Surveys -- Environmental Outlook 2003 -- Seattle DJC.COM

Ridolfi Inc.

Specialty: Environmental engineers and consultants, specializing in cleanup and restoration
Principals: Callie and Bruno Ridolfi
2002 revenues: $1.6 million
Projected 2003 revenues: $2 million

Ridolfi
Ridolfi

The U.S. Army polluted its Annette Island base at Ketchikan, Alaska, during World War II. The pollution increased after that as the property was used as the Ketchikan airport until the 1970s. Then it sat as a brownfield.

Planning for a cleanup began five years ago, with Seattle-based Ridolfi Inc. providing assessment and design work. The U.S. Congress late last year passed the Small Business Liability Release and Brownfields Revitalization Act, and President Bush signed it into law, pumping $200 million into funding for brownfield cleanups.

Ridolfi Inc. founder Callie Ridolfi figures the act means another five years of steady work on Annette Island for her growing, 16-employee engineering firm. “It was just designated as a brownfield last year,” she said.

Ridolfi’s 13-year-old firm recently won another significant deal, a national coastal hazmat contract with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to provide technical support for restoration and protection of shorelines affected by hazardous sites.

Photo courtesy of Ridolfi

Tom Bowden of Ridolfi Inc. surveys the Mowitch intertidal restoration site in Commencement Bay.

Ridolfi Inc. will work on sites on the Willamette River in Portland, the Hudson River in New York and some smaller ones, she said.

The weak economy hasn’t slowed those sorts of projects. In fact, Ridolfi said the recession’s only effect on her company has been a chance to grow by picking up good employees who have lost their jobs.

“We hired four in 2002 and may hire three or four this year,” Ridolfi said. “We’re growing, and our plan is to continue to grow cautiously, to stay small enough to remain responsive to our clients.”

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Washington named Ridolfi as its 2003 engineer of the year. The council gave the firm its 2002 statewide Gold Award for Social/Economic Considerations for restoration of salmon habitat at Squally Beach on Commencement Bay in Tacoma.

Ridolfi said the maturing of the environmental movement may create a trend over the long-term of less work for cleanup companies. That’s because some key players, like the U.S. Department of Defense, have adopted a new focus on preventing pollution through “environmental management systems” to avoid the problem of cleaning it up later.