Our History

Pacific West Founded

Jay Harwood, the founder of Pacific West, was approached by Union Pacific Railroad (UP) to help find a solution for the disposal of 30k tons of petroleum-contaminated soil (PCS) at UP’s Portola, CA, rail yard. Working with CA regulators and the UP Environmental Management Group, Harwood helped develop a successful method to recycle PCS into road building materials, resulting in referrals, including Southern Pacific Railroad. Our customer base soon expanded to include Rocky Mountain Power, the Idaho Nuclear Laboratory, Chevron, Conoco/Phillis, and recently, BNSF Railway. 

Emergency Response

We began to provide emergency response crews to UT, ID, WY, NV, MT, and CO clients for clean-up of hazardous materials and non-hazardous spills, which continues today. Each employee is specifically trained and certified in all aspects of environmental remediation services, including:

  • Confined space entry
  • Federal Railroad Administration Roadway Worker Protection
  • First Aid, CPR
  • Mining Safety & Health Administration Training
  • OSHA 40-hour training and yearly updates
  • Respirator protection and FIT test
  • UP Railroad On-Track Safety Training

General Contracting

We entered the general contracting arena to complement our environmental and emergency response work and to provide a growth platform. We target projects involving construction disciplines that utilize the same type of equipment used in our environmental operations to create synergies resulting in good equipment utilization. Since 2006 all Pacific West employees have received personal background investigations as part of UP’s Homeland Security Policy; anyone not passing is not hired.

Union Pacific Services

Union Pacific Railroad requested us to provide emergency response services. Since then, our clientele has expanded to include Rocky Mountain Power’s Distribution Division and their Power Generation Division, BNSF Railway, Western Petroleum, Utah Railway, Big West Oil, Holly Refining, LMH Environmental, Chevron Pipeline Services, and more. We provide 24/7/365 coverage. Most clients require diesel fuel, gasoline, and transformer oil spill cleanup and remediation. We also offer cleanup of acids, glycol, lime, oils laden with PCBs, soil laden with asbestos, lead, arsenic, asphalt cement, and heavy oils, such as “bunker C” in our service regions (UT, southern ID, WY, western CO, NV, MT). 

Merged with Eagle, Hawkke & Overley’s

In an effort to grow our service base and geographical reach, we pursued and successfully merged in three new companies. We merged with Eagle Remediation & Demolition in December of 2022 and then Hawkke and Overleys in July of 2023. All three companies were leading providers in their areas of expertise and geographical regions. Founded in 1959 and headquartered in Gilbert, AZ, Overley’s is focused on serving the needs of utilities, industrial manufacturers, municipalities and numerous other customers by providing environmental waste management services to multiple end markets. Hawkke was founded in 2022 and provides environmental remediation and infrastructure construction services to the engineering consulting, municipal and utility industries.

Safety Then and Now

We take the health and safety of the public, our clients, personnel, and subcontractors’ personnel very seriously. We are committed to our comprehensive Corporate Health & Safety Program, which applies to all operations within the company and meets or exceeds all regulatory requirements. We are the recipient of the Charles A. Caine Award for Workplace Safety by the Workers Compensation Fund of Utah for “outstanding safety achievement over a three-year period.” Every project has a site-specific health and safety plan with:

All managers, engineers, supervisors, and on-site technicians have a 40-hour safety training and annual refresher training in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.120, which includes topics such as:

  • Emergency procedures and contact telephone numbers
  • Engineering controls, first aid, CPR training, and general safety
  • Hands-on instruction during the training course
  • Hazardous materials, potential health hazards, respiratory protection, decontamination procedures, PPE to be used, confined-space entry protocols
  • Mandatory drug and alcohol testing program (outstanding workplace safety record)
  • Monitoring and instrumentations
  • Union Pacific Railroad “On-Track Safety Training” and FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) training annually (all employees)

As a full-service engineering and general contractor engaged in the areas of heavy-highway, civil, building, and mechanical construction for public and private sectors, we continue to earn a strong, positive reputation from our clients. We procure projects through competitive bidding and negotiation. We adhere to and have expertise in Construction Disciplines.