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It’s Official: There Are New RMP Rules

PSM/RMP for the Uninitiated: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforce similar requirements for facilities that have more than the threshold quantity of listed highly…

Maddy Bowen
Oregon Wildfire Debris Cleanup and Sampling

  About the Project Wildfires burned thousands of buildings and millions of trees across Oregon during the summer of 2020. MFA worked closely with the task force led by the Oregon Department of Transportation to safely address wildfire…

Carly Schaefer
Developing a Model Remedy for Historical Orchard Lands

MFA has served as the lead technical consultant working with Ecology and the Chelan County to develop a model remedy that created a streamlined process for remediating historical orchard lands in central and eastern Washington. The model…

Carly Schaefer
Portland Brownfield Becomes Fabrication and Design Studio

About the Project Maul Foster & Alongi, Inc., assisted the owner of a former pesticide-formulation facility and its legal counsel in resolving environmental issues at the facility site. MFA led all phases of site investigation, risk…

Carly Schaefer
Remediation of the Bunker Hill Superfund Site

About the Project The Successor Coeur d’Alene Custodial and Work Trust, known as the Coeur d’Alene Trust, was created to implement remedial action projects at the Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex Superfund Site in northern…

Carly Schaefer
Former Landfill Becomes OSU-Cascades Campus

About the Project Over the next 30 years, Oregon State University’s Bend, Oregon branch (OSU-Cascades) will create a 128-acre campus accommodating 5,000 students through the innovative reuse of a former pumice mine and former demolition…

Carly Schaefer
WSU Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center Redevelopment

About the Project The City of Wenatchee is home to Washington State University’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center (TFREC), which supports key agricultural research in Washington State as part of WSU’s mission as a land grant…

Carly Schaefer
Design-Build Services for an Industrial Brownfield Redevelopment

Project Overview MFA assisted the owner by developing and negotiating a low-risk, cost-effective cleanup that was specifically tailored to address private funding and Oregon Economic and Community Development Department fiscal risk…

Carly Schaefer
Construction Management for a Petroleum-Impacted Property

Site Background A site in Kent, Washington, had been impacted from a tank release, and the company wanted to act fast. The impact plume was large, was approaching the property boundary, and contained both diesel and gasoline, adding a layer…

Carly Schaefer
Construction Management Services for an Industrial Facility

About the Site Our client’s industrial facility is located on 5 acres of the Columbia Slough, just over a mile from the Columbia River. Two settling ponds that were installed for the treatment of operational wastewater before discharge to…

Carly Schaefer
Construction Management for a Storage and Shipping Facility

Contamination Overview Soda ash can be difficult to contain. During ship and railcar loading and unloading operations, small amounts of this fine powder can escape, land on the ground, and be picked up by stormwater runoff. This can result in…

Carly Schaefer
Construction Management for a Transportation Facility

Contamination History In the past, steel mills in the Portland area and elsewhere gave away waste slag material for reuse. The DEQ approved the reuse conditionally for embankment construction (where it would be encapsulated), but commonly the…

Carly Schaefer
Construction Management at a Chromium-Impacted Residential Property

About the Site A 40-acre tract of former pastureland was suspected to have been impacted by wastes from a nearby tannery that were used as a soil amendment. Beginning in the 1980s, the original site was subdivided into numerous smaller tax…

Carly Schaefer
Central Utilities Plant Underground Storage Tank Decommissioning

About the Project MFA oversaw the decommissioning of a 6,000-gallon underground storage tank adjacent to the Central Utilities Plant at this aviation facility. The decommissioning was necessary in order to accommodate construction…

Carly Schaefer
Construction Management Services at a Former Landfill

Project Overview As part of MFA’s investigation of a former unpermitted landfill adjacent to the Columbia Slough, MFA evaluated source control at the site and sampled stormwater from a pipe discharging directly from the property to the…

Carly Schaefer
Interbay Armory Relocation and Redevelopment Planning

About the Project As the Washington Military Department plans to relocate its National Guard facility from Seattle’s Ballard/Interbay manufacturing industrial center, there are significant political, financial, and logistical…

Carly Schaefer
Comprehensive Industrial Compliance Services for a Roofing Products Manufacturer

About the Project MFA provides comprehensive air, stormwater, and health and safety compliance services to this industrial client based in Oregon. We have assisted them with developing reports required to comply with state and federal…

Carly Schaefer
Achieving Compliance at a New Manufacturing Facility

About the Project MFA provided assistance in due diligence site selection, permitting, and compliance for a new torrefied biomass manufacturing facility in Oregon. Meet the Client This client operates a lumber mill and wood fuel…

Carly Schaefer
Cleaner Air Oregon Compliance Support

About the Project MFA’s air quality team has supported dozens of Oregon industrial facilities with Cleaner Air Oregon compliance, ranging from wood treating to aerospace parts manufacturing. MFA has provided compliance training, emission…

Carly Schaefer
Permitting Support for a Glass Fiber Manufacturing Facility

About the Project MFA often provides permitting assistance to manufacturing facilities, whether they are new to operation or need new permits to remain compliant with updated regulations. Our air quality experts in this case guided a…

Carly Schaefer
Health and Safety Compliance for a Roofing Parts Manufacturer

About the Project MFA’s industrial hygiene professionals support comprehensive health and safety planning for large manufacturing facilities. For a roofing manufacturing company with multiple regional offices, MFA conducted an assessment…

Carly Schaefer
Redevelopment Master Plan Primes A City for Smart Economic Development

About the Project The City of Spokane is supporting family-wage, industrial jobs by promoting redevelopment of approximately 300 acres of underutilized land near the former Great Northern Railyard. The area, known as the Hillyard industrial…

Carly Schaefer
Residential Yards Investigation and Cleanup

MFA assisted the Port of Ridgefield as they took a proactive role in negotiations allowing the Department of Ecology to manage cleanup of a former wood treating site and keeping it off the federal Superfund list. With MFA’s assistance, the…

Carly Schaefer
Community Aspiration Meets Market Opportunity

About the Project The Port of Douglas County, in partnership with the City of Rock Island, is working to revitalize over 100 acres of waterfront property along the Columbia River. The property has distinguishing assets, including highway…

Carly Schaefer
Innovative Site Solutions for a Design-Build Development

About the Project Cross-laminated timber presents an emerging opportunity for innovation in the construction industry, providing a sustainable material that allows construction of buildings much taller than with conventional wood framing….

Carly Schaefer
A Former Gas Station Gets Cleaned Up

The City of Yakima and the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) successfully partnered to implement a cleanup plan that has taken a vacant gasoline station to a property poised for development. MFA consulted on the cleanup…

Carly Schaefer
Skagit County Community Justice Center Brownfield Redevelopment Project

The Truck City Truck Stop in Mount Vernon, Washington, operated as a gas fueling station, truck scale, and truck wash from 1953 to 2015. Over the years, the truck stop’s operations contaminated the property, ultimately resulting in a…

Carly Schaefer
Astoria Middle School Rain Garden

MFA assisted the Port of Astoria with the design and construction of a new rain garden for Astoria Middle School through a Supplemental Environmental Project, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tool that allows organizations to direct a…

Carly Schaefer
Aerial Maps Reveal Flooding Impacts on Farmland

Aerial maps helped a farm manager understand impacts and patterns of seasonal flooding. Founded in the 1850s, Plas Newydd Farm in Ridgefield, Washington, has been managed as a year-round dairy farm and cattle ranch, as well as for…

Carly Schaefer
Land Redevelopment Project Takes Flight with Aerial Imagery and Mapping

Lincoln County found that its 20-acre property used for the Lincoln County Fair was underutilized and not producing sufficient revenues to cover the year-round costs of owning and maintaining the site. To identify potential expanded…

Carly Schaefer
Whatcom County Public Works Assessment

Whatcom County Public Works Department is responsible for maintaining the stormwater system in the Birch Bay Watershed and Aquatic Resources Management District. To fund this stormwater system, a fee is levied against properties within the…

Carly Schaefer
Improving Asset Management for a Utility District

With the recent departure of several long-time staff combined with an inefficient asset management system based on institutional knowledge and paper records, SPUD managers needed a new way to track their water and sewer assets. Snoqualmie…

Carly Schaefer
Using UAS for Efficient and Accurate Topographic Mapping

When it comes to topographic mapping, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are an efficient and inexpensive alternative to total station surveys or aerial surveys using aircraft. The high cost of total station surveys or aerial surveys using…

Carly Schaefer
UAS Used for Landfill Management

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) aided a county in efficient and accurate landfill management.    As municipal solid waste is unloaded into landfill cells, the waste compacts and settles, reducing the landfill’s surface elevation….

Carly Schaefer
Aerial Imagery Highlights a Waterfront’s Revitalization

Aerial imagery enriched the Port of Ridgefield’s ability to tell a detailed story about the renaissance of their waterfront. From the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, Pacific Wood Treating Co (PWT) pressure-treated wood products with toxic…

Carly Schaefer
3D Terrain Model Saves Time and Money

A 3D terrain model of a rock quarry created using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) saved the quarry’s owner time and money. When Potlach, a public diversified forest products and real estate company, needed to know the remaining capacity of…

Carly Schaefer
Communication and Government Relations

The WSDOT Toll Division plays a vital role in the community and regional economy by creating toll facilities that fund regional transportation improvements. To help guide facility and division needs, WSDOT hired MFA to provide ongoing…

Carly Schaefer
Lower Grand Employment Area Action Plan

The City of Vancouver engaged MFA to implement an area-wide planning project to work with property owners, businesses, and neighbors to identify and prioritize needed improvements to address deteriorating and substandard streets, localized…

Carly Schaefer
Willamette Falls Legacy Project

In support of the ambitious Willamette Falls Legacy Project, MFA has been working with METRO since 2016 to assess the former Blue Heron redevelopment site with tasks including hazardous building materials surveys, soil sampling, scheduling for…

Carly Schaefer
Efficient Permitting

From pre-application meeting to permits in hand took less than one year for this complex remedial action. MFA anticipated requirements from a litany of agencies, including those associated with water quality, ecological habitat, and endangered…

Carly Schaefer
Wetland Restoration

This 1,800-foot-long failing bulkhead was transformed to provide wildlife habitat, prevent erosion, and restore culturally-significant plants to an area historically used by Native American tribes.  MFA’s careful design, extensive grading…

Carly Schaefer
Forensics

Chemical Fingerprint: This is an example of a principal component analysis showing that site sediments (grey dots) have a chemical signature that is highly similar to industrial point sources (green dots) and are less similar to upstream…

Carly Schaefer
The Coeur d’Alene Trust Groundwater/Surface Water Evaluations

MFA deployed high-resolution thermal sensing instrumentation to understand surface water and groundwater interactions along a 1.5-mile stream segment. The data gathered identified areas in which surface water was discharging…

Carly Schaefer
Regulatory Negotiations

MFA characterized sediment and pore water, and evaluated chemical concentrations; bioassay results; and ambient, background conditions to assess risk to human health and the environment and identify the optimal remedy. MFA led the…

Carly Schaefer
3-Dimensional Modeling and Visualizations

Communicating concepts such as contaminated groundwater flow into and under a river can be challenging with traditional plan view figures. During the RI/FS for a combined chlorinated solvent/former manufactured gas plant site, MFA…

Carly Schaefer
Implementable Design

MFA developed a design that integrated the demands of dynamic river flow, areas of hard and soft riverbed, bank stability, site operations, habitat improvements, and remedy requirements into a multi-component sediment and bank cap. MFA…

Carly Schaefer
Precision Dredging

MFA’s innovative design incorporated “precision dredging,” an approach that limits suspension of contamination; “fish-friendly” gravel to stabilize the bank; and shoreline habitat restoration. These environmentally sensitive…

Carly Schaefer
Incremental Sediment Sampling

MFA used incremental sampling methodology to effectively characterize concentrations over a large area while minimizing cost. Site-specific sediment core samplers were fabricated to achieve retrieval of consistent volumes of sample…

Carly Schaefer
Log Yard Stormwater Treatment System

When the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality lowered the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater permit benchmarks, Hampton Affiliates (Hampton) and many industrial facilities in Oregon had to modify their…

Carly Schaefer
Landfill Redevelopment Master Planning

From its opening in 1935 to its closure in 1991, the Leichner Landfill was the primary solid waste facility for Clark County and the City of Vancouver. In 2011, the county became the sole owner of the landfill, with an additional agreement in…

Carly Schaefer
Workplace Chemical Exposure Assessment

An employee of a confidential client was diagnosed with cancer and suggested that it may have been caused by his exposure to chemicals at work. To make matters even more complicated, the industrial process involved more than 70 chemicals of…

Carly Schaefer
Silica Exposure Survey

Malarkey Roofing needed to measure silica levels in the work environment to understand the implications of a recently-proposed OSHA silica rule. MFA reviewed a silica sampling plan being used by an industry trade group, which ensured the data…

Carly Schaefer
Demolition Community Exposure Assessment

MFA was selected as the consulting firm representing Josephine County for construction oversight, data management, and quality assurance during the demolition of the 60,000 square foot, 5-story Dimmick Tower of the former Josephine County…

Carly Schaefer
Process Safety Management/Risk Management Plan Development

MFA worked with EnerG2 to develop a process safety management (PSM) and risk management plan (RMP) for their ammonia refrigeration process at an Albany facility. MFA’s extensive experience with ammonia refrigeration processes and close…

Carly Schaefer
Neighborhood Community Exposure Assessment

In preparing a response to neighborhood odor complaints, MFA helped Amerities by working with the facility and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to develop and implement a naphthalene sampling plan. MFA collected samples during…

Carly Schaefer
Process Safety Management Plan Development

MFA worked with Ajinomoto to develop a process safety management (PSM) and risk management plan (RMP) for their ammonia refrigeration process at a Portland facility. MFA’s extensive experience with ammonia refrigeration processes and close…

Carly Schaefer
Spokane University District

The City of Spokane is attempting to redevelop the University District. Investments by Washington State University, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga University and other higher education institutions create an opportunity to transfer academic…

Gravitate Admin
Upland Riverbank Sediment Remediation

To remediate their 30-acre waterfront Superfund site in Portland, Oregon, which had been the location of a ship building and dismantling facility, Zidell Marine Corporation (Zidell) needed to consider how best to address the site’s issues….

Gravitate Admin
In-Water Sediment Remediation

In-water contaminants from years of barge-building activities had left the Zidell Marine Corporation (Zidell) with a major barrier to development on their Willamette River property. Zidell hired Maul Foster & Alongi, Inc. (MFA) to perform…

Gravitate Admin
Thurston County Landfill Closure

When the 20-acre municipal solid waste landfill stopped receiving waste years earlier than expected, Thurston County needed to quickly make decisions and move forward with closing the facility. The County partnered with MFA to design the…

Gravitate Admin
Strategic Acquisition and Redevelopment

The City of St Helens is actively pursuing purchase of individual properties to create a larger, unparalleled property in the heart of downtown. Two formerly active wood product facilities owned by Boise White Paper and Boise Cascade totaling…

Gravitate Admin
Upland Remedial Investigation and Source Control

With a site characterized by challenges including multiple legacy impacts, pending multiparty litigation, and a location within a Superfund site, the client’s challenges were varied, complex, and multi-tiered. To support claims for cost…

Gravitate Admin
Sediment Contamination Delineation

Because of the complexity of the legacy impacts affecting sediments at the site of a silicon wafer production facility in Portland, Oregon, the client, who operates the facility, had major contamination issues to contend with. Unaware of…

Gravitate Admin
School District Bond Passage

Rapid population growth in Ridgefield, Washington, was putting pressure on the Ridgefield School District (District), whose existing facilities were not adequate to support the recent influx of new students. Four bond measures to approve the…

Gravitate Admin
Waterfront Revitalization

The 40 acre Pacific Wood Treating site forms the City of Ridgefield’s waterfront. After 30 years of operations, Pacific Wood Treating abruptly declared bankruptcy and abandoned the site leaving extensive soil, groundwater, and sediment…

Gravitate Admin
Kalama Redevelopment Project

The Port of Kalama (Port) desired to redevelop an existing industrial site for administration office use. The redevelopment required civil engineering design and shoreline development permitting, including use of a SEPA checklist. MFA…

Gravitate Admin
Contaminated Soil Cleanup

After the extent of contamination resulting from a tank release was understood at one of PetroCard’s petroleum cardlock facilities in South Kent, Washington, the company wanted to act fast. They decided to address the contamination…

Gravitate Admin
Park Laundry Remedial Investigation

After a piece of property in downtown Ridgefield, Washington was quitclaimed to the Union Ridge Investment Company (URIC), the Washington State Department of Ecology notified the group of investors that they would be required to investigate…

Gravitate Admin
Palouse Producers Brownfield Site

Congratulations to the City of Palouse! In 2023, the Palouse Producers Brownfield Site received a Small Community & Impact Phoenix Award. The City of Palouse is a small community in southeastern Washington that has typical challenges…

Gravitate Admin
NPDES Compliance and Stormwater System Design

The client, the operator of a metal-shredding facility on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, was in the process of a major site reconfiguration to accommodate a new freight access rail project when they were issued a new, individual…

Gravitate Admin
Welcome Center Design

The City of Ridgefield, Washington, had an ambitious vision for an outdoor welcome center to overlook the nearby 5,218-acre Ridgefield National Wildlife Area. Hoping to create a centralized park space that could function as a community…

Gravitate Admin
Organic Composting

The farmers at High Desert Organix, one of the largest carrot seed producers in the world, saw an opportunity in their operations’ by-products. The company decided to combine their solid vegetable waste with cow waste—an abundant resource…

Gravitate Admin
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to oil releasing from the ruptured well for 87 days. As the resultant natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) progressed into…

Gravitate Admin
Campus Layout Design

Since the 1890s, the Mount Angel Abbey campus layout could best be described as disjointed. Home to the Benedictine monks, the owners of 800 acres of land in the Willamette Valley—including some of the last remaining original Willamette…

Gravitate Admin
Low Impact Development

When Green Gables Design and Restoration, the owner of a private office development in the northwest industrial district of Portland, Oregon needed assistance with stormwater design issues, they sought out support from MFA. The site posed a…

Gravitate Admin
Comprehensive Solid Waste Engineering Services for Cowlitz County

MFA provides comprehensive solid waste engineering services for Cowlitz County, assisting the county in the cost-effective management of their solid waste system and the associated environmental obligations. Completed projects include:…

Gravitate Admin
The Coeur d’Alene Trust Loading Analysis

The Coeur d’Alene Trust has been tasked with managing cleanup actions in the Upper Basin of the Coeur d’Alene River for the Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex Superfund Site. Developing a prioritization strategy for cleanup…

Gravitate Admin
The Coeur d’Alene Trust Data Management

The Coeur d’Alene Trust’s data management goals are to promote secure, consistent, and efficient management of data throughout the extended timeframe of activities undertaken in the Upper and Lower basins of the Coeur d’Alene River in…

Gravitate Admin
Tower Demolition and Abatement

Abandonment of a legacy property owned by Oregon’s Josephine County (County) had led to an unfortunate case of urban blight in the center of a historic neighborhood. Operated as a hospital since 1919, the property became empty after the…

Gravitate Admin
Due Diligence and Environmental Cleanup

A former service station built in 1930 but unused since the 1980s and listed on the Oregon DEQ’s Environmental Cleanup Site database was causing problems for the City of Portland. The site had become a popular location for illegal dumping,…

Gravitate Admin
Adaptive Re-Use Study: Northern State Hospital

Northern State Hospital is an exceptional property, originally designed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm. Nearly 30 of the Spanish colonial revivalist style buildings, as well as the 200+ acre landscape itself, have…

Gravitate Admin
Drip Pad Inspections

AmeriTies operates a creosote-railroad-tie-treating facility in The Dalles, Oregon. Production of the ties involves treating them with creosote under heat and pressure. After treatment they are allowed to drip dry while resting on a concrete…

Gravitate Admin
600,000-Acre Phase I ESA

Green Diamond Resources (Green Diamond) wanted to acquire 600,000 acres of timberland in Southern Oregon. This is an area roughly the size of half of Rhode Island; the timberland is spread across 25 discontinuous parcels, which are as far as…

Gravitate Admin
Industrial Wastewater Discharge

Farmer’s Cooperative Creamery (FCC) was in a bind when the City of McMinnville claimed that the creamery was the source of issues at the city wastewater treatment plant. The city threatened to withhold FCC’s permit to discharge. This would…

Gravitate Admin
Astoria Sports Complex

Astoria’s new sports complex exemplifies the many benefits of multiple public and private parties coming together in the redevelopment of a brownfield to benefit their community. In addition to capping and closing an inactive municipal…

Gravitate Admin