CTEH Responds to Growing Demand in Wildfire Recovery & Toxicology

Wildfire response and recovery is a growing focus at CTEH, the disaster and environmental consultancy based in North Little Rock. (Provided)

CTEH, the North Little Rock disaster response and recovery consultancy, has a new president, a new headquarters in sight and a new business specialty spawned in the scorched earth of the American West.

The firm, founded by toxicologists in 1997, has diversified in an era of frequent major storms and relentless wildfires, new President Chase Selby told Arkansas Business recently.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind,” Selby said in a Jan. 30 interview. “We’ve been extremely busy over the last couple of years, and especially over the last couple weeks and months. Obviously with the wildfires, our disaster recovery business has been going crazy, as well as our toxicology, health sciences and public health business. But I’ve been enjoying the new position.”

CTEH helps communities, businesses and governments cope with some of the worst days of their lives. Hurricanes, fires, toxic train derailments, infectious disease outbreaks — name the disaster, and CTEH has probably dealt with it. From the 9/11 attacks to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion to the East Palestine train crash in Ohio, CTEH’s toxicologists, engineers and environmental scientists responded.

But increasingly these days, wildfires are driving the action.

“In 2023, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee estimated the annual cost of wildfires in the U.S. to be $390 billion to $890 billion,” Selby said. “Those aren’t just real estate damages or health care impacts from wildfire smoke. Timber  is a very giant and important industry in the U.S., and there are immense watershed and wetlands impacts.

“Compare that to hurricanes, where annual damages are estimated at $70 billion to $500 billion per year,” Selby continued. “Hurricanes are much more simple, when it comes to scientific complexities. When a hurricane hits and then leaves, you walk out your house, you look around and see what’s damaged, and the damage probably isn’t going to get worse.”

In contrast, the visible devastation from wildfires barely scratches the surface, Selby said.

A Deep Scorching

“When the wildfires are out, or at least contained, a lot of people think, OK, we can start recovering,” Selby said. But it’s not so simple. “In wildfire-impacted areas, flash flooding, landslides, mudslides and damage to waterways and infrastructure increase exponentially.”

An “atmospheric river event or even just a really hard rain” after a Western wildfire can cause runoff that picks up debris in the hills and dumps it in waterways below. “The wildfire and the flooding afterward damages water intake infrastructure,” threatening water supplies, Selby said. “That’s happening all over the U.S. right now.”

In one major project, CTEH is helping south-central New Mexico recover from two weeks of wildfires followed by flash flooding and mudslides in June.

Sooty black floodwaters spilled down canyons into the city of Ruidoso, overturning a fuel tanker and wrecking infrastructure.

“It’s a mistake to think of flash flooding or debris flow after the fact as a footnote, instead of a big part of the fire itself,” Professor Don Falk told The New York Times. Falk, an expert in natural resources and fire ecology at the University of Arizona at Tucson, said the mudslides “can be more destructive and cause more loss of life than the fire.”

And the scars run deep, Selby said. “When a hurricane hits, it usually doesn’t cause a lot of subsurface damage. But when a wildfire comparable in intensity to what we’ve seen on the West Coast hits, you can have 13 feet of subsurface damage. You may have to dig up 13 feet of soil to replace all the subsurface infrastructure before you can even think about rebuilding homes and businesses.”

Ash poses a health risk, heavy metals may be blowing in the wind, “and there’s certainly the possibility of a lot of asbestos being in the air,” Selby said. “The health and safety aspects are significant.”

Keeping People Safe

That’s where CTEH’s responders come in. “We deploy in the first wave of recovery experts, with people working for the city, the state, the EPA, the Forest Service, FEMA, or any other federal agency,” Selby said.

“We want to keep their people safe, make sure the air they’re breathing is safe, and that they’re wearing appropriate protective gear.”

CTEH employees also hit the ground to assess long-term recovery steps. “What are the threats to the environment over a 10-year recovery?” Selby said. “What are the threats to private industry and to people?

“We may be helping run a housing mission for FEMA or HUD or the state, and they can rely on our data systems, which have become a bigger and bigger part of our business.”

The company is now looking to fill fire safety engineer openings, among other positions.

CTEH’s technology group has always been key to CTEH’s data-driven work. “No science gets done if you can’t collect data,” Selby said. “But our data management group used to be a support function for our emergency response team. But now it’s grown into its own marketable business line, developing software and robotics for a host of industries and clients.”

The tech group’s evolution mirrors an overall shift for CTEH, which in the beginning mainly responded to chemical derailments.

“A group of toxicologists started the company to respond to emergencies, principally in the railroad industry,” Selby said.

The railroad that is now Union Pacific has long had a major presence in North Little Rock, and that influenced where CTEH’s founding toxicologists placed the business. In those days, CTEH stood for Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health.

The company soon grew its response business to deal with all kinds of industrial emergencies.

Evolution Since 2017

“We expanded into oil and gas emergencies, refining accidents, pipeline leaks, chemical businesses and all sorts of hazardous material transport,” Selby said. “That has continued to grow, and it’s still a significant part of our business. But we’ve taken that mindset of helping people overcome problems to various other areas. And in 2017, we really undertook a large-scale effort to transform and diversify our business.”

Disaster recovery, beyond the initial response, led the way, followed by a government services function. “Working for governments requires being a little bit different in contracting and things like that, but we’ve adjusted,” Selby said.

Toxicology services eventually developed a new public health practice.

“These folks are doing a lot of amazing work, a lot of public policy development and a lot of science is behind emerging policy, particularly in the expansion of the energy sector,” Selby said. Environmental justice concerns became important in toxicological testing, particularly in the West, as energy sector projects expanded.

“It’s been a pretty big change since I started here in 2008, and particularly since 2017,” he said. “We get to solve big, messy problems. And that’s exciting for any young scientist.”

Selby has been working toward the company presidency since he and his partners, including Paul Nony, CTEH’s principal toxicologist and senior vice president, agreed to sell CTEH to publicly traded Montrose Environmental Group in 2020.

Montrose, which paid about $243 million in cash, common stock and other considerations in the deal, later moved its headquarters to CTEH’s campus at 5120 North Shore Drive. Conditions quickly grew crowded in CTEH’s two main buildings, which now house about 110 employees, Selby said.

“When Montrose purchased CTEH, part of the agreement was that they were going to relocate their headquarters here,” Selby said. The COVID pandemic delayed the move, but Montrose employees have steadily poured in.

“We’ve been out of space for quite a while, frankly,” Selby said. In 2024, he got approval to break ground on a new 25,000- to 30,000-SF building adjacent to current operations. He expects to be announcing a groundbreaking, and other details about the project, within weeks.

“We’ve obviously had tremendous growth over the last few years, but Montrose has had growth as well, and as we look at the expanding business and international business we’re doing, it’s more important that we start to bring together executive functions here in Arkansas.”

Montrose, which has nearly 3,500 employees at more than 100 offices worldwide, has traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2020.

“It’s great for Montrose to be headquartered in Arkansas,” Selby said. “I’m a self-described evangelist for Arkansas, born in Saline County and a resident here all my life. I think it’s full of great people, great businesses, and is a good place to live and raise a family. The beauty and affordability make attracting staff to Arkansas truly amazing.”