This year, a new permit for Industrial Stormwater General Permit (ISGP) for the state of Washington went into effect. Now is a great time to look at how permit holders in King County did over the 2015-2019 period regarding stormwater violations.

Data was collected from the Department of Ecology looking at all industrial stormwater violations reported in each year for King County during the 2015-2019 permit period.

Over the permit period, the top three violations have been benchmark exceedances, monitoring violations, and reporting violations.

• Benchmark exceedances (e.g. a stormwater sample contained lead that was over the 64.6 µg/L limit) have

Completing Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) reports is a complex, resource-intensive process for any business, whether it’s are establishing benchmarks for the first time or working towards well-specified goals. GRESB has successfully streamlined the reporting process, but data collection, management, and verification still pose obstacles during the annual reporting cycle.

GRESB complexity comes from the same source as its elegance. The thorough consolidation of external frameworks into one reporting tool, packaged into a seamless interface, takes much of the pain out of presenting data from your year. Often, we find that the remaining challenges stem from structuring operations to …

With COVID-19 clinical laboratory testing continuing to ramp up throughout the United States and worldwide, Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) applications for registration are continuing to increase. In response to the pandemic, the federal government is taking unprecedented action to ensure laboratories in the United States wishing to test for COVID-19 are expedited through the CLIA certificate application process.

On March 26, 2020, the Department of Health & Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Clinical Standards and Quality/Survey & Certification Group issued a memorandum reference number QSO-20-21-CLIA regarding CLIA Laboratory Guidance During COVID-19 Public Health …

In this time of social distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s challenging to comply with regulatory requirements due to disruptions in business operations or lowered staff availability. Despite these challenges, there isn’t a legal mechanism that relieves businesses of their duty of regulatory compliance. The pandemic and efforts to fight it continue, yet rain will still fall and stormwater must continue to be managed to reduce pollutants entering our waters.

Many businesses have shifted, at least in the short term, to remote work wherever possible. There’s a number of business functions that you can do remotely, and stormwater regulatory …

On March 31, 2020, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) updated CG-CVC Mission Management System Work Instructions CVC-WI-005(2) Request For Recognized Organization Internal Quality Management System Review – “Quality Case” to inform USCG Marine Inspectors to “evaluate situations where objective evidence indicates that a potential failure of a Recognized Organization (RO) or a Third Party Organization (TPO) under 46 CFR Subchapter M Quality Management System (QMS) resulted in the failure to adequately perform delegated functions under mandatory IMO instruments or national legislation and regulations on behalf of the Coast Guard.”

It further states that “delegated functions” is defined as synonymous …