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Online services portal unavailable for 30 minutes tomorrow – the Environmental Health Online Services Portal will be unavailable from 10:30 to 11 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 16. If you have trouble making payments, please try again after 11 a.m.
Fabricated stainless steel fittings and 3rd party listings – After receiving feedback from a number of contractors, King County is postponing enforcement of 3rd party listing requirements for fabricated stainless steel fittings for the time being. This pause in enforcement will provide some time for those impacted to make adjustments to their bidding, fabrication, and installation processes. The projected enforcement date and conditions of enforcement are being discussed with various stakeholders. More information will be provided within this newsletter as it becomes available.
Reminder: no plan review Dec. 7, no inspections Dec. 11 – Our Plan Review staff will be training on Dec. 7 and unable to return emails or phone calls until the following day. There will be no inspections on Dec. 11 as Inspectors will be in training all day. As usual, our program will be off Nov. 23 and 24 for Thanksgiving.
Please give us your feedback! – We're planning to refine some existing services and develop new ones with a goal of improving overall customer satisfaction. We would appreciate if you can set aside a couple of minutes to respond to this short, anonymous customer satisfaction survey. Many thanks to all who have already taken the time to participate!
Drip pans, T&P relief lines, condensate, and other incidental liquid or clear water waste is required to discharge to an indirect receptor connected to the building sanitary waste system. This is in accordance with UPC/SPC 303.1 and 304.1. Routing indirect waste lines from drip trays, pans, relief valves, etc. to an open area within a building (such as a parking garage floor) is not permitted.
King County plumbing inspectors have been pursuing wider compliance with UPC/SPC 108.3 & 108.4 for projects that have gone through plan review. If the installation of your plumbing system is significantly different than what is shown on the Approved plans, you may be asked to resubmit the plans to the plan review group for reapproval.
Please follow these steps to avoid project delays:
- Ask the Engineer of Record to revise the specific drawings that have changed from the original design, cloud the revisions, and change the date on the sheets that have been revised. Note: field or contractor markups will not be accepted.
- Assemble the revised sheets into the originally approved and stamped PDF set. Collate the new sheets (in the correct drawing order) so that they replace the old, outdated sheets. The new revised sheets will be unstamped, clouded, and have the current issue date. The remainder of the sheets in the drawing set will be exact digital copies of the previously approved and stamped drawings. The drawing set you resubmit should have the same number of sheets as the previously approved drawing set (unless the design revision requires additional sheets to be added).
- Create a written narrative describing the revisions. If it is a large project (over 20 sheets as a rule of thumb), provide a sheet index highlighting which sheets in the drawing set have been revised.
- Submit the complete drawing set, narrative, and sheet index (if applicable) to the plan reviewer that originally stamped and approved the drawings.
The assigned reviewer will prioritize resubmittals in their workflow and contact you if they have questions or are missing information. If you do not know how to contact the original reviewer, please send an inquiry to planreviewinfo@kingcounty.gov and our team will find that information for you.
Reviews of resubmittals will be billed at the same rate as normal plan review but will be billed outside of the permit portal. Once the revised plans are reviewed and approved and the review fee has been paid, the updated plan set will be released back to the party that resubmitted the plans. The new plan set will have some sheets with an older approval stamp date, and some sheets with a newer approval stamp date, but the entire drawing set will be considered ‘Approved’.
By Alberto Fuentes, Senior Plans Examiner, Public Health - Seattle & King County
The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) has created a Best Management Practice (BMP) specific to rooftop dog runs in their 2021 Stormwater Manual (Vol.4 Section 2.1.8).
This new BMP is a testament to our commitment to ensuring the health and well-being of both our beloved pets and our local environment. Dog runs have become increasingly popular, offering a safe and enjoyable space for our furry friends to exercise and socialize. However, it's essential to manage these areas in an eco-conscious way to minimize their impact on our surroundings.
The BMP for rooftop dog runs aims to address some common concerns by providing guidelines and recommendations on how to design, construct, and maintain dog runs that are not only functional but also environmentally responsible. This BMP encourages practices that reduce the risk of stormwater pollution, erosion, and other environmental concerns associated with shared pet areas.
Within the BMP is an allowance for dog run areas over 200S.F. to not be covered if some specific conditions are met:
- All drainage from the dog run area must be directed to the building sanitary sewer system.
- The contaminated stormwater runoff must not be connected to a combined side sewer until downstream of the entire building drainage system, including all drainage collection and control facilities such as detention vaults.
- For projects that require flow control, the uncovered dog run area must be modeled as an uncontrolled bypass area that connects to the point of compliance and the flow control BMPs must be oversized to account for the bypass area.
Some additional requirements for pet relief and amenity areas include:
- Stainless steel mesh screens on drain strainers serving dog run areas. (Downstream hair interceptors can be an alternative.)
- Hair and lint interceptors downstream of pet wash drains.
- Vacuum breakers or other suitable backflow protection for water supplies on pet wash basins.
Read more about this BMP and other topics in the City of Seattle's Stormwater Manual Volume 4: Source Control. Please feel free to contact Public Health about any questions or concerns at planreviewinfo@kingcounty.gov. Let's continue to make Seattle a great place for humans and their canine companions alike!
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