EBI News for October 23, 2025 – EA instrumental in landmark PFAS incineration study
EBI News for October 23, 2025 – The following news section contains the latest stories for the environmental industry. Including, EA instrumental in landmark PFAS incineration study, acquisitions, and more!
Verdantas acquires Colibri Ecological Consulting in California
Verdantas (Tampa, Fla.), a provider of digitally enabled technical consulting solutions for the environment, water, and energy transition markets and a portfolio company of Sterling Investment Partners, has acquired Colibri Ecological Consulting LLC (Fresno, Calif.). Colibri has expertise in ecological planning, regulatory permitting, and field surveys; it serves a diverse client base throughout California, including public agencies, private entities, and utility companies. Colibri’s addition marks a strategic expansion for Verdantas in the western United States and “brings deep knowledge of California’s Central Valley, a region experiencing continued growth,” Verdantas stated. James Soldano, managing partner at Sterling Investment Partners, commented, “We are excited to support Verdantas in this strategic partnership. Colibri’s expertise strengthens Verdantas’ platform, positioning the company to capture continued growth in the environmental consulting sector.” Financial advisory services for Colibri were provided by 2020 Environmental Group.
Jacobs launches cloud-based modeling platform
Jacobs (Dallas) has introduced Flood Platform, a cloud-hosted hub for advanced flood modeling that supports planning and delivery of flood infrastructure programs worldwide. Leveraging Jacobs’ capabilities in digital solutions, cloud integration, cybersecurity, data management and artificial intelligence, the platform standardizes how users manage, view and analyze flood-related data. Flood Platform was originally developed by Jacobs for internal use and has supported project delivery for more than 15 years. In response to client needs, Jacobs refined and expanded its capabilities, and Flood Platform is now available as a subscription service worldwide.
Carbon offsets have failed for 25 years, review concludes
Academics at the University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania have conducted a comprehensive literature review of carbon offsetting and concluded the practice is ineffective and riddled with “intractable” problems. The authors call for phasing out most credits except those generated by permanent carbon dioxide removal (CDR). “We must stop expecting carbon offsetting to work at scale. We have assessed 25 years of evidence and almost everything up until this point has failed,” said co-author Dr. Stephen Lezak, researcher at Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. “The present market failures are not due to a few bad apples but rather to systematic, deep-seated problems which will not be resolved by incremental changes.” The authors concluded that going forward, all offset markets should prioritize high-integrity, durable CDR and storage with long-term measurement and verification, while recognizing that effective and scalable CDR may not be possible. Findings were published in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources.
EA instrumental in landmark PFAS incineration study
EA Engineering, Science, and Technology Inc. PBC (Hunt Valley, Md.) announced it was a key contributor to the recent study that led to publication of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) comprehensive report, PFAS Destruction by a Hazardous Waste Incinerator: Testing Results. Conducted at the Clean Harbors Environmental Services hazardous waste incinerator facility in Aragonite, Utah, the study was conducted in collaboration with the EPA Office of Research and Development, the Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, and a multidisciplinary team. EA described playing a leading role in the planning, execution, and interpretation of the study. The study featured comprehensive mass balance calculations, process monitoring, and emissions sampling to ensure data quality and transparency. In addition to supporting test execution, EA’s technical team conducted detailed data evaluation and calculations to ensure that results fully reflected the study’s findings.
MiTAC announces strategic partnership with Tonomia for AI infrastructure powered by renewable energy
MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation, a server platform designer and manufacturer based in Taiwan, has signed an MOU with Tonomia, a Belgian innovator in renewable energy solutions for distributed AI. The MOU was signed in San Francisco during the recent Belgian Economic Mission to the West Coast. The agreement brings together MiTAC’s advanced GPU server technology and Tonomia’s renewable energy solutions to enable low-carbon, high-performance AI clusters for global enterprises. According to MiTAC, Tonomia’s modular approach spans solar carports, on-site battery storage, and distributed AI infrastructure, turning underused parking lots into clean energy hubs for electric vehicles and AI datacenter workloads. This integrated model not only generates green energy but also uses waste heat to increase site efficiency and benefits building owners and operators with optimized grid support.
Ramboll and TeraWulf to turn coal-fired power plant site into low-carbon digital hub
Ramboll (Copenhagen, Denmark) announced that it has secured a pivotal role in the redevelopment of TeraWulf’s Lake Mariner data center campus in western New York. Ramboll will partner with TeraWulf (Easton, Md.) to deliver comprehensive services for one of the nation’s largest AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data center projects. Ramboll will help transform a retired coal-fired power plant into a low-carbon AI and HPC hub. “The Lake Mariner campus will become one of the largest low carbon data center developments in the U.S., and Ramboll’s role as a core delivery partner positions us at the forefront of this growth,” said Brian Whelan, director of data center facilities for Ramboll Americas. “It’s an extraordinary opportunity to help shape the digital economy while repurposing legacy energy infrastructure for a sustainable future.”
New alliance aims to accelerate direct lithium extraction
Kurita Water Industries of Japan and Evove in the UK announced an alliance in direct lithium extraction (DLE), combining Evove’s patented DLE technologies and process with Kurita’s modular system engineering and manufacturing. Volatile markets dominated by China and increasing environmental concerns have slowed down and even halted supplies from conventional sources such as mining and salt lake evaporation, creating a potential supply gap of 2-3 million tonnes of lithium, according to Evove, which believes the answer to fuelling the energy transition lies with DLE because it efficiently extracts lithium from the salty waters of geothermal boreholes, aquifers and the produced water from oil and gas fields. “DLE has a lower environmental footprint, is quicker to deploy and can provide transformational unit economics,” Evove stated. As part of the alliance, Kurita became Evove’s largest shareholder in October and obtained exclusive global rights to Evove’s DLE technology through the investment.
Entrepreneur hails digital transformation for remediation industry
Dan Herbatschek, CEO of Ramsey Theory Group (Fort Lee, N.J.) and a tech entrepreneur and mathematician, announced a digital transformation initiative for the environmental remediation industry. “Environmental remediation is a mission-critical industry that has historically been underserved by digital innovation,” said Herbatschek. “By combining organizational research with cutting-edge machine learning and user-first design, we’ve built a platform that allows companies to scale with confidence, respond faster, and maintain compliance while increasing profitability.” Herbatschek’s approach consisted of a top-to-bottom organizational assessment followed by the design of a specialized in-house software platform.
Qualus acquires dk Engineering
Qualus Corporation (Orlando, Fla.), a pure-play power solutions firm, has acquired dk Engineering (Walnut Creek, Calif.), a multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm. Dk Engineering partners with utilities and renewable and energy storage developers, offering advisory, planning, engineering, geospatial, modeling, feasibility studies and construction management services for power infrastructure projects in the western United States. “dk’s engineering expertise adds to Qualus’ differentiated capabilities across the project life as we partner with our clients to address their complex power infrastructure challenges,” said Greg Herasymuik, president and CEO of Qualus.
Bering-Weston provides emergency water services in North Carolina
Weston Solutions Inc. (West Chester, Pa.), in partnership with Bering Straits Global Innovations (BSGI, Anchorage, Alaska), is delivering emergency water pre-treatment services to Asheville, N.C. via a treatment plant constructed between November 2024 and January 2025 in direct response to damage caused by Hurricane Helene. Bering-Weston JV LLC was contracted to design and construct a system to provide essential water pre-treatment services at Bee Tree Reservoir, which supplies influent water to the William Debruhl Water Treatment Plant, a crucial component of Asheville’s potable water system. Bering-Weston managed the project through a turnkey process covering design, construction and operations. Initiated under a United States Army Corps of Engineers contract, operations are continuing with a long-term commitment and the flexibility to serve the community’s needs well into the future.
Wetland plant-fungus combo cleans up PFAS
Symbiotic relationships between plants and underground microbes such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are vital for wetland ecosystems. A greenhouse study published in Environmental Science & Technology and reported by the American Chemical Society looked at a combination of moisture-loving yellow flag irises and the fungus Rhizophagus irregularis for their potential to eliminate PFAS. In greenhouse-scale wetland systems watered with PFAS-containing solutions, the AMF-treated plants removed 10-13% more individual PFAS than the control treatment, incorporating more long-chain PFAS than short-chain PFAS into their shoots and roots. They also boosted the breakdown of PFAS into smaller compounds of lower toxicity than the parent compounds. All outflow samples contained PFAS, but those undergoing the fungal treatment had 17-28% less total PFAS. Results indicate that adding AMF, specifically R. irregularis, in constructed wetlands could improve their removal of PFAS, researchers concluded.
WSP completes acquisition of Ricardo
WSP Global Inc. (Montreal, Canada) has completed its previously announced acquisition of Ricardo plc, a global strategic and engineering consultancy firm headquartered in the United Kingdom. Delivering solutions that intersect the transport, energy and environment agendas, Ricardo operates in over 20 countries across Europe, Australia, North America, Asia and the Middle East. In keeping with WSP’s 2025–2027 Global Strategic Action Plan, the acquisition both accelerates growth in advisory, energy transition, water solutions and rail, and strengthens WSP’s presence in key markets such as the UK, Australia and the Netherlands. “We will now focus on integrating our teams and building on our combined strengths,” said Alexandre L’Heureux, president and CEO of WSP.
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