News
Palouse Producers Brownfield Site Wins Phoenix Award
Congratulations to the City of Palouse on receiving the 2023 Small Community & Impact Phoenix Award! The Phoenix Awards are prestigious national accolades that are given to both individuals and projects that highlight the best practices…
Matt HoffmanFacility Odor Issues, Complaints, and Tools to Predict Them
Facility odor issues are very subjective and strangely regulated. For facility property developers looking to build a project, anticipated odors can be a stumbling block to regulatory approval. Additionally, odors can lead to a contentious…
Chad DarbyMeet Elliot Frank, GIS Analyst
Where are you from and where do you live now? I grew up about an hour east of Portland, near Mt. Hood, in Welches, Oregon. Now I live in Edmonds, Washington. What do you do at MFA? I assist local governments, mostly as part of my work…
Sabrina TurnerUpdated PSM and RMP Rules Are Coming Soon. Maybe.
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…
Bill Beadie, CIHResults for "Stormwater"
The renewed 1200-Z Industrial Stormwater Discharge Permit (Permit) has been issued, and there are quite a few changes that Oregon industries must wrap their heads around before the Permit becomes effective on July 1, 2021. We’ve summed up…
Ada H. Banasik, PEOver the last few weeks, Oregon and Washington industries have had to implement significant changes to their operations to protect their employees and the public, and comply with shelter-in-place orders and social distancing guidelines related…
Ada H. Banasik, PEWe don’t have to tell our industrial clients twice—regulatory compliance is an important topic. An efficient compliance program helps businesses reduce risk, meet regulatory requirements, and ultimately, run a successful business. In…
Sidney CountsAre you an industrial stormwater permit holder? Your permit renews on January 1, and Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) updates reflecting the new permit are due January 30. We know these changes can be confusing, so we have…
Ada H. Banasik, PECompliance at industrial facilities is important 365 days a year, and each season comes with its own compliance challenges. As we head into the summer season, here are our top tips to ensure your facility remains compliant. Stormwater…
Sidney CountsYou 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…
Courtney Savoie, RG, LGIn August, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) entered into a Settlement Agreement with environmental advocacy groups (Columbia Riverkeeper and Northwest Environmental Defense Center) and a group of industrial stormwater…
Ada H. Banasik, PEIn our daily lives we are constantly exposed to ever-changing mixtures of chemicals, and existing tools for figuring out how these chemical mixtures affect our health are not necessarily comprehensive. This is largely because they do not…
Phil Wiescher, PhDLooking for the most recent information about the Oregon 1200-Z Stormwater Discharge Permit? Read our blog post about modifications to the permit in October, 2018. After issuing two draft permits and reviewing two rounds of public…
Ada H. Banasik, PEFor more than 40 years, the Clean Water Act and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits have aimed to curb water pollution by regulating the levels of pollutants that are allowed to discharge into our rivers, lakes, and…
Ada H. Banasik, PEEPA recently launched the new Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) to regulate industrial stormwater, but the already more-stringent state permits in California, Washington, and Oregon leave the MSGP a moot-point. Industrial stormwater permit…
Ada H. Banasik, PEMany Oregon businesses were caught off-guard when the state lowered the effluent benchmark levels significantly in the 2012 update of the 1200-Z industrial stormwater permit. The resulting benchmark levels are so low that most industries…
Ada H. Banasik, PEMaul Foster & Alongi staff will be hosting two presentations at this year’s NEBC Managing Stormwater in Oregon Conference on May 21. Stormwater expert, Ada Banasik, will share her experiences in implementing effective and economical…
Ada H. Banasik, PEThe Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) recently implemented a program to assign construction stormwater general permit (CSWGP) coverage to sites that have known contamination and that may discharge potentially contaminated…
Joshua Elliott, PEDuring the last quarter of 2014, MFA assisted 16 industrial facilities in Northwest Oregon with the selection and conceptual design of stormwater-treatment measures required for compliance with the Tier II corrective action requirements…
Ada H. Banasik, PESeveral MFA staff are presenting at conferences in February. Neil Alongi will be presenting at the Advanced Washington Stormwater Conference, February 7th at the Washington Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. His practical years of…
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