Company Background
ESS was founded by Sudi Shoja, PE, a former City Engineer who has more than 30 years of experience in managing CIP and Water and Sewer programs of over $100 million. She founded ESS in 2012 with the goal of assisting local entities in achieving their goals in funding acquisition and compliance, program management, quality assurance/quality control, and project delivery. She leverages her successful experience with transforming the agencies where she worked from losing funding to securing the maximum grant funding possible, meeting the various funding agency requirements, and serving as examples for successful audit processes. As a result, she has earned a reputation that gained us our impressive repeat client list in a short timeframe. Included below are a few examples:
ESS was founded by Sudi Shoja, PE, a former City Engineer who has more than 30 years of experience in managing CIP and Water and Sewer programs of over $100 million. She founded ESS in 2012 with the goal of assisting local entities in achieving their goals in funding acquisition and compliance, program management, quality assurance/quality control, and project delivery. She leverages her successful experience with transforming the agencies where she worked from losing funding to securing the maximum grant funding possible, meeting the various funding agency requirements, and serving as examples for successful audit processes. As a result, she has earned a reputation that gained us our impressive repeat client list in a short timeframe. Included below are a few examples:
- Currently managing a $50 million Clean Water SRF Wastewater Treatment Plant improvement project on behalf of the City of Richmond, CA.
- Currently managing a $5.0 million Clean water SRF for SCADA Modernization Project on behalf of the City of Carlsbad, CA.
- Currently managing a $3.9 million SWRCB grant for a water transmission line installation project for the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency.
- Currently managing ~$24.3 million SWRCB and FEMA funding for a water transmission line replacement and seismic reservoir seismic retrofit projects for the San Bernardino Municipal Water Department.
- Currently managing $25.2 million SWRCB SRF funding for well rehabilitation, AMI installation, and septic to sewer conversion projects.
- Successful audit of the City of Palm Springs WWTP with over $29.0 million in Clean Water SRF (CWSRF) in 2019 and receiving compliments from SWRCB auditors.
- Ongoing successful funding compliance for a $280 million project in San Bernardino.
- ESS has received award on 95% of its applications to date from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR).
- ESS applications received over 30% of the total awarded funds from Bureau of Reclamation for its clients in March 2022.
- ESS applications received 20% of the total awarded funds from Department of Water Resources for its clients in December 2021.
- The funding application package for $103 million to SWRCB was approved in record time and with no comments.
- Received approval from WIFIA for over $110 million for three projects.
- ESS has obtained approval from CalOES/FEMA for multiple grant applications for seismic retrofit of dam and water reservoirs climate change and sea level rise.
- Qualified the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency for $30 million in Bureau of Reclamation Title XVI grant funding for recycled water expansion projects.
- Prepared successful cogeneration project application for $8 million in funding.
- The SRF application package prepared by ESS for $103 million to SWRCB was approved in record time and with no comments.
- Restructured a grant application for energy efficiency that resulted in more than $5.1 million of grant funding & $32 million in SRF funding for the City of Palm Springs.
- Developed a funding plan for the City of Santa Ana that identified more than $25.0 million in grant funding in water, recycled water, and sewer projects.
- Created a funding strategy for the City of Hemet that resulted in $13.5 million in savings and more than $28 million in funding.
- Successfully awarded $39.2 million in greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction funding.
- ESS arranged for a funding fair attended by State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) & County representatives.
We have secured over $726 million for various agencies in the past twelve years
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ESS is comprised of former agency personnel who are thoroughly familiar with the intricate details of various funding requirements and excel at strategic planning for clients to maximize the potential for securing grants, successful management for meeting the requirements, obtaining proper authorization and reimbursements and positive audit process of the projects. ESS is certified as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and Small Business Enterprise (SBE) with 12 employees at its office in Laguna Hills.
Engineering Solution Services fully understands the inner workings of the regional and municipal government process. Comprised of former government engineering and traffic managers, we have been confronted with many of the same design, budget, schedule and project-delivery challenges that face our client governments. This understanding allows our people to think like public agencies and address the challenges they are facing with proactive, well-planned, cost-efficient, and innovative solutions tailored to your needs. We approach every project strategically and scale our resources to fit the agency and scope of work. |
ESS specializes in various funding resources, such as: CA State Water Resources Control Board and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Green Project Reserve (GPR), State Revolving Funds (SRF), and Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act (WIFIA) programs, US Bureau of Reclamation, Proposition 1B, Proposition 68, Proposition 84, FEMA related grants, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Commerce-Economic Development Administration, funding for brownfields and remedial services, environmental Bicycle Transportation Account (BTA), Safe Route to Schools, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) New Start, Railroad Safety Infrastructure Improvement (FRA-RSII), Positive Train Control (PTC), Cap and Trade, Transportation community and System Preservation (TCSP), Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), High Priority Projects (HPP), Local Partnership Programs (LPP), local tax measures, and numerous other grants.
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We are committed to being accountable and sharing ownership of the product and service. We believe that successful projects are a result of a well-managed and motivated team. Our team members possess a proven ability to establish and implement best practices, maintain continuity and flexibility, and deliver timely responses. We offer accessibility to a network of experts to address unique needs. We believe in doing the job right the first time. Our commitment to providing excellent customer service has gained us repeated clients and contracts. We understand the challenges and requirements of municipal governments since many of our staff have held senior and executive management positions with California cities, including Public Works Directors, City Engineers, Capital Project Managers, and Construction Managers. This background and experience is important because document preparation will require a high level of interaction with the state project managers. ESS is the right team to provide the consulting services for identifying and securing grants, finalizing agreements and monitoring funding compliance. We work as your partner, incorporating grant funding conversations in the process of each project as early as possible in order to maximize the potential for planning grant funding as well as implementation grand funding. Proprietary tools, such as our Work Plan Structure (WPS), in conjunction with our team’s extensive experience and relationships with funding agencies, make this process easy. |
Sudi Shoja, P.E, F.ASCE, Principal of ESS
A registered engineer in the State of California, she graduated with her Master of Science degree from Purdue University majoring in structural engineering. She is currently the Assistant Director of Engineering and has over 20 years of experience in both public and private sectors. Part of her design experience includes partnership in a seismic retrofit design and construction of un-reinforced masonry structures.
Sudi Shoja is a registered disaster responder with the office of State Emergency and has completed the FEMA Emergency Management Institute. She has been serving as a volunteer responder in the major earthquakes to assist the local officials in evaluation of public and private buildings and various infrastructures immediately after the earthquakes.
Sudi Shoja is a member of American Public Works Association and a representative to the California Emergency Services Association. She has served as a trainer for continuity of Operations on a national panel. She was part of an expert team traveling to Turkey to research and provide training and inspection of earthquake sites after the 2003 earthquake.
Sudi Shoja is also a member of American Society of Civil Engineers Post Earthquake Investigation Committee and traveled to Indonesia as part of a team to assess the life-line damages of the September 30, 2009 earthquake in Sumatra Islands.
Sudi Shoja is the recipient of the 2005 Hoover Medal for her humanitarian efforts that also included help to various earthquake and Hurricane Katrina victims.
Sudi Shoja is a registered disaster responder with the office of State Emergency and has completed the FEMA Emergency Management Institute. She has been serving as a volunteer responder in the major earthquakes to assist the local officials in evaluation of public and private buildings and various infrastructures immediately after the earthquakes.
Sudi Shoja is a member of American Public Works Association and a representative to the California Emergency Services Association. She has served as a trainer for continuity of Operations on a national panel. She was part of an expert team traveling to Turkey to research and provide training and inspection of earthquake sites after the 2003 earthquake.
Sudi Shoja is also a member of American Society of Civil Engineers Post Earthquake Investigation Committee and traveled to Indonesia as part of a team to assess the life-line damages of the September 30, 2009 earthquake in Sumatra Islands.
Sudi Shoja is the recipient of the 2005 Hoover Medal for her humanitarian efforts that also included help to various earthquake and Hurricane Katrina victims.
