Great Lakes Environmental Center, Inc.

Great Lakes Environmental Center, Inc., a for-profit Subchapter S Corporation headquartered in Traverse City, Michigan, delivers field sampling, laboratory analysis, ecological surveys, and water quality assessment services to federal agencies as a prime contractor (98% of recent awards) competing predominantly under Total Small Business set-asides across environmental consulting and aquatic ecosystem protection work. The company holds no formal SBA certifications beyond small-business status but appears to qualify consistently for small-business set-asides across its prime footprint.

GLEC's customer concentration is extreme and decision-definitive: the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water funds 91 awards worth $330.8 million in combined potential value, representing 84% of all prime work and 99% of the vendor's total potential value across all customers. This creates a single-customer dependency that dwarfs exposure to secondary customers. The Department of the Army Corps of Engineers supplies six awards ($32.3 million), the Department of the Army's Joint Munitions Command (Army Materiel Command) contributes 63 awards ($12.4 million), and EPA Region 1 adds 20 awards ($12.5 million). The remaining 150-plus awards scatter across 18 other federal agencies (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, USDA Forest Service, Department of the Interior, and others) with negligible individual dollar impact. The top five customers account for 86% of award count and 99% of potential value.

GLEC's vehicle portfolio anchors to EPA Office of Water IDVs. The company holds a $34.97 million multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Contract for National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS 3) technical support (18 task orders, $25.8 million combined potential value), a $30.5 million single-award IDC for Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule implementation and drinking water standards development, and a $25 million multiple-award contract with the Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District for environmental services in the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division (both awarded September 2024). GLEC also maintains a $5 million Blanket Purchase Agreement with EPA Region 1 under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule for Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act support services (awarded July 2023, running through June 2028). Delivery orders under these vehicles span field sampling for national wetland and coastal condition assessments, laboratory analysis of sediments and whole fish tissues for contaminant screening, diatom and plant identification, logistics and training support, criteria and standards development, biosolids pollutant modeling, and endangered species act consultation. Recent task orders include a $7.4 million delivery order for UCMR and drinking water standards technical support (issued September 2025), a $3.72 million order for National Wetland Condition Assessment 2026 field sampling (February 2026), a $3.54 million order for National Coastal Condition Assessment 2025 field sampling (September 2024), a $3.79 million order for UCMR implementation at small public water systems (August 2024), and a $6.2 million order for National Rivers and Streams Assessment 2023-2024 field sampling (August 2022). Away from EPA, GLEC won a $3.2 million firm-fixed-price contract with the Army's Joint Munitions Command for environmental engineering services at Pine Bluff Arsenal, Arkansas (December 2021, completion December 2026), and has executed periodic harbor sediment sampling and analysis work for the Army Corps of Engineers at locations across the Great Lakes region.

Activity has grown markedly: 12 awards in 2022 to a peak of 27 in 2024, with 15 in 2025 and 3 recorded in early 2026 (the source snapshot covers through February 6, 2026). Ten awards with combined potential value $13 million carry ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete exposure. SCI-reported invoicing grew from $5.3 million in FY2022 to $8.5 million in FY2024 across an expanding federal workforce. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, GLEC reported roughly 13.2 FTEs in FY2022, 17.1 FTEs in FY2023, and 19.5 FTEs in FY2024. Government-paid hourly rates on prime SCI contracts run a median of $146.07/hr, with 10th-percentile labor at $109.07/hr and 90th-percentile senior work at $220.10/hr. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors account for 15% of total contractor hours, with 23 named subs reported cumulatively; GLEC predominantly self-performs field and analytical work. In its limited subcontractor role (2% of recent awards), GLEC delivers field analytical research, remediation support, water quality monitoring, and stormwater permitting support to Battelle Memorial Institute, Research Triangle Institute, Eastern Research Group, and Jacobs Engineering Group on EPA and water-quality-focused work.

GLEC operates three significant federal grant vehicles. The company is a recipient of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant (CFDA information not provided in source) for implementing regional aquatic invasive species early detection and response across the Great Lakes, executing semi-quantitative aquatic plant surveys, plant voucher preparation, and site reporting from 2022 through December 2024. The company also holds a $249,999.99 IDIQ contract with the U.S. Geological Survey (awarded September 2024, completion August 2029) for water chemistry analysis services supporting the USGS Upper Midwest Water Science Center using EPA-approved standard methods. Neither grant record indicates sub-award activity; both position GLEC as prime recipient.

The company's award history spans since 1993, with sustained federal contractor registration since July 2001. Obligated dollars across all awards total $145.2 million (37% of combined $394.9 million potential value), indicating ongoing delivery against committed task orders and the early-stage execution of recently awarded vehicles. The top NAICS code is 541620 (Environmental Consulting Services), which accounts for 192 of 300 awards; 16 awards fall under 541380 (Testing Laboratories and Services), reflecting GLEC's laboratory analysis capability. The primary PSC coding spans R499 (Other Environmental Services), B516 (Special Studies/Analysis—Water Quality), and M503 (Support—Professional: Other), consistent with the vendor's water quality, regulatory-support, and criteria-development footprint.