Blasland, Bouck & Lee

Specialty: Environmental engineering and scientific services with emphasis on contaminated sediment management and waterfront redevelopment related projects
Principals: Ed Lynch, president; Bob Goldman, CEO; Philip Spadaro, senior vice president and manager of Northwest operations
2002 revenues: $130 million
Projected 2003 revenues: $125 million
Spardo
Spardo

Blasland, Bouck & Lee arrived in Seattle at a busy time for Superfund sites — and that business may be one reason BBL is having some trouble staffing its new office.

One year after the Syracuse, N.Y.—based environmental engineering and scientific services firm opened its Seattle branch, more than $100 million in Superfund cleanup work has recently begun or is poised to start in the Puget Sound.

Meanwhile, BBL has six employees in Seattle but is still looking for four or five more “key” employees, said Philip Spadaro, senior vice president and manager of Northwest Operations. Spadaro said BBL also wants four or five more employees for its new Portland office, which now has a two-person staff.

“Getting the contracts is always a challenge,” he said. “But the larger challenge is identifying and recruiting the caliber of staff we want to recruit. There is no shortage of applicants. The folks we really want just all already have good jobs.”

BBL’s Portland office has a contract for upland and in-water consultation with the Port of Portland, Spadaro said. Its Seattle office secured a contract “worth several hundred thousand dollars” with ACC West Coast/Hurlen Construction, which was awarded a contract for work on Seattle’s Pacific Sound Resources Superfund site.

Spadaro said BBL’s Seattle office also has contracts with two other Puget Sound ports as well as work in Texas, New York, California and the Midwest.

Spadaro, who was formerly with Hart Crowser, said Pacific Northwest cleanups combine more processes and technologies than many other states. While it happens regularly in Puget Sound, he said it’s not the norm to find dredging, capping and natural attenuation on a single cleanup site.

“I think the Puget Sound could safely claim to spearhead a lot of sediment technology issues,” he said. “So many times in the past, cleanups failed because they took one approach. It’s like having one tool in your toolbox. With different tools, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.”



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