Great Lakes Environmental Center, Inc.

Great Lakes Environmental Center, Inc., a Traverse City, Michigan–based for-profit Subchapter S corporation, delivers field sampling, laboratory analysis, benthic macroinvertebrate identification, water quality assessment, and ecological survey services to federal environmental agencies as a prime contractor (98% of recent awards) under Total Small Business set-asides. The company operates under NAICS 541620 (Environmental Consulting Services) and PSC R499 (Other Environmental Services), competing predominantly under small-business set-asides across the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers footprint.

Customer concentration is extreme and lopsided toward a single agency. The Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water dominates the portfolio, accounting for 94 awards with $333.3 million combined potential value—84% of GLEC's federal total. The EPA represents the substantial majority across both award count and dollar magnitude. The remaining top-four customers (Department of the Army at $27.3 million across 35 awards, EPA Region 1 at $12.5 million across 20 awards, Army Joint Munitions Command at $12.4 million across 63 awards, and Army Corps of Engineers at $7.3 million across 5 awards) split the balance, with Army programs contributing about 12% of total potential value. This concentration creates both dependency risk and recompete exposure concentrated in a single federal customer. GLEC holds three major parent vehicles anchoring its EPA Office of Water footprint: a $30.5 million single-award IDC for technical support implementing the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule and drinking water standards development (ultimate completion December 13, 2027), a $34.97 million multiple-award IDC for National Aquatic Resource Surveys technical support across national assessment programs including the National Wetland Condition Assessment, National Coastal Condition Assessment, and National Rivers and Streams Assessment, and a $25 million multiple-award IDC with the Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District for environmental services in the Great Lakes and Ohio River regions. GLEC also sits on a $5 million EPA Region 1 Blanket Purchase Agreement for Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act support, a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (43 task orders, $14.4 million combined value), and smaller single-award contracts with USGS ($249,999.99 IDIQ for water chemistry analysis) and Army Joint Munitions Command.

Recent representative prime work includes a $7.52 million cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order awarded September 2, 2025, by EPA Office of Water for technical support implementing UCMR and drinking water standards development (completion September 2, 2028); a $3.79 million cost-plus-fixed-fee order awarded August 28, 2024, for UCMR implementation support at small public water systems; a $3.54 million cost-plus-fixed-fee order for National Coastal Condition Assessment 2025 field sampling (completion April 30, 2026); a $3.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee order for National Wetland Condition Assessment 2026 field sampling (completion April 30, 2027); a $1.84 million cost-plus-fixed-fee order for National Coastal Condition Assessment 2025 logistics support and training; and a $1.54 million cost-plus-fixed-fee order for National Lakes Assessment 2027 field sampling. GLEC also delivered a $3.23 million Total Small Business set-aside purchase order to the Army Joint Munitions Command for environmental engineering services at Pine Bluff Arsenal (completion December 15, 2026), and holds a $25 million Army Corps of Engineers multiple-award environmental services IDC awarded September 2024. On the sub side, GLEC performs environmental remediation and water quality monitoring work under Jacobs Engineering Group, Research Triangle Institute, Eastern Research Group, and Battelle Memorial Institute.

Activity has been volatile. GLEC recorded 16 awards in 2023, peaked at 27 in 2024, dropped to 15 in 2025, and fell to 4 in 2026 and 2 in 2027, suggesting a post-peak contraction or reporting lag in the source data snapshot. However, 17 awards carrying $22 million in combined potential value reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, creating significant recompete exposure concentrated in EPA Office of Water and Army programs. The portfolio's combined potential value stands at $397.4 million, of which $149.7 million (38%) has been obligated to date.

SCI-reportable invoicing across prime service contracts ran $28.7 million over fiscal years 2022–2025, averaging roughly $7.2 million per year. The workforce trajectory on SCI-reportable federal services contracts climbed from 13.2 FTEs in FY2022 to a peak of 19.5 FTEs in FY2024, then moderated to 18.1 FTEs in FY2025. Median government-paid rates on SCI-reportable prime contracts ran around $147.55/hr, with senior labor reaching $230.89/hr at the 90th percentile. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed an average of 17% of total contractor hours, with 30 named subs appearing in the SCI dataset over the reporting period. GLEC predominantly self-performs core analytical and field-sampling work and brings subs in on specialized tasks—a posture consistent with the company's laboratory and field-operations capability model.

GLEC also acts as a federal grant recipient. The company holds a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant (CFDA not provided in source) awarded January 1, 2022, for implementing regional aquatic invasive species early detection and response through semi-quantitative aquatic plant surveys at high-priority sites across the Great Lakes, with ultimate completion December 31, 2024. The work includes site survey reports, pressed voucher specimens, data analysis, and annual presentations to the Interstate Team.