Company History

Sevenson Environmental Services, Inc.’s roots go back to 1917 when architect Albert Elia of Niagara Falls, New York, founded a general
construction business.

In the 1940s, Elia’s four sons joined and incorporated the business as the Albert Elia Building Company, Inc. While the company initially specialized in residential building construction, in the early 1950s it expanded into industrial, institutional, and heavy civil construction work.

The Albert Elia Building Company, Inc., grew to become one of upstate New York’s largest general contractors. In the 1970s, the third generation of the Elia family joined the company and, in 1982, acquired the business from their fathers and renamed it Sevenson Construction Corp. Six years later, to reflect the company’s transition to a full-service environmental cleanup contractor, the company’s name was again changed to Sevenson Environmental Services, Inc.

In 1979 the Albert Elia Building Co., Inc. received the first of a series of contracts led by the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation for cleanup work at Love Canal. The company’s success at Love Canal led to other major environmental remediation projects. In the 1980s, the company, which was then operating under the Sevenson name, built a national reputation for competence and success in environmental remediation. Today, with the fourth generation actively involved, Sevenson is one of the country’s most respected and accomplished environmental cleanup contractors, having completed more than 1,500 remediation projects with a total contract value of over $5.3 billion.