Walnut Creek, CA - The Northern California Chapter of the EIA (NorCal) is proud to announce the formation of the PCB technical committee. Mike Van Brunt, President of the chapter, said, “The San Francisco Bay area is unique in the country because of the requirements to perform PCB-specific inspection and sampling.”

In the San Francisco Bay Area, jurisdictions discharging stormwater into the San Francisco Bay must follow the PCB inspection protocols set forth by the Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association (BASMAA). These protocols were published in 2019 and require owners performing a building, demolition, or renovation to inspect and sample for PCBs and then perform abatement or other remediation to prevent PCB building materials from being released.  The protocols are not a regulation but must be followed to receive the annual stormwater discharge permit.

“The BASMAA protocol was formatted into a model ordinance so that cities and counties requiring a stormwater discharge permit could adopt the ordinances and make them into law,” Van Brunt said.

Jeremy Malson, CIH, CSP from Millennium Consulting Associates, said, “We want to research and pool our collective experiences to establish industry standards of care.  Right now, it’s a little bit of wild, wild West when we look at the varying work products that are being submitted to the authorities having jurisdiction”.

The NorCal EIA chapter has received much interest from many different consultants in the San Francisco area.  “Ultimately, we would like to make a presentation at the San Diego national conference next year,” Van Brunt said.

BASMAA was formed in 1990 as an informal association under a memorandum of understanding and was reformed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2009.  BASMAA was comprised of the municipal stormwater programs in the San Francisco Bay area, representing 103 agencies, including 88 cities and towns, eight counties, and seven special districts.  BASMAA focused on regional challenges and opportunities to improve the quality of stormwater flowing to our local creeks, the Delta, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean.

In 2021, the BASMAA Board of Directors approved a resolution of intent to dissolve BASMAA, the nonprofit organization.  In its place, they organized the Bay Area Municipal Stormwater Collaborative (BAMSC) to continue the information sharing and permittee advocacy functions.

Anyone interested in participating in the NorCal PCB technical committee can contact Mike Van Brunt at mike@vanbruntassociates.com.