As Geosyntec celebrates its 40th anniversary, we mark a decade of serving Alaska. From site characterization and remediation to vapor intrusion and solid waste management, we are partners in protecting the health of Alaska’s environment and communities.

Below, we speak with the founders of our Anchorage office, Ben Martich and Olga Stewart, to reflect on their journey, discuss what’s different about working in Alaska, and share their vision for the future.

About the Speakers

Ben Martich, QEP is a Senior Principal Scientist based in Alaska with more than 25 years of experience focused on site characterization, conceptual site model development, and vapor intrusion assessment.

Olga Stewart, PE, PMP is a Senior Environmental Engineer based in Alaska with more than 15 years of experience focused on site characterization, conceptual site model development, and site cleanup under the requirements of CERCLA, RCRA, and State of Alaska regulations. In 2022, she became the first environmental engineer to win the Alaska Engineer of the Year Award.

Q & A

How did the Anchorage office start?

Ben Martich
In 2013, I was given an opportunity by Geosyntec to open an office in Anchorage. I moved to Alaska in ’98, working for Ecology and Environment. Then I moved on to OASIS Environmental and that’s where my career started to take off. Vapor intrusion was becoming a significant pathway of concern, and I was fortunate to lead some important projects for the state. OASIS is also where I met Olga.

Olga Stewart
That’s right! Yeah, OASIS was my entry into Alaska’s great engineering and environmental culture.

Ben Martich

Sean Ragain reached out to me and began recruiting, and in late June 2013 I began our Alaska office. And about two years later, Olga joined Geosyntec with me.

What’s your favorite part about working in Alaska?

Olga Stewart

I grew up and went to school on the East Coast, but all of my professional work after college has been here. There’s something unique about the projects in Alaska. They require a different perspective in terms of execution, which I think is really different than in the lower 48 states.

You probably weren’t coordinating with helicopters as much in the lower 48.

Olga Stewart

That’s true, there are a lot of access issues and logistical concerns. But really, it’s the need to work closely with different communities.

I think that’s something we see differently up here. It’s not just about executing the work. You really have to connect with local people in both cities and rural areas if you want to get anything done successfully.

Ben Martich

I’d say, too, it’s invigorating to work with a team in less-than-ideal conditions. Not just working on sites with cold weather or high winds, but where the overall facilities for working are limited.

Maybe you’re sleeping in a school gym in a remote community, or you’re working out of a remote camp. You’re not staying down the street at the Holiday Inn or going to Home Depot down the street for resupplies. Everything here has a logistical consideration. That challenge and delivering successful projects for our clients are the things that really motivate me.

What has been your favorite project at Geosyntec?

Olga Stewart
A lot of the energy we get from the work up here is about the physical place and the experience of work. Especially at Geosyntec, people talk about the technical challenges and working on a really hard technical problem. But in terms of executing work, we’re just as interested in being physically out and present wherever the site is.

I thrive on having that time in the field. I try to spend a large portion of my time every year in the field. I can go back through and think about my own personal history with every field project I’ve had since I moved to the state, which are some of the most beautiful places in Alaska.

Ben Martich
The places we go are just so unique and inspiring. On that note, I would say the remedial investigation and risk assessment we performed in Atka has been one of my favorite projects at Geosyntec. I was heavily involved in the planning and reporting and got to go into the field for a few weeks. That’s definitely a project highlight for me.

Where do you think the future is for Geosyntec’s Anchorage office?

Olga Stewart
When we established this office, we really focused on the contaminated sites practice, which deals mostly with impacted soils, groundwater, and vapor.

We’ve innovated in that world by bringing risk assessment a little bit closer to home and looking at whether the receptor profiles in Alaska are different than in other states. That’s one way we can continue to help clients prioritize where their limited funds go, by helping them understand where they have actual liability and where they have actual risk they need to focus on.

Beyond contaminated sites, we’re helping clients manage and visualize their portfolios with data and web mapping. Once you centralize the data, you can better prioritize where your programmatic needs are. Then you can start to really focus on where to spend the money. That’s a real skill and a key idea that we can help clients with.

Ben Martich
Another focus for us is how we can bring innovation and change to how we deliver projects to our federal clients. We’ve done it as a teaming partner for the past 7 to 8 years now and we’re starting to work with them more as a prime contractor.

On the non-federal side, just this week, a fellow in our Los Angeles office reached out about a client in Alaska with a mining liability who needed help with mine closure. And similarly, over the past couple of years, we’ve become a go-to consultant for the Kenai Peninsula Borough for solid waste. Now we don’t have a solid waste engineer in Alaska, but Geosyntec was founded as a landfill company and has a whole practice group we can rely on.

Every day, the Anchorage staff finds more and more opportunities to connect with Geosyntec’s greater capabilities and practitioners around the world. In Alaska, we’re that bridge, and our clients will reap the benefits of this work.

More Information

For consultation regarding remediation of complex and remote sites, contact Ben Martich at BMartich@geosyntec.com.
Learn about Geosyntec’s work on the Aleutian Islands: Long Forgotten, Far From Gone
Learn about remediation experience: For Geosyntec, No Fieldwork is Too Remote or Challenging
Learn about the unique nature of risk assessments in Alaska: Marianne Batchelder Discusses the Unique Nature of Risk Assessments in Alaska