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History in the making

  1980
  • Founded on Oct. 25 by CH2M HILL to meet the operations and maintenance needs of its water and wastewater customers.
1982
  • Awarded first full-contract operations and maintenance (O&M) contract – managing the City of Lebanon, Ore.’s wastewater treatment plant – a facility we continue to manage today.
1991
  • Following the Gulf War, repaired the damage to, restarted and managed Kuwait’s three largest wastewater plants. Nearly 800 OMI employees worked on this $33 million, 16-month contract.
1992
  • Expanded contract in Hinesville, Ga., to include complete public works,  such as parks, grounds, street maintenance and cemetery maintenance.
1993
  • Moved headquarters from Kingwood, Texas, to Colorado, the headquarters location of CH2M HILL.
1995
  • Expanded service focus to include the operations and maintenance of industrial facilities, partnering with customers like DuPont.
1996
  • Reached 1,000 employees.
  • Earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National O&M Excellence Award (second place) for our operation in Georgetown, Texas.
  • Earned the U.S. EPA’s National Pretreatment Program Excellence Award (second place) for our operation in Traverse City, Mich.
1997
  • Earned the U.S. EPA’s National Beneficial Use of Biosolids Award (honorable mention) for our land application project in DeKalb County, Ga.
1998
  • Reached $100 million in revenue.
  • Signed agreement with the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee and the U.S. Department of Energy to manage utility systems and infrastructure at a technology park in Oak Ridge, furthering CROET’s and DOE’s goal of reindustrializing the former federal facility.
  • Earned the U.S. EPA’s National Excellence in Industrial Pretreatment, Category II (less than 20 users) for our operation in Fayetteville, Ark.
2000
  • Earned the most prestigious award in American business, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
  • Earned the U.S. EPA’s Beneficial Use of Biosolids Award (second place, less than 5 dry tons per day) for our land application project in DeKalb County, Ga.
  • Earned the U.S. EPA’s National O&M Excellence Award (large non-discharging plant) for our wastewater treatment plant operation in Dodge City, Kan.
  • Earned the U.S. EPA’s National O&M Excellence Award (small non-discharging facility) for our wastewater treatment plant operation in Vienna, Ga.
2001
  • Earned the U.S. EPA’s National Biosolids Exemplary Management Award (first place) for our wastewater plant management project in Gresham, Ore.
  • New Jersey employees responded to 9/11 by driving trucks of bottled water to Ground Zero and distributing them to firefighters and other rescue workers. They were quickly recruited to run heavy equipment to help in the search for survivors, and our trucks were used to help remove remains.
2002
  • Fluid Dynamics, a four-person CH2M HILL OMI-led team from Richmond, Va., captured the national title in the Water Environment Federation’s Operations Challenge.
  • CH2M HILL OMI and the city of Hinesville, Ga., won a Public-Private Partnership Award from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships for our public works partnership.
  • CH2M HILL OMI and the city of Grants, N.M., won a Public-Private Partnership Award from NCPPP for parks and grounds maintenance
  • For the second year in a row, a CH2M HILL OMI Oregon project – this time Hood River – earned the U.S. EPA’s National Biosolids Exemplary Management Award (first place).
2003
  • Fluid Dynamics recaptured the national title in the Water Environment Federation’s Operations Challenge, and members of the same team captured the 2-person Operations Challenge title.
  • OMI operations in Live Oak, Fla., won the Public-Private Partnership Award from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships.
  • OMI operations in Twin Falls, Idaho, won Biosolids Management Excellence Awards Program (second place) from U.S. EPA.
2004
  • Thousands of tsunami survivors in Indonesia’s hardest-hit region received safe drinking water, thanks to a treatment facility donated by GE and operated pro-bono by CH2M HILL.
  • CH2M HILL OMI and Mayor Bob Young of Augusta, Ga., accepted the Outstanding Achievement in Public-Private Partnership Award from The U.S. Conference of Mayors for our wastewater O&M partnership.
2005
  • Awarded landmark contract to manage all major municipal service functions except police, fire and 911 for the new City of Sandy Springs, Ga. – the broadest outsourcing of municipal functions in the U.S.
  • CH2M HILL OMI and the City of Live Oak, Fla., earned the Public-Private Partnership Award from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships.
  • Celebrated our 25th anniversary of successful partnerships and progress.
2006
  • Added CH2M HILL’s name to ours to become CH2M HILL OMI, more clearly demonstrating to customers the broad consulting, program management, engineering, construction and operations capabilities we offer.
  • Earned two NCPPP awards: for the design, construction and operation of Seattle’s Cedar water treatment facility, and for our landmark municipal services partnership with Sandy Springs, Ga.
  • Two new cities selected us for startup and operations services, building on the Sandy Springs model: Milton and Johns Creek, both incorporated Dec. 1.
2007
  • Chattahoochee Hill Country, Georgia’s fourth new city in three years, chose CH2M HILL OMI to help it start up.
  • Named the American Water Works Association Manufacturers/Associates Council’s Gold Winner in the “Best in Advertising Award” in Journal AWWA for the ad we created to announce our name change to CH2M HILL.
  • Celebrated the 25th anniversary of partnership with our first contract O&M client, Lebanon, Ore. In addition, the city voted to extend its contract for wastewater and water system O&M an additional 10 years.
  • The Rio Rancho, N.M., water and wastewater system operated by CH2M HILL earned the New Mexico Environment Department Occupational Health and Safety Bureau’s highest designation for workplace safety – “Zia Star” status in its Voluntary Protection Program.
2008
  • Elisa M. Speranza named president. Mark Lasswell pursues new opportunity at CH2M HILL as the head of the Civil Infrastructure group.

  • The United States Conference of Mayors recognizes the partnership between Johns Creek, Georgia, and CH2M HILL's O&MBG with an Outstanding Achievement in Public-Private Partnership Award.

  • The City of Central, Louisiana, signed on for a full range of municipal services, delivered by CH2M HILL's O&MBG.

  • Centennial, Colorado chose CH2M HILL's O&MBG as its partner for public works services, believed to be among the largest conversions from county services to a private sector contract in the country.

  • Bonita Springs, Florida, selected CH2M HILL's O&MBG to deliver community development services.

  • American City & County magazine selected Sandy Springs, Georgia, Public Works Director Angelia Parham, employed by the O&MBG, as its 2008 "Public Works Director of the Year," recognizing her outstanding leadership in public works.

  • The City of Castle Pines North, Colorado, selected CH2M HILL's O&MBG to deliver a range of municiple services.

  • Steve Meininger was selected to head Project Delivery, and Scott haskins was selected to head the O&MBG's new Technology, Quality & Innovation group.
2009
  • Fayetteville, Arkansas, and CH2M HILL's O&MBG earned national recognition from the U.S. Conference of Mayors with a Public-Private Partnership Award.

  • Elisa M. Speranza selected to head Water For People board.

  • CH2M HILL's OMI group and its Facilities Services Group merge to become known internally as the Operations & Maintenance Business Group, or O&MBG. Because of this, CH2M HILL drops the "OMI" portion of the name to become known as CH2M HILL to external clients.

  • Reached 2,200 employees.
2010
  • The public works partnership between the city of Centennial, Colo., and CH2M HILL earns the following accolades:
    • Innovative Customer Service Call Center Award from the Colorado chapter of the American Public Works Association
    • Public-Private Partnership Award in the Service Award category from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships
    • Finalist for the 2010 Awards for Municipal Excellence from the National League of Cities
  • Several cities in Georgia sign on with CH2M HILL to help them recover lost revenue
  • The partnership between the City of Sandy Springs, Ga., and CH2M HILL is selected as a runner-up in the Pioneer Institute’s 2010 Better Government Competition Awards
  • The National Safety Council recognized CH2M HILL with its National Safety Achievement Award for Exceptional Safety Performance in the Workplace; the company was one of eight awarded the Corporate Culture of Safety Award, which is given to companies that have achieved more than 50 NSC awards in a year. CH2M HILL received a total of 115 awards – 101 of those were earned by the Operations & Maintenance Business Group.