6075-S

AN ACT Relating to the listing and setting of priorities for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites; amending RCW 70.105D.030; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature hereby finds and declares as follows:

(a) The principal factor in setting priorities for cleanup of hazardous waste sites should be the actual threat to the public's health and to the environment;

(b) The existing hazard ranking and reporting system has not been effective in ensuring that the sites with the greatest risks obtain the highest priority for cleanup.

(2) The legislature therefore declares the following:

(a) The department's priority setting should rely primarily on the relative risks to human health and the environment among the sites on the waste site list;

(b) Funds appropriated for site remediation from the toxics control accounts should be expended primarily for the highest priority sites determined by the department based on the hazard ranking.

Sec. 2. RCW 70.105D.030 and 1989 c 2 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The department may exercise the following powers in addition to any other powers granted by law:

(a) Investigate, provide for investigating, or require potentially liable persons to investigate any releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, including but not limited to inspecting, sampling, or testing to determine the nature or extent of any release or threatened release. If there is a reasonable basis to believe that a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance may exist, the department's authorized employees, agents, or contractors may enter upon any property and conduct investigations. The department shall give reasonable notice before entering property unless an emergency prevents such notice. The department may by subpoena require the attendance or testimony of witnesses and the production of documents or other information that the department deems necessary;

(b) Conduct, provide for conducting, or require potentially liable persons to conduct remedial actions (including investigations under (a) of this subsection) to remedy releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances. In carrying out such powers, the department's authorized employees, agents, or contractors may enter upon property. The department shall give reasonable notice before entering property unless an emergency prevents such notice. In conducting, providing for, or requiring remedial action, the department shall give preference to permanent solutions to the maximum extent practicable and shall provide for or require adequate monitoring to ensure the effectiveness of the remedial action;

(c) Indemnify contractors retained by the department for carrying out investigations and remedial actions, but not for any contractor's reckless or wilful misconduct;

(d) Carry out all state programs authorized under the federal cleanup law and the federal resource, conservation, and recovery act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 6901 et seq., as amended;

(e) Classify substances as hazardous substances for purposes of RCW 70.105D.020(5) and classify substances and products as hazardous substances for purposes of RCW 82.21.020(1); and

(f) Take any other actions necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter, including the power to adopt rules under chapter 34.05 RCW.

(2) The department shall immediately implement all provisions of this chapter to the maximum extent practicable, including investigative and remedial actions where appropriate. The department((~~, within nine months after March 1, 1989,~~)) shall adopt, and thereafter enforce, rules under chapter 34.05 RCW to:

(a) Provide for public participation, including at least (i) the establishment of regional citizen's advisory committees, (ii) public notice of the development of investigative plans or remedial plans for releases or threatened releases, and (iii) concurrent public notice of all compliance orders, enforcement orders, or notices of violation;

(b) Establish and maintain a hazardous waste site list that includes all sites for which the department has credible evidence to believe that remedial action under this chapter will be required. The department shall adopt reasonable deadlines for the removal of sites from the list for which remedial action has been completed, and the department shall maintain a separate list of sites requiring monitoring or operation and maintenance activities following remediation.

(c) Establish a hazard ranking and priority setting system ((~~for hazardous waste sites~~)) governing remedial actions by the department and expenditures from the toxics control accounts at sites on the hazardous waste site list. The criteria used in setting priorities must ensure that the highest priority is assigned to sites that present the greatest relative risk to human health and the environment among the sites on the list. The department may use additional criteria in setting priorities for remedial action, such as the readiness of the potentially liable person to proceed, the availability of funding, or the need to fulfill federal grant commitments or obligations under federal law, but these factors shall be given a lower weight than risk to human health and the environment. The sites elevated in priority using these additional criteria shall be identified in the work plan required under subsection (3) of this section and the reasons for elevating their priority indicated. In assigning priorities the department may incorporate and rely upon the hazard ranking system established by the department. The department shall utilize the priority setting system in developing the work plan required under subsection (3) of this section;

((~~(c)~~)) (d) Establish reasonable deadlines not to exceed ninety days for initiating an investigation of a hazardous waste site after the department receives information that the site may pose a threat to human health or the environment and other reasonable deadlines for remedying releases or threatened releases at the site; and

((~~(d)~~)) (e) Publish and periodically update minimum cleanup standards for remedial actions at least as stringent as the cleanup standards under section 121 of the federal cleanup law, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 9621, and at least as stringent as all applicable state and federal laws, including health-based standards under state and federal law.

(3) Before November 1st of each even-numbered year, the ((~~department shall develop, with public notice and hearing, and~~)) governor shall submit to the ((~~ways and means~~)) fiscal and appropriate standing environmental committees of the senate and house of representatives the following:

((~~a ranked~~)) (a) A list of ((~~projects~~)) activities and the expenditures recommended for appropriation from both the state and local toxics control accounts to all agencies implementing programs and to achieve the waste prevention and cleanup purposes of this chapter.

(b) A work plan for remedial action at sites on the hazardous waste site list and the expenditures recommended for appropriation from the state and local toxics control accounts to implement the work plan. The plan shall be developed by the department, with public notice and hearing, to provide for remedial action at the sites for which the department has assigned the highest priority under subsection (2)(c) of this section. The plan shall include projected expenditures for such sites in each of the fiscal years of the next biennium. However, the plan may exclude a per-site projection of expenditures of funds which it proposes to hold in reserve for department-conducted cleanup in the event that liable persons refuse to conduct the cleanup, and such amount may be projected as a total amount for the biennium.

(c) The ((~~department~~)) governor shall also provide the legislature and the public following each fiscal year with an accounting of the ((~~department's~~)) activities of state agencies and grantees supported by appropriations from the state and local toxics control accounts, including ((a)) the list of ((~~known~~)) hazardous waste sites and their ((~~hazard~~)) priority rankings, actions taken and planned at each site, an accounting of expenditures at each site, how the department is meeting its top two management priorities under RCW 70.105.150, and all funds expended under this chapter.

(d) Funds appropriated to the department for remedial action activities shall be expended in substantial conformance with the priority ranking of sites and consistently with the work plan submitted under (b) of this subsection.

(4) The department shall establish a scientific advisory board to render advice to the department with respect to the hazard ranking system, cleanup standards, remedial actions, deadlines for remedial actions, monitoring, the classification of substances as hazardous substances for purposes of RCW 70.105D.020(5) and the classification of substances or products as hazardous substances for purposes of RCW 82.21.020(1). The board shall consist of five independent members to serve staggered three-year terms. No members may be employees of the department. Members shall be reimbursed for travel expenses as provided in RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060.

(5) The department shall establish a program to identify potential hazardous waste sites and to encourage persons to provide information about hazardous waste sites.