The publication Arkansas Hospitals published an article I authored in its Fall 2026 edition titled:
Environmental Regulatory Requirements: A Hospital/Healthcare Facility Perspective/Checklist (“Article”).
The Article identifies various environmental requirements and issues affecting hospitals and other medical facilities.
The purpose of the Article is to provide hospital management, compliance, maintenance, and engineering staff information and applicable environmental regulations relevant to these unique facilities and their activities.
Hospitals are noted to be different from other commercial and industrial facilities because they are susceptible to both specialized healthcare and environmental regulations. An additional referenced difficulty is the reality that significant portions of these structures have patients and activities that are arguably more sensitive than in a typical commercial/industrial facility setting. This more controlled environment can make environmental compliance challenging.
Addressing governmental regulatory requirements can also be a challenging task because besides operating patient care facilities, hospitals engage in a number of activities and/or operations such as:
- Laboratories.
- Research.
- Food services.
- Mechanical.
- Vehicle maintenance shops.
- Power plants.
- Laundries.
Further, hospitals and other medical facilities have evolving facility requirements and some hospital structures are quite old, which presents its own set of issues in terms of necessary expansions/modifications.
The Article addresses a number of issues which include:
- Emergency/standby generators.
- Clean Water Act Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Regulations.
- Spill releases.
- Arkansas Petroleum Storage Tank Trust Fund.
- Clean Air Act.
- Fire Codes.
- Fuel Supplier Agreements.
- Building operation/construction/renovation.
- Asbestos.
- Lead-based paint.
- Mold/fungi.
- Historical soil contamination.
- Stormwater construction permit.
- Waste management.
- Hazardous Waste Rules.
- Medical Waste Rules.
- Solid waste.
- Off-site disposal and treatment of waste.
- Wastewater discharges.
A copy of the Article can be found here.
The Between the Lines blog is made available by Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. and the law firm publisher. The blog site is for educational purposes only, as well as to give general information and a general understanding of the law. This blog is not intended to provide specific legal advice. Use of this blog site does not create an attorney client relationship between you and Mitchell Williams or the blog site publisher. The Between the Lines blog site should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state.