News
Planning for Environmental Justice
This blog was co-authored by Project Environmental Scientist Haley McDaniel. What Is Environmental Justice in Planning? National Community Planning Month is an opportune time to consider how pollution doesn’t impact all people…
Sarah SieloffEPA Proposes Designating PFAS as Hazardous Substances under CERCLA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on August 26, 2022, that it is proposing to designate two of the most common and most studied PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) compounds as hazardous substances under the…
Erik NaylorShould You Be Pursuing an EPA Brownfields Grant? Now is the Time to Decide
Why first-movers may see advantages this year It’s the most wonderful time of the year, sort of. EPA recently released updates related to this year’s competition for grants in its Brownfields Program. The 2022 call for grant applications…
Sarah SieloffMeet Amanda Bixby, GIT, Staff Geologist
Where are you from and where do you live now? I grew up in Wenatchee, Washington. In 2014, I moved to Bellingham, Washington, to attend Western Washington University and have lived here ever since. What do you do at MFA? As an…
Audrey HackettResults for "Communications and Outreach"
Where are you from and where do you live now? I was born just outside Tokyo, Japan, and lived in four states before I was eight. My family moved to Seattle when I was in third grade, and I’ve lived in, or near, Seattle ever since. What…
Charla SkaggsWhere are you from and where do you live now? I’m originally from Bellingham, Washington, and now live in Broadview, a neighborhood in northwest Seattle. What do you do at MFA? My job title is Project Communications and Outreach…
Charla SkaggsIf you’ve driven across SR 520 (the world’s longest floating bridge) or through the SR 99 tunnel or on one of the other tolled highways in Washington State, you likely paid your toll bill online or by calling a customer service…
Kate ElliottWhat do you do at MFA? I’m a communications specialist at MFA. In short, that means I specialize in effectively sharing information, whether that’s providing community members with information on a project that may affect them or…
Kate ElliottRecognizing the Service of Our Public Partners Since 1985, Public Service Recognition Week has been observed during the first week of May. The week is dedicated to recognizing the people who serve our nation as federal, state, county,…
Charla SkaggsEphrata is an eastern Washington town of fewer than 9,000 people. Born at the turn of the twentieth century, Ephrata, like many nearby communities, was first a hub for workers who were supporting the federal government’s rural…
Abbi RussellRemember when we used to sit at the same table? In 2019, the MFA Communications and Planning teams gathered stakeholders around a table in the Interbay neighborhood of Seattle as part of a thorough public input process. Our MFA planners and…
Taylor HodgesWhere are you from and where do you live now? I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and raised in Ames, Iowa. When I was growing up, my family would spend a few weeks every summer driving big loops around the U.S. to camp in and explore our…
Charla SkaggsWith Governor Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order enacted this week and other states doing the same, working from home for the majority of us is no longer a choice—it’s the law. Like many of you, MFA staff have been working from…
Charla SkaggsCoronavirus (COVID-19) is no joke. The swift spread of this virus and the surrounding news updates have many—if not all—of our Pacific Northwest-based staff thinking about how to stay safe while best practices for addressing the virus are…
Kate ElliottHugo House is a Seattle-based nonprofit, with the mission of being “a place to read words, hear words, and make your own words better.” This literary house provides a home to everyone who loves books or has a drive to write. One of Hugo…
Charla SkaggsInternational Bridges, Tunnels and Turnpikes Association Summit Recently, Charla Skaggs and I attended the IBTTA Communication and Change Management Summit in Seattle. This conference is especially relevant to the work of MFA’s…
Kate ElliottToday’s the day, Seattle-area residents. This evening, the Alaskan Way Viaduct will permanently close, resulting in a temporary shutdown of SR 99 through downtown Seattle. The aging and seismically vulnerable viaduct will be replaced with…
Kate Elliott