The economy’s dizzying downward spiral has left few unaffected, and contractors that work in the environmental sector are no exception. But firms report the lukewarm environmental market may be starting to heat up, due in part to an infusion of federal funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and expected increases in federal funding for water, wastewater and Superfund cleanup projects.
“I think overall we’ve seen the business flat but starting to pick back up in the tail end of the second quarter,” says Alan Krause, president and chief operating officer of Broomfield, Colo.-based MWH. Krause says MWH had a “healthy” backlog through the end of last year’s third quarter, but then started to run into project delays. “The work we had, much of it continued, but at a slower pace and now it’s starting to come back.”