A rain drenched Tuesday, September 15th didn’t deter a large group of folks from turning out for an open house to meet executives of a new business in Alaska and learn about just what Trihydro Corporation will be doing here and why they chose the Kenai Peninsula. Trihydro’s President/CEO Jack Bedessem traveled from the corporate headquarters in Laramie, Wyoming to meet the community and talked with the Dispatch, “Trihydro is an environmental and engineering consulting firm and we provide infrastructure and basic civil engineering services for waste water, roads, sewer and gutter, as well as environmental remediation and corrective action and compliance and permitting,” explained Bedessem. According to Bedessem they have over 400 employees across the U.S. with specialists in air and water quality, “One of the things we specialize in is working with our clients to understand their business objectives as well as the regulations so we can help them comply with them in a manner that also meets their business objectives,” he said.

Trihydro is also on the cutting edge of the emerging UAV (Unmanned Aviation Vehicle) industry Keith Marcott is a geologist and senior vice president for Trihydro, “UAV’s are becoming very popular as a hobby, but you need to distinguish between the hobbyist and the UAV for commercial use. In order to use one commercially you have to have a federal exemption from the FAA and there only I believe some 2,500 that have been issued so far which allows you to use them for commercial purposes and has limitations on their use such as having to have a licensed pilot to fly or be present while the UAV is being flown and puts limitations on how high you can fly it which is generally between 200 to 400feet. The most practical use at this time is in doing things that would otherwise involve risk to human workers such as inspections of high stacks or like in Wyoming windmills are a good example. For mining a topographic survey, it’s quicker but has to be in manual sight of the pilot,” explained Marcott. He says the industry is so new that regulations are still being written but wildlife protection is already a part of the federal exemptions. Trihydro invites anyone seeking more information about their services to contact their headquarters in Wyoming at 714-745-7474 and stop their Soldotna offices at 312 Tyee Street, just behind PCHS and visit with their Alaskan manager Joe McElroy and staff.