News
Cemetery Data Comes to Life in ArcGIS Online
A recurring theme in GIS is utilizing technology to prevent crucial data from being lost to time. Recording data, managing it, and exchanging it from hand to hand over time leads to vulnerabilities. Cemetery data is one such example. Imagine…
Gavin JaravataDEQ Issues New Air Quality Requirements for Facilities
There’s a new modeling requirement in Oregon not found in the Oregon Administrative Rules or permitting guidance? Yes! On September 1, 2021, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued an internal management directive…
Chad DarbyMeet Nicole Bruneel, Staff Chemist
Where are you from and where do you live now? I am from central Idaho, and now I own a small farm in Northern Idaho. What do you do at MFA? I am a chemist and manage projects out of the MFA Kellogg office. Most of the projects…
Erik NaylorA Call to Action: Climate Change Mitigation in the Environmental Field
At MFA, our core purpose is strengthening communities. For many of our projects, strengthening communities involves cleaning up contaminated sites and developing new community amenities. As we enter the last decade in which we can act on the…
Tessa Shabram, EITResults for "Local and State Agencies"
A recurring theme in GIS is utilizing technology to prevent crucial data from being lost to time. Recording data, managing it, and exchanging it from hand to hand over time leads to vulnerabilities. Cemetery data is one such example. Imagine…
Gavin JaravataIn Washington State, a recently passed bill provides local governments with a new tool to help spur revitalization in areas where private investment is lacking. Engrossed Substitute House Bill (ESHB) 1189 (also called the TIF for Jobs bill)…
Dylan BassIf 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 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 SkaggsWhat’s a HAP? In 2019, the Washington State Legislature passed legislation encouraging all cities planning under the Growth Management Act to adopt actions to increase residential capacity, especially in areas with supportive transportation…
Matt HoffmanOctober is National Community Planning Month and this year’s theme, Planning is Essential to Recovery, highlights how planning and planners can lead communities to equitable, resilient, and long-lasting recovery from the effects of the…
Ashlyn SalzmanAs I drive through the Silver Valley in Shoshone County, Idaho, I see a tight-knit community rebuilding. Store fronts once empty and abandoned have come to life, filled with shops and restaurants. I see new infrastructure where festival…
Ashlyn SalzmanThis week is Public Service Recognition Week, a celebration of all the ways that federal, state, local, and tribal government employees make our communities better! At Maul Foster & Alongi, we have the privilege of working alongside…
Charla SkaggsThanks to years of hard work and diligence, Bellingham Public Schools (BPS) has had a lot to celebrate recently. In August 2017 BPS celebrated the grand reopening of its Options High School in a new building. The event was the culmination…
Heather R. Good, LHGYou may have heard of “PFAS” in a documentary or in the news recently. You also may have heard that, in the U.S., PFAS chemicals are in drinking water and in people’s blood. And you would be right to say—what!? How can this be? This…
Erik NaylorWhen you think of job creation and economics, look no further than the Lower Grand Employment Area (LGEA). The City of Vancouver, Washington recognized the potential for the LGEA to help preserve jobs in the city’s core and drive regional…
Stacy J. Frost, PEMaul Foster & Alongi, Inc. (MFA) wishes to congratulate Skagit County on the recent completion of its new community justice center, which was developed on a former truck stop fueling station brownfield. The need for a new jail facility to…
Yen-Vy Van, LHGThe success of a bank stabilization project hinges on the ability to explore a variety of potential solutions and identify the most effective option for any given site. MFA has seen success with many different types of projects, all with their…
Kathy J. Lombardi, PEIt was a hot August day when I first saw the building—fenced off and surrounded by brown, crunchy grass, it was a five-story building with boarded-up windows and broken glass. When I finally got to enter the building, I suited up in Tyvek™…
Katie StrommeIn the world of economic development, nothing can add value to a large-scale project like a strong, mutually beneficial partnership between public and private interests. At the P3C Public-Private Partnership Conference & Expo 2015 in…
Katie StrommeOn March 9, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) announced the recipients of its 2015 Area-Wide Planning (AWP) Grant. The AWP grant program assists communities that are responding to local brownfield challenges, including multiple…
Seth Otto, AICP, LEED APUnder the partnership of the City of Yakima and the Washington State Department of Ecology, Maul Foster & Alongi, Inc. is cleaning up a long-term community eyesore. The former Tiger Oil retail gasoline station located at the corner of Nob…
Yen-Vy Van, LHGThe benefits of precision dredging are numerous; I’ve seen them firsthand: streamlined regulatory approval, greater risk reduction, and increased water quality. MFA wrapped up a large-scale dredging project in February 2015 in Lake River,…
Katie StrommeOver 100 years ago, the State of Washington took a bold step in opening the Northern State Hospital, a state-of-the-art residential mental health facility in Sedro-Woolley. The campus, designed by the world-renowned Olmsted Brothers landscape…
Katie Stromme