Property managers and owners play and important role in protecting stormwater by implementing best management practices for activities such as pressure washing, landscaping and dumpster maintenance. Property managers and owners also play a role in supporting tenants pollution prevention behaviors around pet waste and automotive maintenance. In addition, they are often responsible for ensuring stormwater facilities are properly maintained.
Information for...
Preventing pollution
Stormwater facility maintenance
Responding to spills
Professional landscaping
Dumpster maintenance
Surface cleaning
PCBs in buildings
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in certain building materials throughout Washington. While the manufacture of PCBs was banned in 1979, they remain in buildings built or renovated before or around this time. PCB-containing building materials can pose human health risks and contaminate stormwater, soils, sediments, and indoor air.
Property owners and managers, contractors and other businesses can increase their knowledge about the dangers of PCBs in building materials and take steps to reduce the impacts from these materials on people and the environment. Learn more on the Washington Department of Ecology's PCBs webpage and in this guide: How to Find and Address PCBs in Building Materials.
The most important way to protect stormwater from PCBs in exterior building materials is to identify the problem and implement a plan to manage and abate the PCBs. Find best management practices to implement here.