MACTEC DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE MONITORING PROGRAM FOR UCSD

SAN DIEGO, CA, March 8, 2006 - MACTEC Engineering & Consulting (MACTEC E&C) is developing an extensive management and monitoring program for the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Bruce C. Coles, president of MACTEC E&C and chairman & CEO of MACTEC, Inc., the holding company (www.mactec.com) - made the announcement.

The Scripps Institution, located in La Jolla, just north of San Diego, is world-renowned in ocean research. According to MACTEC Senior Engineer Nathan Schaedler, who is supervising the project, the monitoring program includes assessing the condition of the receiving water, an enhanced stormwater management plan, and engineering and management solutions to eliminate or mitigate industrial, dry and wet weather discharges.

The California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has designated 31 areas of special biological significance (ASBSs), which comprises about a third of the state's coastline and includes the San Diego Marine Life Refuge. Scripps was granted a discharge prohibition exception in July 2004 for discharging wet and dry weather discharges into the Refuge; a series of conditions were imposed, however, to allow this. Some of these conditions include the elimination of all dry weather discharges by 2007, bioaccumulation and benthic marine life studies, and the implementation of innovative Best Management Practices (BMPs) to ensure annual improvements in receiving water quality. MACTEC is now working in conjunction with state and federal regulatory and environmental stakeholders to implement many of these conditions.

"We will also be working with UCSD to conduct educational and training programs and help design and oversee the construction of treatment BMPs and dry weather diversions to protect the Marine Life Refuge," Schaedler said. "The program developed by MACTEC and UCSD will become a model for similar types of programs that will help ensure the preservation of other ASBSs."

MACTEC, based in Alpharetta, GA, is a $436 million environmental, engineering, construction management, and infrastructure services firm with 3,000 employees in over 100 offices nationwide. The firm has operated in San Diego since 1987, serving a wide variety of public and private sector clients.

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