General Environmental Services for USACE

New Packery Channel area facing west, Nueces County, Texas.

Established in 1880 to maintain and improve the river, harbor, and coastal areas of the west Gulf Coast of Texas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Galveston District, extends from Louisiana to Mexico, an area of approximately of 50,000 square miles. PBS&J was selected by the USACE to provide comprehensive environmental services under a five-year general services contract for projects throughout the District.

Services provided fell into four broad categories including collection and surveys, preparation of NEPA documents, bioassay and bioaccumulation studies, and hazardous materials studies. All projects were assigned on a task order basis in support of the USACE’s mission of navigation, flood control, and hurricane-flood protection, and have been wide-ranging to include environmental planning and compliance, environmental impact statements (EIS), geographic information system (GIS) database development, water and air quality studies, surveys of wetlands, hazardous waste and threatened and endangered species, and quality control.

Projects requiring the preparation of an EIS included the deepening and widening of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel and the Sabine-Neches Waterway; flood damage reduction and ecosystem restoration for Clear Creek; maintenance dredging of the GIWW through Laguna Madre; and the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization facilities. Several dredged material management plans were prepared for projects including the Sabine-Neches Waterway, Packery Channel, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway through the Laguna Madre.

Other services provided by PBS&J have included assistance with interagency coordination teams on various projects, quality control oversight on excavation projects, biological assessments for Section 7 compliance, and the conduct of hazardous, toxic, and radioactive waste surveys.