AN ACT Relating to hazardous substance information; adding a new chapter to Title 70 RCW; prescribing penalties; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. There is hereby created the hazardous substance information and education office. Through this office the department shall:

(1) Facilitate access to existing information on hazardous substances within a community;

(2) Request and obtain information about hazardous substances at specified locations and facilities from agencies and businesses that own or operate those locations and facilities. Each agency and business providing information may request that the information be treated as confidential, and the department shall review, approve, and provide confidentiality in accordance with chapter 42.17 RCW. Upon request of the department, each agency or business shall provide the information within forty-five days;

(3) At the request of citizens or public health or public safety organizations, compile existing information about hazardous substance use at specified locations and facilities. This information shall include but not be limited to:

(a) Historic point and nonpoint air and water emissions;

(b) Historic quantity of hazardous substances produced, used, stored, transported from, or disposed of by any facility;

(c) A list of the chemicals present at a given site and data on their acute and chronic health and environmental effects;

(d) Data on governmental pesticide use at a given site;

(e) Data on commercial pesticide use at a given site, if such data is only given to individuals diagnosed as chemically sensitive; and

(f) Compliance history of any facility.

(4) Provide education to the public on the proper production, use, storage, and disposal of hazardous substances, including but not limited to:

(a) A technical resource center on hazardous substance management for industry and the public;

(b) Programs, in cooperation with local government, to educate generators of moderate risk waste, and provide information regarding the potential hazards to human health and the environment resulting from improper use and disposal of the waste and proper methods of handling, reducing, recycling, and disposing of the waste;

(d) Guidelines to aid counties in developing and implementing a hazardous household substances program.

Requests for information from the hazardous substance information and education office may be made by letter or by a toll-free telephone line, if one is established by the department. Requests shall be responded to within sixty working days.

This section shall not require any business to compile information that is not required by existing laws or regulations.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the definitions in this section shall apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Agency" means any state agency or local government entity.

(2) "Hazardous household substances" means those substances identified by the department as hazardous household substances in the guidelines developed by the department.

(3) "Department" means the department of ecology.

(4) "Director" means the director of the department.

(5) "Hazardous substances" or "hazardous materials" means those substances or materials identified as such under regulations adopted pursuant to the federal hazardous materials transportation act, the toxic substances control act, the resource recovery and conservation act, the comprehensive environmental response compensation and liability act, the federal insecticide, fungicide, and rodenticide act, the occupational safety and health act hazardous communications standards, and the state hazardous waste act.

(6) "Moderate risk waste" means any waste that exhibits any of the properties of dangerous waste but is exempt from regulation under this chapter solely because the waste is generated in quantities below the threshold for regulation and any household wastes that are generated from the disposal of substances identified by the department as hazardous household substances.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Sections 1 and 2 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 70 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The sum of forty-five thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1987, from the general fund to the department of ecology for the purposes of this act.