Pacific Groundwater Group
Specialty: Water resource and environmental consulting
Principals: Janet Knox, Charles Ellingson, Daniel Matlock, Russell Prior, Stephen Swope
Founded: 1987
Headquarters: Seattle
2006 revenues: $2.7 million
Projected 2007 revenues: $3 million
Projects: Pullman retail development; chlorinated solvent sites
Recent amendments to the state’s Model Toxics Control Act are proving less onerous than some may have feared.
Changes to the law, which affects how the state regulates toxic site cleanups, were expected to make “no further action” letters harder to come by.
“A lot of us had some trepidation about how it played out,” said Janet Knox, a principal at Pacific Groundwater Group and a participant in the MTCA policy advisory subcommittees.
Skittish lenders could be scared away from projects that were dogged by environmental issues — a scenario expected to occur more frequently under the changes.
Instead, the state, despite stricter cleanup standards, has continued to issue “no further action” letters, PGG has found, and lenders have become more astute regarding environmental matters.
“They’re more comfortable working within gray areas,” Knox said of lenders. When it comes to getting the state to OK a cleanup, “a lot of it comes down to good communication.”
Complex projects
Some of the biggest challenges PGG faces, Knox said, involve large projects with multiple stakeholders.
The firm, which specializes in remediation and water resource management, takes on complex projects that can be difficult to resolve. One example involves assessing the effects of a series of mingled plumes over a region that stretches for miles. For the cleanup, each party has retained its own attorneys. The next step is to identify all the joint and competing interests.
“The more complex the project, the more the challenges,” Knox said.
Property development
The firm also assists with property development, said principal Stephen Swope. That includes helping clients obtain water rights, evaluate the property for previous contamination, assess the impacts on local aquifers, develop new water supplies, design stormwater discharge facilities and work on cleanups.
PGG has a staff of about 20, a figure that’s remained stable for the past 15 years, Swope said. In addition to its Seattle headquarters, the firm has an office in Olympia and an employee based in Spokane.
“We don’t hire a lot of people to satisfy short-term demands,” Swope said.