The string had to end sometime. For the first time since Engineering News-Record began measuring performance among environmental consulting and contracting firms eight years ago, the total for the Top 200 has declined. The difference is not much―$?$32.7 billion in environmental revenue for 2002 compared to $32.8 billion the year before―but it is still down. It was hard to sympathize with those who bemoaned the passage of the boom years of the late 1970s and early 1980s, even while the Top 200 revenue line was growing from $19 billion in 1995 to $32.8 billion in 2001. Somehow the tune rang false. Now, the numbers suggest that those still in the game finally have a right to sing the blues.
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