Our History

Great Lakes Environmental Center, Inc. (GLEC) is an established national contracting firm offering applied environmental sciences, research, and compliance assistance focused on water quality and the protection of aquatic ecosystems. GLEC has grown steadily in each year of its existence, delivering services and solutions to government and commercial clients throughout North America. The dedicated employee-owners at GLEC often set the standard in their respective fields by consistently applying our core philosophies of scientific excellence, corporate responsibility, environmental stewardship, and dedication to fulfilling client needs. Our unique experience serving both regulatory agencies and the regulated community translates into viable, insightful, and creative solutions to complex environmental challenges.

GLEC has diverse capabilities focused on technical assistance, environmental problem solving and compliance assistance in the areas of aquatic and sediment toxicology; environmental surveys and assessments; ecological risk assessments; non-point source pollution evaluations; environmental chemistry; water quality and bioaccumulation modeling; and bioconcentration/bioaccumulation.

Originally formed in 1982 as the Water Quality Division of Battelle Memorial Institute, the company was purchased by its employees in 1992 to form GLEC. GLEC currently employs over 60 associates in our Traverse City, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio laboratories along with staff in Wisconsin and Farmington Hills, Michigan. GLEC associates hold academic degrees in many fields, including biology, botany, chemistry, aquatic toxicology, engineering, entomology, fisheries biology, environmental sciences, geology, statistics, economics, and business. The average individual experience level is 15 years with some senior researchers having over 35 years experience. Almost half of our associates hold post-graduate degrees and are widely published in their respective fields. GLEC laboratory and office facilities occupy 13,700 sq.ft. with operations supported by analytical equipment and secure server-based information systems. Our aquatic toxicology laboratories are fully equipped to perform static and flow-through toxicity evaluations of industry products, whole sediment, sediment elutriate, sediment pore-water and sediment/tissue chemistry. An additional modular space of 2,500 sq. ft. is available to clients for specialized research experiments or project materials. GLEC owns and operates an extensive list of field survey equipment, including electrofishing boats, sediment core samplers, Hydrolabs, and survey devices.


Great Lakes Environmental Center, Inc. is incorporated in the State of Michigan. GLEC is active in the following NAICS industry categories and currently meets SBA requirements as a small business under all categories:

541620 Environmental Consulting Services
541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
541690 Other Scientific Consulting Services
541380 Testing Laboratories
541330 Engineering Services
541370 Surveying and Mapping  Services
562910 Environmental Remediation Services
541715 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, And Life Sciences 

Great Lakes Environmental Center

739 Hastings Street
Traverse City, MI   49686

Phone: (231) 941-2230
Fax: (231) 941-2240