Ecology and economics: a new mix?

• Position: Alaska's environmental contractors

Cleaning up a cleaner environment, a changing scene for environmental contractors.

Any number of choices might have had a better outcome than attempting to move the Japanese freighter Kuroshima from its perilous anchorage near Dutch Harbor the afternoon of November 26. Winds of 80 knots pushed the ship onto the shore near Second Priest Rock. Shortly thereafter, the hull ripped open spilling 39,000 gallons of bunker-grade fuel into the water - hence, Alaska's second largest oil spill! In a scene vaguely reminiscent of the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, environmental cleanup crews began mucking about a 3,500-foot stretch of beach and the shores of nearby Summer Lake.

A month after crews began cleanup efforts at the Kuroshima site, a tanker truck overturned, dumping 300 gallons of fuel oil onto the streets of Juneau. Snow berms contained most of that oil, but some of it slipped down storm drains which lead to nearby Gastineau Channel. Crews responding there deployed an oil containment boom near the storm drain outlet in the channel and began sopping oil from the streets with absorbent pads.

These are but two incidents in one year of Alaska's environmental cleanup operations. And spills are only one facet of an industry that has broadened to 15 categories, which include soil and groundwater remediation, cleaning up old industrial and military sites; removing hazardous/toxic wastes and fuel storage tanks, training personnel and recycling.

At $218.5 million per year, environmental cleanup is one of Alaska's newest industries. About half of that money will be spent in pass-through contracts with various departments of the military this year. The remainder will go to underground tank remediation, and various Superfund site projects.

Someone's Got To Do It

While even the pessimist might admit this serendipitous industry creates employment for contractors and vendors, statistics on the number of jobs are mired in details. Because many environmental contractors are listed among the state's 4,800 general or specialty contractors, their numbers slip between the cracks at the State of Alaska's Division of Occupational Licensing. Likewise, the data was soft at the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Environmental Protection Agency and various offices at the Alaska Department of Labor. Two years ago, Alaska Business Monthly counted 118 contractors in the business after generating a mail-out survey of contractors known to work in the industry. Even that survey contains a margin of error because not all queried parties responded.

Nowadays, the number of cleanup contractors appears to be waning. In using the 1997 mailing list to complete this year's survey, Alaska Business Monthly found only 82 respondents. It wasn't that survey recipients didn't take the time to complete the questionnaire and mail it back; many of the surveys returned to ABM headquarters were marked "Moved. Left no Address", suggesting that either these entities closed their doors, consolidated with other companies or moved elsewhere.

Changing Industry

Theories abound about how the industry may be changing. One argument has it that Alaska's major cleanup contracts have matured from early phases, which included assessment or consultation, and have now moved into the physical removal of materials.

Eric Evered, manager of Alaska operations for Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., offers the idea that companies "specializing in remedial investigations on the front end of projects" may have run out of work. "Much of that work has been completed," he says, adding that in the future, operations and maintenance contracts at cleaned up sites will require even less workforce.

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