our task is to evaluate the effects of increasing the concentrations of those tailings in the stream on the indigenous fish species which happen to be consumed by the populations that live along the stream. So we are looking at the effects on the fish and biological resources in the water as well as effects on human populations from eating those fish. It's a pretty interesting study.

Q. Are more multinationals becoming eco-friendly?

A. With the push toward the global economy, more multinational companies are adopting U.S. standards when moving into areas overseas to expand, and that's the case with this mining interest. It's an American company that is operating in Indonesia that wants to make sure that the standard of care used in the United States is used in Indonesia. It's easier for them to do it at this point than face litigation later.

Previous columns:

• John Zipper, Zipper Zeman Associates, Inc., 10-27-1999
• Robert Foley & Associates, 10-20-1999
• Jeffrey McManus, BRH Civil Engineers/Land Surveyors, 10-13-1999
• Lorne Balanko, HWA Geosciences, Inc., 10-06-1999
• Paul McCormick, AHBL, Inc., 09-29-1999
• Nolan W. Watson, McLellan & Copenhagen, 09-22-1999
• Alexander Kimball, Kimball, P.C., a division of Mulvanny, 09-15-1999
• Alice Nguyen, Davis Langdon, 09-08-1999