Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011
By Kathy Barnard, College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences
PUYALLUP, Wash. – Western Washington businesses will soon have a new resource for help in navigating regulations on stormwater management, thanks
part to Boeing and Washington State University.
The Boeing Global Corporate Citizenship Northwest organization has given an $85,000 grant to the Washington Stormwater Center, which will help WSU develop a Business Resource Program within the center.
Under stormwater regulations developed during the past year, businesses and industries in the Puget Sound region are required to create effective stormwater management programs for their job sites. The Boeing grant will help to fund a variety of training, publications, workshops, webinars and other educational programs developed by John Stark, co-director of the Washington Stormwater Center and Tanyalee Erwin, the center’s manager.
"This generous funding from The Boeing Company will enable the Washington Stormwater Center to meet a major part of its mission to help educate business stormwater permit holders so that they can meet their national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit requirements,” Stark said.
There are approximately 2,500 businesses in more than 25 different industries in western Washington required to obtain stormwater permits under the new regulations.
The Washington Legislature established the Washington Stormwater Center in December 2010 to improve stormwater quality through education, information sharing, and research into new technologies and to assist municipal, business and industry stormwater permit applicants and others affected by stormwater management regulations. The center is a joint program developed by WSU Puyallup and the University of Washington-Tacoma Urban Waters Center.