EMR Inc., a Lawrence engineering firm, monitors safety in oil spill cleanup

Workers powerwash oil from the side of a ship in a decontamination area at Port Fourchon, La., one of more than 20 such locations where workers from Lawrence-based EMR Inc. are serving as safety observers. Tom Patnode, a principal with the firm, took this photo Saturday. EMR plans to be on the job for months, ensuring that cleanup workers are doing their jobs safely.

A Lawrence-based engineering firm is busy helping a multinational petroleum company clean up — safely — after one of the world’s largest and ongoing oil spills.

EMR Inc., 3200 Haskell Ave., is providing dozens of safety monitors to observe and advise hundreds of workers who are struggling to contain, clean up after and otherwise deal with massive amounts of oil spewing daily from an underwater well that’s been leaking since an explosion April 20.

“It’s a big responsibility, and we’re real serious about it,” said Connie Cook, co-owner and CEO of EMR, as she shuttled between work sites this week along the Alabama coast. “This isn’t a vacation. BP had 11 fatalities that started with this incident. They don’t want any more.

“It’s a great responsibility, but we hope that what we do is helping these other folks get their jobs done and find a solution.”

As of Tuesday, EMR had dispatched some 180 workers — some from Lawrence, others from regional offices and still more hired specifically for the job or assigned by subcontractors — across 21 sites along the Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Florida.

Their task: Provide qualified, informed and specific recommendations and enforcement services regarding work-safety rules and practices for workers in the Gulf. For now, the company’s role is limited to monitoring workers who are cleaning up beaches and deploying containment booms near the shore.

But Cook is confident that as the disaster widens, her firm’s responsibilities will continue to grow. Right now EMR is working for a contractor hired by BP, but the Lawrence firm eventually could expand into water and soil sampling, along with other tasks.

First in, last out

“It’s going to be a very long time,” said Cook, whose husband, Mike, an EMR executive vice president, expects EMR to be on the job for 18 months. “We’re making a long-term commitment to this. The safety people will be the first in and the last out.”

EMR’s role in such responses has been expanding since Hurricane Katrina. Back then, the firm was responsible for cleaning out storm basins in New Orleans, using 200 “supersucker” trucks brought in from across the country.

The work generated $12 million in revenue for EMR in four months and secured the firm contacts that are helping lead to more work today.

“A network of small businesses can be every bit as effective as a large business,” said Cook, whose company moved to Lawrence in 1989 to be closer to its initial railway clients. “We’re seeing a lot of coalitions of small businesses working together.”

Barclay Hagen, a program coordinator at the Lawrence office, describes the works as both exciting and exhausting. Tabulating workers’ service on the new contract has her at her desk for 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

No reservations

Good thing the firm’s latest big job — serving as general contractor on construction of a $7.5 million Hampton Inn in New Iberia, La. — wrapped up Tuesday.

“It’s been chaotic, but in a good way,” Hagen said.

As employees in Lawrence crunch numbers and process paperwork, EMR workers in the field are busy working 12-hour days, seven days a week, to ensure that safety remains job one. Among the most common injuries suffered by cleanup workers and observed by EMR and their contract personnel: cuts on hands. Other workers suffer from heat exhaustion, or have been hurt slipping on the decks of boats.

Cook said she was pleased that EMR had the experience, expertise and resources to help workers clean up the mess caused by the leaking oil. And while it offers a good business opportunity, she would prefer that the well get capped as soon as possible. An attempt last week failed.

“Every disaster opens up opportunities,” she said, careful to emphasize that the sooner the oil is contained, the better for all. “I was so disappointed that the cap didn’t work. Our nation doesn’t need any more disasters.”