Marilyn Schwartz O’Neill, Muir ’90, knows her water. As the founder and CEO of Nautilus Environmental, an environmental consulting and testing firm, she works with commercial, federal and municipal clients designing and implementing water column and sediment ecological and toxicological evaluations, and making sure they are compliant with state environmental regulations.

In only a few years, Nautilus Environmental has grown rapidly and now has 38 employees at locations in San Diego, Tacoma, Wash., and a sister firm in British Columbia. Their major clients range from UC San Diego and UC Davis to the Port of Long Beach, to Chevron and ExxonMobil.

On the eve of Nautilus’s third anniversary, it won a $1.2 million contract with the Port of Los Angeles, bringing U.S. annual revenues to $2.3 million. With three offices along North America’s Pacific Rim, their scientists are able to go into the field to collect live samples of freshwater and marine ecosystems and then quickly return to the lab for testing.

Given the company’s particular specialization, O’Neill believes it is important to provide outreach to regulators and the regulatory community. The company offers toxicology testing training courses so that clients can better understand the details of their permit requirements.

— Neda Oreizy, ’08.

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