Environmental firms.

Waste Management Inc. takes top spot in ranking

L.A. COUNTY - Waste Management Inc., which provides a variety of services including waste hauling, recycling and hazardous waste disposal services, tops the List of the largest environmental companies in L.A. County, ranked by the number of environmental employees (see opposite page).

Los Angeles-based Waste Management is a subsidiary of Oak Brook, Ill.-based WMX Inc., which with $10 billion in annual revenues is the largest waste company in the world.

Waste Management has held the top spot on The List of the largest recycling firms in L.A. County for the last few years, but is a newcomer to The List of the largest environmental firms. This is the first year the company has applied to be on the environmental companies List, said Waste Management spokeswoman Lily Lee.

Services vary

Waste Management "provides a whole range of environmental services" including recycling, hazardous waste disposal, the design of environmental clean-up projects and water and wastewater treatment, Lee said.

Chemical Waste Management Inc., a division of Waste Management, is involved with hazardous waste clean-up and disposal, Lee said. "For example, they have a contract with the County of L.A. to perform the collection of household hazardous waste through community round - up days," Lee said.

On round-up days, community members can bring toxic household items, such as paint, nail polish and cleaning fluids to a park or community center for disposal, Lee said.

Other subsidiaries of Waste Management include Rust Inc., an environmental design anti consulting firm, which specializes in planning the clean-up of hazardous waste, Lee said.

Waste Management is not the only hazardous waste disposal company new to The List this year.

Long Beach-based Laidlaw Environmental Services of California Inc., a subsidiary of Columbia, S.C.-based Laidlaw Inc., which specializes in the transport, disposal, and site remediation of hazardous waste for oil companies, government agencies and defense contractors, debuted at No. 17.

Several join List

Los Angeles-based, No. 24-ranked Rollins OPC, another newcomer to The List, specializes in the transfer, storage and disposal of hazardous waste.

The other newcomers to The List are the No. 23-ranked, Arcadia-based operation of ATC Environmental Inc., a New York-based environmental consulting firm, and No. 16-ranked EMCON, the Burbank operation of the San Mateo-based environmental engineering firm.

Waste Management replaced Montgomery Watson Inc., a Pasadena-based environmental firm, specializing in the design and construction of writer and waste water treatment facilities.

Montgomery Watson. No. 2 on this year's List, has seen a slow-down in growth in the last couple of years "indicative of the general slowdown of the economy," said Michael Rosenfeld, a Montgomery Watson vice president.

But he added that there are signs in recent months that work may be picking up for environmental firms in general and Montgomery Watson in particular.

Over the past couple of years, Montgomery Watson has performed a number of studies and construction work on the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant, which treats all of the sewage for the city of Los Angeles.

Currently, "we have an interesting study we're performing for L.A. County looking at ways of taking anti treating the water that goes down the L.A. River," Rosenfeld said.

The study will look at ways to capture the water, much of which is run-off from storm drains during rainstorms, and treat it so it can be used for landscape anti industrial purposes, he said.