Fondriest Environmental, Inc.

Fondriest Environmental, Inc., a woman-owned small business manufacturer based in Fairborn, Ohio, supplies specialized environmental monitoring equipment—water quality sondes, data buoys, weather stations, and sensors—to federal agencies as a prime contractor on purchase orders and blanket purchase agreements, competing predominantly under total small business set-asides across civilian water-resource and environmental-research missions.

Fondriest operates as a 100-percent prime contractor (477 of 478 awards) in the instruments-and-sensors manufacturing space, with primary NAICS 334511 (Instruments and Related Products Manufacturing for Measuring, Displaying, and Controlling Industrial Process Variables) and secondary focus on geophysical instruments and liquid/gas-flow measurement devices. The vendor's core capability portfolio spans multi-parameter water quality sondes (EXO and YSI ProDSS platforms), NexSens CB-series data buoys with solar power and telemetry, pressure transducers, level loggers, weather transmitters, and repair and maintenance services for deployed sensor networks. Representative work includes a $211,505 2024 purchase order from EPA's Office of Research and Development for a water sensor system with manufacture, maintenance, and repair capability; a $741,467 five-year definitive contract (2025–2030) with USACE Pittsburgh District for NexSens buoy maintenance and parts replacement across 13 reservoirs; and a $88,435 2023 purchase order from USGS for 30 multi-parameter weather transmitters for the Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility.

Customer concentration is moderate and split between dollar and volume rankings. By award count, NOAA (75 awards, $2.4 million) and USGS (51 awards, $766 thousand) lead, together accounting for roughly 27 percent of the 478 total awards. By potential value, NOAA remains dominant ($2.4 million), but USACE Pittsburgh District (23 awards, $2.2 million) anchors the second-largest dollar stake due to the five-year reservoir maintenance contract. The top five customers (NOAA, USGS, USACE divisions, and EPA) account for 49 percent of awards and 69 percent of combined potential value. USACE work splits across three named entities: the Pittsburgh District (long-term sustainment), the broader USACE organizational unit, and the Huntington District. This multi-district footprint signals commodity procurement across a portfolio of regional water-quality monitoring programs rather than consolidation under a single contract umbrella.

Fondriest holds two named parent vehicles: an Indefinite Delivery Contract (W911WN20D3003) with USACE Pittsburgh District valued at up to $997,768 for NexSens buoy maintenance, parts, and data management (15 task orders, $508 thousand potential value realized); and a single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement established by NOAA on July 8, 2022, with a $250,000 ceiling through July 7, 2027, for spare and replacement parts supporting the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (5 BPA calls, $202 thousand potential value). Both vehicles are sole-source or limited-competition arrangements reflecting Fondriest's status as the exclusive authorized U.S. federal reseller of NexSens buoy products.

Set-aside posture is predominantly total small business (WOSB). Of the 478 awards in the source, the majority carry explicit total small business set-aside designations; a smaller cohort (roughly 30–40 percent based on the award-by-award review) carry no set-aside designation and compete full-and-open, reflecting sole-source or brand-specific procurements where Fondriest is the authorized vendor. This split—heavy set-aside participation alongside selective full-and-open work—indicates the vendor pursues both reserved procurement channels and sole-source/brand-lock scenarios where competition is moot.

Activity has been stable to slightly declining. The vendor recorded 19 awards in 2022, 21 in both 2023 and 2024, 11 in 2025, and 9 in 2026 (year-to-date through September). The combined potential value of $12 million and obligated dollars of $10.7 million (89 percent) reflect a consistent small-dollar procurement posture—median awards in the $10,000–$50,000 range, with occasional larger delivery orders and the one five-year USACE sustainment contract. Five awards worth $375 thousand reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing modest recompete exposure against NOAA, USGS, and EPA customers.

Fondriest serves 80 distinct customer agencies across EPA, NOAA, USGS, USDA, USACE, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Naval Sea Systems Command, Office of Naval Research, Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, and smaller research and management offices. The vendor operates from a single Fairborn headquarters location with performance typically in Ohio or at customer sites nationwide.