Environmental firms report local business surge: Bechtel leaps to top spot, fueled by work for oil refineries.

Bechtel Corp., which currently has about 350 employees working on projects involving the development of cleaner-burning gasoline at L.A. County oil refineries, tops The List of environmental firms this week.

Bechtel, the giant, San Francisco-based environmental and engineering concern has 665 environmental employees working out of its offices in 200,000 square feet the company leases in the Imperial Norwalk Centre, said Nora Blum, manager of Bechtel Petroleum, Chemical & Industrial Co., a subsidiary of Bechtel Corp.

Bechtel currently has the contract to help Mobil Corp. and Atlantic Richfield Co. develop cleaner-burning fuels, as required by state and federal law, Blum said. Bechtel is also working at area refineries to help oil companies comply with the Federal Clean Air Act, she said.

In addition, Bechtel employees are working from the Norwalk office on projects to design environmental clean-up of U.S. Navy facilities in Long Beach and San Diego, Blum said.

Bechtel was not formerly on The List of environmental firms because it previously did not participate in the Los Angeles Business Journal survey, Blum said.

There are a number of changes on this year's List because the criterion for ranking has been changed from number of L.A. County employees to number of L.A. County environmental employees.

As a result, last year's No. 1-ranked company, Pasadena-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., fell to No. 8 on The List. The company has expanded its L.A. County workforce from 740 last year to 920 this year. However, only 210 of those 910 are involved with environmental work, according to The List.

Parsons Environmental Services Inc., a subsidiary of Pasadena-based Parsons Corp., moved up to No. 2 on this year's List from No. 3 last year.

Parsons has noted a distinct increase in environmental business in the Southern California area in the last few months, said Phil Morris, vice president in charge of the Pasadena workforce for Parsons.

"We're hiring," Morris said. "We're looking for sanitary engineers, civil engineers, air pollution experts and people with expertise in noise pollution control.

"We began to notice a pick-up in business last October, which surprised us."

An increase in environmental work usually lags behind an economic recovery by six months or so, he said. And Parsons began getting work before or at the same time the recovery began, Morris said.

He added that Parson's L.A. County staff is not concentrated on one or two big projects, but rather dozens of smaller projects, "which is a much stronger position to be in."

Those projects range in size from "a $30,000 study to a $20 million design project," Morris said.

LVI Environmental Services Inc. is a newcomer to The List at No. 12. New York-based LVI is one of six environmental firms on The List specializing in asbestos abatement and removal.

David McSkimming, vice president in charge of L.A. County operations, said LVI's workload has increased due to the Jan. 17 earthquake because asbestos-containing buildings must be demolished or repaired as a result of earthquake damage.

"We have several big projects in the Northridge area, including apartment complexes and banks," he said.

Other newcomers to The List include No. 26-ranked Rollins OPC, No. 31-ranked Maness Environmental Services Inc., No. 34-ranked Advanced Environmental Technology Corp., No. 35-ranked Laidlaw Environmental Services and No. 45-ranked Advanced Technology Laboratories.