Idaho-based firm celebrates five years
A helicopter with Alta staff leaves from Kellogg's office to take off and sample water and soil for a United States Forest Service abandoned mine project.
Courtesy photo
KELLOGG — Some of the most important work often goes under the radar.
Local Idaho-based firm Alta Science and Engineering recently celebrated its five-year anniversary as an Idaho-based business, working with and supporting some of Idaho’s largest and most historic environmental projects.
Founded in 2017 through a corporate spinoff, Alta currently has Kellogg, Moscow, Boise and Spokane offices. The firm has supported projects, including the Bunker Hill Superfund Site, which deals with the heavy metal contamination from mining and milling operations.
Alta does not just work on larger-scale projects; they are also dedicated to healthy communities, completing more than 100 projects protecting human health and the quality of Idaho’s air, land and water.
Alta CEO Derek Forseth explained to the News-Press that Alta is proud to be involved in all levels of the environmental cleanup, community infrastructure, and environmental restoration work throughout the Silver Valley, Coeur d’Alene Basin and North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.
“We have hit on abandoned mine sites, human health risk and intervention as part of that cleanup. The repository work, and ecological work that is taking hold now. That is a special place, working on the ecology of the Silver Valley. Really the whole basin as it connects to the lake. That’s the next generation of where we are headed.”
The firm has worked on large-scale projects like the Bunker Hill Superfund Site or the Portland Harbor Superfund Site, and also worked on a local level with state government partners.
“A lot of the work is in Idaho, but we are also stretching from the Canadian border, right down to Clark County, Nev. It’s really neat to be able to work at different scales, and tackle different projects throughout the Inland Northwest,” Forseth said.
The company was recently recognized by The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) for two projects at the 2022 Engineering Excellence Awards. The Government Gulch Limited Use Repository Project received honorable mention, and the Stormwater Controls Project Protecting Human Health Remedy in the Upper Coeur d’Alene Basin was awarded first place.
Among their services, Alta specializes in contaminated land redevelopment, civil engineering, environmental engineering, water resources, natural systems restoration, and mine reclamation and fire mitigation.
“For a small Idaho business of about 40 people, that’s pretty great. We’re proud of that impact.”
For more information about Alta, visit http://www.alta-se.com/.