Herrera Environmental Consulting

Specialty: Environmental engineering, services and planning for public sector projects, such as utilities and transportation
Principals: Walter Trial, Carlos Herrera and Michael Spillane
Founded: 1980
2001 revenue: $7.1 million
Projected 2002 revenue: $7.9 million

Herrera

Herrera Environmental Consulting grew at a steady clip the past year, despite economic downturn. The company hired a half-dozen employees last year and is currently trying to hire six more, said principal Carlos Herrera.

Aside from a two-month period after Sept. 11, when “a lot of clients just stopped paying their bills,” Herrera said, “we haven’t felt the impact of economic downturn at all.”

Herrera has won three consecutive environmental contracts with the state Department of Transportation, remaining on-call for state biological assessments, wetland projects, environmental impact statements and fisheries-related projects.

The firm also has an on-call, work-order contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, investigating and remediating contaminated sites.

For the city of Seattle, Herrera has an on-call drainage design project for the public utilities district and a contract to re-evaluate and rewrite Seattle’s storm water code to meet new state guidelines.

Photos courtesy of Herrera Environmental Consulting Bellevue’s Vasa Creek in the midst of restoration by Herrera Environmental Consulting.

But Herrera said some of the firm’s most rewarding work relates to fisheries and habitat restoration. The firm recently hired two senior-level experts in habitat and river design.

“We’re actively pursuing that kind of work,” he said. “We enjoy it. It combines engineering and the environment — the two things we’re good at. It’s fun work. And there seems to be a lot of it.”

Herrera recently expanded its Montana and Portland offices and won an environmental contract with Region One of the U.S. Forest Service. The firm will support fisheries and help the Forest Service compose environmental impact statements for Idaho, Montana and North and South Dakota.

“We expect to continue to grow,” Herrera said.