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State Government - Environmental Progress in the Legislature

By Ruth Shearer

The recent legislative session is noted for what it didn't do, but a few good bills on environmental policy actually passed, and some bad ones were blocked.

2SHB 2251 - Concerning fish barrier removals. Three new categories of fish barrier removal projects are added to the list of those eligible for streamlined permitting under the HPA (hydraulic project approval) process. The WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife must explore options with federal agencies as to bundling transportation-related fish passage barrier removal projects under federal permitting processes. The Fish Passage Barrier Removal Board is charged with identifying and expediting the removal of fish passage barriers.

2SHB 2457 - Concerning derelict and abandoned vessels. This builds on last year's inadequate legislation on this topic by creating new requirements on the sale of certain vessels, establishing a fee on commercial vessels required to be listed with the Department of Revenue to fund the state's derelict and abandoned vessel program, requiring certain insurance to be held by moorage facilities and moored vessels, providing an exemption from retail sales and use tax for vessel deconstruction activities, and creating new penalties for failure to register a vessel.

E2SHB 2569 - Reducing air pollution associated with diesel emissions. This creates the Diesel Idle Reduction Account for issuing low or no interest loans to governments for diesel idle reduction projects, requires Ecology to consider anticipated human health, environmental and greenhouse gas benefits from diesel idle reduction projects when selecting loan recipients, and requires the Account to be managed so that it is self-sustaining over a long-term planning horizon. Eligible projects include diesel engine retrofit or replacement projects and projects which reduce emissions from diesel idling. The latter projects include electrification of parking spaces, truck stops and port infrastructure, and the integration of automatic engine start/stop technologies into vehicles.

EHB 2733 - Designating certain hydroelectric generation in irrigation canals and certain pipes as an eligible renewable resource. Eligible resources under the Energy Independence Act now include hydroelectric generation in irrigation pipes, irrigation canals, and municipal water and wastewater pipes where the generation does not require new water diversions or impoundments.

ESSB 6040 - Concerning invasive species. The Dept. of Fish and Wildlife is the lead agency for managing aquatic invasive species (AIS). Its activities include monitoring and rapid response actions, conducting education and outreach, aligning standards, classifications, and enforcement provisions with regional, national, and international provisions, and providing technical assistance or other support to government entities and private groups. New sub-classes of AIS are created within Prohibited Species and Regulated Species, with new rapid response, site management and quarantine authorities. Fish and Wildlife operates check stations to prevent the transport of aquatic invasive species on watercraft, and it is illegal to fail to stop, fail to allow inspection, or fail to comply with a decontamination order.

SSB 6086 - Reducing PCBs in products purchased by state agencies. This is a watered-down version of a bill originally submitted as Reducing PCBs in Washington State. The Dept. of Enterprise Services must establish a procurement policy that provides a preference for products and packaging that do not contain PCBs. This does not apply to stock ordered before June 14, 2014.

Good Bills Not Passed or Watered Down to Uselessness

HB 2347 - Enhancing the safety of the transportation of oil. Directs the Washington State University to conduct a study of the state's capacity to respond to oil train accidents; requires Department of Ecology to compile quarterly oil transportation reports which incorporate information submitted by certain oil facilities; authorizes Ecology, if certain types of oil storage or processing facilities are sited or expanded, to adopt rules before January 1, 2020 to require tug escorts for oil tankers in Grays Harbor and on the Columbia River, and to require additional tug escorts for oil tankers in Puget Sound; and creates a penalty for oil spills in certain waters that involve an oil barge towed by a tug that Ecology finds to have acted recklessly or negligently. This bill passed the House.

ESHB 1294 - Concerning flame retardants. Prohibits the sale, manufacture, or distribution of children's products or residential upholstered furniture containing the chemicals TCEP or TDCPP in amounts greater than 100 ppm in any product component. It bans the manufacture, sale, and distribution of residential upholstered furniture and children's products containing any flame retardant identified as a high priority chemical of high concern for children in amounts greater than 100 ppm in any product component, unless a manufacturer demonstrates that there is not a technically feasible safer alternative to the flame retardant. This bill passed the House and was gutted by the Senate which removed the entire second clause above, allowing manufacturers to replace the banned chemicals with something as bad or worse.

HB 2090 - Establishing categorical exemptions in the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) for development proposals that are consistent with locally adopted land use and shoreline regulations. This attack on SEPA was stopped in the House committee.

HB 2288, SB 5983 - Limiting the authority of growth management hearings boards to hear petitions challenging the regulation of permit exempt wells. This latest attack on our state Growth Management Act was stopped in the House committee on local government, and was not heard in the Senate. Attempts to allow residential development projects on exempt wells recur almost annually.

SSB 5991 - Studying nuclear power as a replacement for electricity generated from the combustion of fossil fuels. Creates a Joint Select Committee on Nuclear Energy to study how the state can advance and support the generation of clean energy through the use of nuclear power. This "clean" energy proposal, which would promote nuclear power plants with their massive amounts of highly radioactive waste over the lifetime of the plant, passed the Senate and passed the House committee on Technology and Economic Development but was stopped in the House rules committee.


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Updated 2015/01/07 21:14:22