Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality

The Building Industry Association of Southern California, Inc.’s (BIASC) Director of Environmental Affairs, Mark Grey, Ph.D., celebrated his tenth year with the organization. Dr. Grey, who also works as the Technical Director for the Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality (CICWQ), brings a wealth of knowledge to BIASC and CICWQ in the fields of water and air quality protection, having worked in environmental science for the past 30 years in the Pacific Northwest and California. Dr. Grey represents the interests of BIASC and CICWQ members in California, with an emphasis on water quality policy and regulatory matters.

“I work with our members and their consultants to understand complex water quality regulation and how we can do business within that structure,” Dr. Grey mentioned when asked about his role with BIASC. “And I spend a significant amount of time communicating the technical basis for our advocacy positions, in a number of different ways…many presentations in a variety of forums, writing and research report production, and regulatory workshops and proceedings among others.”

Before joining BIASC in April of 2006, Dr. Grey operated his own consulting firm and was the Director of Technical Services for Synagro Technologies, Inc., one of the nation’s largest private company involved in organic waste recycling. Dr. Grey is a certified professional soil scientist and is a member of the Soil Science Society of America. Dr. Grey holds a Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry and M.S. in Forest Ecosystem Analysis from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA and a B.A. in English from Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA.

In February 2008, Dr. Grey was appointed to the state of California’s Storm Water Advisory Task Force that advises the State Water Board on program priorities, funding criteria, project selection, and interagency coordination of state programs that address storm water management. Dr. Grey is a trustee of the Southern California Water Committee and serves as a governing board member for the Council for Watershed Health.

Dr. Grey has an extensive teaching background, both during work at the University of Washington and in the past ten years for CICWQ and BIASC. Dr. Grey has also published peer-reviewed papers in the fields of water quality and atmospheric science.

When asked what he loves most about BIASC, Dr. Grey responded by speaking about how enjoys working with such great members of the organization. [I enjoy] “the super high caliber people who are our members, and the super high caliber people they work with to do business, especially in figuring out how to succeed and thrive within a complex regulatory and project approval structure that exists in California.  The professional quality of our members is really amazing and is a blessing for our industry as a whole, and it’s my job to get the best out of them so I can do the best job possible for BIA and others in the construction industry.”

Dr. Grey has been married to his wife, Amanda, who is the Environmental Programs Manager at the University of California, Riverside, since 2011.  They have a daughter Olivia, 16, who is a sophomore in high school who aspires to be a college softball player.

IRVINE - June 13, 2016 - PRLog - This year will be the first year that the International Low Impact Development Conference will be held outside of the U.S. The Building Industry Association of Southern California (BIASC) will be attending the conference this year in Beijing, China to as a an invited speaker to teach low impact design in integrated water resource management during the Concurrent Technical Session IV, ID/GI Implementation in Southern California II workshop.

BIASC’s Director of Environmental Affairs and Technical Director for Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality (CICWQ), Dr. Mark Grey, will be presenting to attendees about the “Experience and Perspectives on Using Low Impact Development (LID) best management practices (BMPs) for Stormwater Runoff Management in California.” The presentation will take place on Tuesday, June 28 in meeting room 408 from 3:30 - 5:00 pm during the Concurrent Technical Session IV, ID/GI Implementation in Southern California II.

“Being invited to speak on behalf of the building and construction industry in California at the 2016 International LID Conference in Beijing, China is a great honor and tremendous professional opportunity”, said Grey. 

The International Low Impact Development Conference, organized by the Tsinghua University will be at the China National Convention Center Grand Hotel in Beijing, China from June 26 to June 29, 2016, but the location of the conference actually holds significance of BMPs for LID. 

In China, the rapid urbanization process in recent decades has led to a worsening “city syndrome” situation, such as urban flooding, water pollution, heat-island effects and ecologic deterioration, that exists in many urban areas. As a result, in recent years much attention and efforts have been given to finding solutions to these and other environmental problems.

“The building industry in California has been advocating for multi-benefit, regional-scale solutions to solve complex stormwater management water quality problems for more than 15 years," said Grey. "This is an opportunity to share the knowledge base we have built through our advocacy and education efforts in California concerning compliance with stormwater management permits, and to gain new knowledge and insights from our Chinese counterparts." 

The International LID conference will cover areas such as water quality and quantity control standards as well as proprietary technologies and modeling of urban storm water runoff for LID planning and design. The conference also provides an excellent opportunity for LID and green infrastructure (GI) professionals to exchange experiences, share results and implementation strategies with hundreds of colleagues, of various backgrounds and experiences, from all over the world.