"NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the departments of fisheries and wildlife process approximately six thousand applications a year for permits relating to construction projects in state waters. Costs associated with a typical permit application include coordination of the permit application with other agencies, the evaluation of an activity's impacts, the preparation and issuance of documents authorizing or denying a proposed activity, investigations, and monitoring.

It is the intent of the legislature to adopt a schedule of fees for applications for construction projects in state waters.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 75.20 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Fees are required for the review and evaluation of permit applications under this chapter. All applicable fees are nonrefundable, irrespective of whether the final decision is to issue or deny the requested permit. Each application for a permit shall be accompanied by the applicable fee provided in this section. No application for a permit will be accepted for evaluation without the applicable fee being remitted. After the application has been examined and a determination made that the fee remitted is not the applicable fee for the specific type of permit required, the applicant will be notified of any additional fee required prior to processing.

(2) Except as otherwise provided in this section, the fee charged for a permit under this chapter is:

(a) Fifty dollars for projects costing less than fifty thousand dollars.

(b) One hundred dollars for projects costing fifty thousand dollars or more, but less than one hundred thousand dollars.

(c) Two hundred and fifty dollars for projects costing one hundred thousand dollars or more, but less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

(d) Five hundred dollars for projects costing two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more, but less than five hundred thousand dollars.

(e) Seven hundred and fifty dollars for projects costing five hundred thousand dollars or more, but less than seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

(f) One thousand dollars for projects costing seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more.

(3) For an unusual project, the applicant shall pay the appropriate fee required by subsections (a) through (f) of subsection 2 of this section when the application is submitted. If this application fee is insufficient to pay one-half of the departments' costs to review the project, then the department shall charge an additional fee that together with the original fee will recover one-half of the department's cost of reviewing the project. The total fee for an unusual project shall not exceed five thousand dollars.

(4) The fee charged for mineral prospecting is twenty-five dollars.

(5) The fee charged for a renewal of a permit previously issued under this chapter when the project has not changed is thirty-five dollars.

(6) The fee charged for nonprofit volunteer and educational fish rearing projects is twenty dollars.

(7) The department of fisheries and the department of wildlife shall each adopt rules to administer the hydraulic permit fees contained in this section.

(8) The department of fisheries and department of wildlife shall submit a report to the appropriate committees of the legislature by November of each even-numbered year showing detailed information on fees collected, actual expenses incurred, anticipated expenses, and the actual costs of processing representative permit applications for the current biennium and next two biennium.

(9) As used in this section:

(a) "Project cost" includes only the cost of the work directly related to the activity that requires a permit under this chapter.

(b) "Unusual project" means a project that is unusually extensive or that requires a protracted review, such as projects that involve more than one water resource inventory area or more than fifteen stream crossings, or have project costs exceeding two million dollars.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect July 1, 1991."