ORONO – A Pittsfield-based energy and water consulting firm has given $100,000 to the University of Maine to help endow a hydraulics laboratory.

UM recognized the gift from Kleinschmidt Associates in a dedication ceremony Thursday.

The endowment is earmarked to help fund the hydraulics lab in Boardman Hall.

In honor of the company’s gift, the facility has been named the Kleinschmidt Hydraulics Laboratory. The fund will ensure that the Boardman Hall lab remains up-to-date and is designed to enhance students’ projects by encouraging excellence in the study of hydraulic engineering.

The gift comes as part of Campaign Maine, UM’s six-year, $150 million capital campaign.

The hydraulics lab helps provide the experience necessary for civil-hydraulic engineers to advance their knowledge in such areas as water distribution systems, wastewater treatment and analysis, and design of water control structures for water supply, recreation and hydropower generation.

The lab complements the theory students obtain in their lectures, UM professor Eric Landis, chairman of the civil and environmental engineering department, said in a news release.

Established in 1966, Kleinschmidt has grown into a corporation with eight locations throughout the country. The firm has been involved in designing hydroelectric facilities, dams and fish passage projects since its beginning. Kleinschmidt also performs environmental studies, provides design services for other renewable energy projects such as wind and tidal projects, and prepares licensing and permitting documents needed by state and federal agencies.

A third of the company’s 120 employees are UM alumni. Kleinschmidt also frequently uses faculty members as subconsultants on specific projects. Last year, assisted by the UMaine department of mechanical engineering, Kleinschmidt worked with Ocean Farm Technologies, a Searsmont based aquaculture company, to design the patent-pending fish raising system called the AquaPod. The project received recognition by winning a national American Council of Engineering Companies Engineering Excellence Honor Award.

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