By Jason Doré, Assistant Chief Counsel for External Affairs and Director of Information
Following the Office of Advocacy’s Regional Regulatory Reform Roundtable in Casper, Wyoming, the Advocacy team headed south to visit Trihydro, a small engineering and environmental firm headquartered in Laramie to hear about its concerns with federal regulations.
In 1984, Henry Richter and John Ahern, a geologist and a chemist, partnered to found Trihydro. For the first 20 years, Trihydro focused on providing support and environmental remediation services to the oil and gas industry. Trihydro’s team then decided to seek out government work and received its SBA HUBZone certification.
Craig Carlson, Trihydro’s Government Services Business Unit Leader & Vice President, told the Advocacy team of several concerns and issues they encountered as a small business seeking to obtain work as a HUBZone certified small business: bundling of contracts, the Department of Defense scorecard, the lack of utilization of HUBZone companies, and the time it takes for a government agency to award and deliver a contract and payment.
Trihydro also identified the Federal Aviation Administration’s restrictive regulations on small unmanned aerial systems (i.e., drones) as an obstacle to overcome as they utilize these devices to assist their clients with environmental compliance and surveying.
Even with these obstacles from the federal government, Trihydro continues to innovate, develop new technologies, and thrive. Among the services it provides are air quality and process management, engineering and surveying, environmental health and safety, information technology, and water resource management. The company started in rural Wyoming more than 30 years ago now employees 420 people in 20 locations.
Advocacy was in Wyoming and Colorado for Regional Regulatory Reform Roundtables August 7-9.
Can’t get to a roundtable near you? Fill out this form and tell us about your federal regulatory burdens. We will pass this information on to the appropriate agency and use it in the planning of upcoming Regional Regulatory Reform Roundtables.
Jason Doré is Advocacy’s Director of Information/Assistant Chief Counsel for External Affairs. He can be reached at Jason.dore@sba.gov.
Feature photo courtesy of www.trihydro.com