Oregon
Oregon Wildfire Debris Cleanup and Sampling
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Wildfires burned thousands of buildings and millions of trees across Oregon during the summer of 2020. MFA worked closely with the task force led by the Oregon Department of Transportation to safely address wildfire ash and debris. MFA was hired as a subconsultant to CDR Maguire, an engineering consulting services, emergency management solutions, and disaster health and medical services firm that has helped communities recover from some of the most devastating hurricanes and wildfires in recent U.S. history. MFA developed sampling and analysis plans that supported the removal of debris, waste, and hazardous materials and identified the procedures for sampling debris and protecting response personnel, the surrounding community, public health, and the environment. MFA conducted surveys, developed and implemented a statewide air monitoring program, and performed post-removal soil sampling for more than 3,000 properties throughout the state.
The large scale of the project and urgent timeline required MFA to develop innovative data collection and management tools to quickly and reliably process information for each property. The data team developed electronic forms and integrated maps and reporting tools to synthesize property information, field data, and laboratory data into a report. The system allowed MFA to compile a site-specific asbestos survey report or soil sampling report in seconds. Automatically generated chain-of-custody forms and printed sample labels saved time in the field and minimized errors.
MFA hired additional personnel and teamed with other local firms to keep pace with the demand for rapid project turnaround. Coordinating fieldwork with up to 85 people from eight firms spread around the state required clearly defined procedures, consistent communication, and skilled field leads.
The community air monitoring plan developed by MFA used innovative demographic analysis to prioritize environmental justice considerations and public health risk. MFA prepared information and documents to help state agencies communicate and engage with the public. The public outreach efforts were a critical part of the project.
The results of these efforts allowed business and homeowners to safely return to their properties and begin to rebuild after such a tragic event.
"MFA’s team was great! Their ability to ramp up quickly and stay organized throughout the 2020 Oregon wildfire response helped people return to their homes with confidence. It was a pleasure working with them."
"Our work with ODOT on wildfire cleanup sprang from a major tragedy in Oregon. The fires throughout the state in the summer of 2020 were so terrible. Oregon has never ever seen that scale of property damage from fire in its history. So many people were displaced. MFA was brought on to do asbestos testing and air and soil sampling at over 3,000 properties that were burned. It was a huge project for us to take on—probably one of the biggest for MFA ever in terms of staff that worked on the project, the short amount of time we had to get ready for the project, and the number of partners we brought onto the project. Though there have been challenges, I am really proud that MFA is part of helping the impacted communities recover from the disaster."
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