Weavertown Environmental expanding operations to Texas
A company that originated in Washington County three decades ago with longtime ties to the energy industry is expanding its operations to serve oil and gas and power generation operations in Houston, Texas.
Dawn Fuchs, chief executive officer of Weavertown Environmental Group, confirmed the company’s plans earlier this month.
It may also be the first instance of a homegrown company that honed its capabilities as an energy supply chain company here taking its service offerings to an outside energy center.
The 32-year-old company was founded by Fuchs’s father, Donald Fuchs, as Weavertown Trucking, and his first job was hauling a refractory to help oil well producers in Ohio increase production.
Over the years, WEG evolved to provide a variety of services to numerous industries, including being one of the first on scene to provide spill cleanups when trucks overturn on area highways or simply to help right a truck, salvage its cargo and get it on the road again. Other industrial services include engineering, site remediation, air quality services and storage tank management.
As the natural gas drilling industry in the Marcellus Shale took hold here several years ago, WEG and its subsidiaries evolved again, handling water hauling to drill sites, emergency services and safety training.
The company moved its corporate headquarters to Carnegie several years ago after it purchased Petroclean, another environmental services company, but continues to maintain about 50 percent of its business operations in Washington County.
As for the expansion move to Houston, Texas, Fuchs said WEG is taking the oil and gas experience it has gained over the years and deploying it in a new market.
“Weavertown primarily works in the petroleum space and in the Marcellus natural gas, so to go to Texas for oil and gas and petroleum refineries and power plants, we believe we’re taking a leap of faith in something we’ve thought about for a long time,” she said.
But beyond having faith in her company’s work, Fuchs also believes in an axiom about companies never standing still.
“If you’re not going, then you’re not going forward,” she said.
She said WEG has already hired some personnel for the Houston operation and is currently looking for space there.
“We should be fully operational within the next six months with equipment and staff.”
She noted that while Weavertown is headquartered in Western Pennsylvania, where it is one of the largest environmental services companies and has its major operations here, it’s also no stranger to satellite operations. Three years ago, it opened an office in Williamsport to provide services to working in the Marcellus Shale in the northern part of Pennsylvania.
Outside of the Marcellus region, WEG also provides its services through regional offices in East Liverpool, Ohio, for barge and rail car cleaning services; Canonsburg, Ky., where it serves the refining industry; and the Akron/Canton, Ohio, area where it serves industrial clients.
She said the company hasn’t ruled out other shale plays around the country, including North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, as future possibilities for setting up branch operations.
Fuchs, whose company now employs between 180 and 200 people, said WEG continues to hire locally.
“We believe there’s a workforce shortage of people to work in environmental services,” she said, adding that the company hires both high school and college graduates to work in the technical and field services areas.