Ports

MFA has championed the integrated port planning model, leveraging our extensive industry knowledge to help ports integrate keystone documents across their planning and operations. Our approach fosters alignment, transparency, and efficiency, and positions ports for resilience, community benefit, and expanded funding and economic opportunities. 

• Strategic Plans
• Comprehensive Scheme of Harbor Improvements
• Capital Improvement Planning
• Response and Resiliency Plans
• GIS Asset Management
• Relationships with Key Regulatory Agencies

Ports are catalysts for the revitalization of brownfield sites, facilitating their transformation into productive community assets while enhancing environmental quality. Clients gain access to our extensive network of regulatory contacts and can rely on our deep experience assisting public agencies and private enterprises in rejuvenating brownfield sites across the Northwest. Our collaborative approach integrates the Port’s vision for reuse into cleanup planning, helping align regulatory requirements, environmental outcomes, and long-term economic goals.

Environmental compliance is fundamental to maintaining port operations, protecting natural resources, and advancing capital projects. MFA helps ports navigate complex regulatory frameworks through permitting, compliance planning, environmental monitoring, and agency coordination. We also help ports manage solid and hazardous waste, including verifying state and federal regulations, responding to agency inquiries, and developing proper waste handling and disposal procedures. Our team works alongside port staff to develop practical solutions that support operational goals, reduce risk, and maintain positive relationships with regulatory agencies while keeping projects and operations moving forward.

• Environmental Permitting
• NPDES and Stormwater Compliance
• Spill Prevention and Response Planning
• Environmental Monitoring and Reporting
• Solid and Hazardous Waste Management
• Agency Coordination and Regulatory Support
• Compliance Audits and Program Management

Our team offers comprehensive support to enable ports to successfully complete projects, from performing site analysis and due diligence to shepherding clients through permitting and providing construction oversight. We recognize the unique requirements and challenges encountered by ports and implement innovative approaches to ensure their projects seamlessly integrate into their overall portfolio and contribute positively to the community.

Ports are increasingly balancing economic development goals with evolving environmental, operational, and community priorities. MFA helps ports identify practical and achievable strategies to reduce emissions, strengthen resilience, and prepare for changing climate conditions. By integrating sustainability and climate considerations into planning, infrastructure investments, and daily operations, we help ports position themselves to meet regulatory requirements, secure funding, manage risk, and support long-term community and economic vitality.

• Climate Action Plans
• Greenhouse Gas Inventories
• Resilience and Vulnerability Assessments
• Clean Energy, Decarbonization, and Electrification Strategies
• Grant Funding and Implementation Planning
• Sustainability Program Development

Port infrastructure is vital to local job and economic growth and connects regions and markets worldwide. MFA helps ports maintain and improve these valuable assets through strategic planning, environmental and property assessments, GIS services, and more. Our expertise allows us to provide insights and recommendations to guide budgeting, capital improvements, and future funding needs.

Ports are enduring public institutions with important stories to tell, but the full scope of their work and benefits is not always evident. MFA helps ports communicate their value, understand their communities, and build relationships that strengthen support and inform project decisions. Our skilled facilitators also provide neutral, third-party support for productive conversations around policies, investments, and capital projects.