Under the Earth’s oceans, rivers and lakes lies a world with geography all its own, and a Vancouver marine services firm is in the business of exploring it.
Portland-based engineering firm David Evans and Assoc. Inc. opened a marine sciences unit in Vancouver in February. The branch is currently incorporated in Washington and by Nov. 1, it’s expected to become a wholly owned subsidiary of DEA called David Evans and Assoc. Marine Sciences Inc.
The parent company has more than 25 offices in seven states and nearly 1,100 employees. Its work in hydrographic surveys and marine services has grown steadily for 19 years, and development of the Vancouver subsidiary demonstrates a growing demand for underwater work, said Don Fusili, president and CEO of the new branch.
The marine work helps public and private clients keep nautical charts up to date – assisting with marine construction projects, alerting clients to underwater hazards, exploring historic artifacts and giving warning of natural phenomenon such as Tsunamis.
The firm creates underwater maps using side-scan and multi-beam sonar technology with global positioning systems and inertial motion sensors. Across the firm, crews have created maps in waters of Hawaii to assist with production of the movie “Waterworld” in the 1990s. Crews also have mapped ancient underwater pyramids in central Guatemala, located debris from a former bombing range at Pyramid Lake in Nevada and helped determine an environmentally sound path for bringing electricity to the San Juan Islands.
Locally, DEA is processing data from its surveys of the Columbia River that will help Washington and Oregon departments of transportation plan for the marine environmental impacts of the Columbia River Crossing project. The job has led to creation of high-resolution maps of the river bottom and bridge piers based on data of current river speeds and other factors.
“We’re generating a difference map showing how the sand waves have moved from two years ago,” said Jon Dasler, vice president and director of marine sciences. “Any time structures are put into the river, you have to analyze scour (erosion) and how it would impact river flows.”
Other local projects include surveys of the Cowlitz River and marine terminals near Hayden Island and the Swan Island shipyard for the Port of Portland, plus updates of Columbia River nautical charts from Astoria to the Portland International Airport for the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“There’s a huge backlog to update nautical charts” in United States territorial waters, Dasler said. “It’s going to take 160 years.”
The firm’s biggest clients include the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA, which provides mariners with information to ensure safe navigation. The federal agency renewed DEA’s five-year contract for nautical charting July 16.
That $250 million contract is shared by eight hydrographic surveyors globally who help NOAA maintain navigation safety for more than 3.4 million square nautical miles of sea.
The local firm has worked with NOAA since 1999, and is wrapping up Gulf Coast debris surveys in Louisiana and Alabama that Congress mandated in 2006 and 2007. Since 2006, the firm’s contribution to that $44 million project has been worth $6.8 million, said Crescent Moegling, branch chief for NOAA’s data acquisition control branch in Silver Spring, Md.
“A lot of the area hadn’t `been surveyed since late 1800s,” Moegling said. “(DEA) noted a lot of exposed (oil) pipeline and they were instrumental in contacting owners … so there wouldn’t be hazards to fishermen.”
Such large projects have allowed the firm to invest in new technologies, which are then used on local projects, according to Dasler.
“We’re pushing technology advancements as hard as we can so we can provide clients with accuracy and can see some money,” Fusili said. “We are in the throes of making money.”
Despite costs of this year’s move to Vancouver and new technologies, Fusili said business for the firm is growing at a rate consistent with past years.
“Our bottom-line profit is still exceptionally good,” he said, declining to share specifics.
Reliance on large government clients has served the firm well, but Fusili said he is looking for ways to diversify his client base, such as pursuing projects with ports oil and gas companies.
“We’re taking (our) experience and moving it into different markets,” he said. “Maybe someday we’ll go international.”
Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com.
