1837-S.E

AN ACT Relating to water quality account distributions; amending RCW 70.146.020 and 70.146.075; reenacting and amending RCW 70.146.060; repealing RCW 70.146.080; and declaring an emergency.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 70.146.020 and 1993 sp.s. c 24 s 923 are each amended to read as follows:

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Account" means the water quality account in the state treasury.

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

(3) "Eligible cost" means the cost of that portion of a water pollution control facility that can be financed under this chapter excluding any portion of a facility's cost attributable to capacity that is in excess of that reasonably required to address one hundred ten percent of the applicant's needs for water pollution control existing at the time application is submitted for assistance under this chapter.

(4) "Water pollution control facility" or "facilities" means any facilities or systems for the control, collection, storage, treatment, disposal, or recycling of wastewater, including but not limited to sanitary sewage, storm water, residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural wastes, which are causing water quality degradation due to concentrations of conventional, nonconventional, or toxic pollutants. Water pollution control facilities include all equipment, utilities, structures, real property, and interests in and improvements on real property necessary for or incidental to such purpose. Water pollution control facilities also include such facilities, equipment, and collection systems as are necessary to protect federally designated sole source aquifers.

(5) "Water pollution control activities" ((means actions taken by a public body for the following purposes: (a) To prevent or mitigate pollution of underground water; (b) to control nonpoint sources of water pollution; (c) to restore the water quality of fresh water lakes; and (d) to maintain or improve water quality through the use of water pollution control facilities or other means. During the 1993-1995 fiscal biennium, "water pollution control activities" includes activities by state agencies to protect public drinking water supplies and sources)) or "activities" means actions taken by a public body to: (a) Prevent, mitigate, or control water pollution; or (b) restore ground and surface waters affected by water pollution.

(6) "Public body" means the state of Washington or any agency, county, city or town, conservation district, other political subdivision, municipal corporation, quasi-municipal corporation, and those Indian tribes now or hereafter recognized as such by the federal government.

(7) "Water pollution" means such contamination, or other alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of any waters of the state, including change in temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of the waters, or such discharge of any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive, or other substance into any waters of the state as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters harmful, detrimental, or injurious to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish, or other aquatic life.

(8) "Nonpoint source water pollution" means pollution that enters any waters of the state from any dispersed water-based or land-use activities, including, but not limited to, atmospheric deposition, surface water runoff from agricultural lands, urban areas, and forest lands, subsurface or underground sources, and discharges from boats or other marine vessels.

(9) "Sole source aquifer" means the sole or principal source of public drinking water for an area designated by the administrator of the environmental protection agency pursuant to Public Law 93-523, Sec. 1424(b).

(10) "Point source" means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are discharged.

Sec. 2. RCW 70.146.060 and 1987 c 527 s 1 and 1987 c 436 s 7 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

(1) During the period from July 1, ((~~1987~~)) 1995, until June 30, ((~~1995~~)) 2005, the following limitations shall apply to the department's total distribution of funds appropriated from the water quality account:

((~~(1) Not more than~~)) (a) Fifty percent for ((~~water pollution control facilities which discharge directly into marine waters~~)) activities and facilities to control water pollution from point sources; and

(((2) Not more than twenty percent for water pollution control activities that prevent or mitigate pollution of underground waters and facilities that protect federally designated sole source aquifers with at least two-thirds for the Spokane-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer;

~~(3) Not more than ten percent for water pollution control activities that protect freshwater lakes and rivers including but not limited to Lake Chelan and the Yakima and Columbia rivers;~~

~~(4) Not more than ten percent for activities which control nonpoint source water pollution;~~

(5) Ten percent and such sums as may be remaining from the categories specified in subsections (1) through (4) of this section for water pollution control activities or facilities as determined by the department; and

(6) Two and one-half percent of the total amounts of moneys under subsections (1) through (5) of this section from February 21, 1986, until December 31, 1995, shall be appropriated biennially to the state conservation commission for the purposes of this chapter. Not less than ten percent of the moneys received by the state conservation commission under the provisions of this section shall be expended on research activities.)) (b) Fifty percent for activities and facilities that control water pollution from nonpoint sources. Fifty percent of the funds distributed under this subsection (1)(b) shall be appropriated biennially to the state conservation commission.

(2) The distribution under this section shall not be required to be met in any single fiscal year.

(3) Funds provided for facilities and activities under this chapter may be used for payments to a service provider under a service agreement pursuant to RCW 70.150.060. If funds are to be used for such payments, the department may make periodic disbursements to a public body or may make a single lump sum disbursement. Disbursements of funds with respect to a facility owned or operated by a service provider shall be equivalent in value to disbursements that would otherwise be made if that facility were owned or operated by a public body. Payments under this chapter for waste disposal and management facilities made to public bodies entering into service agreements pursuant to RCW 70.150.060 shall not exceed amounts paid to public bodies not entering into service agreements.

Sec. 3. RCW 70.146.075 and 1987 c 516 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The department of ecology may enter into contracts with local jurisdictions which provide for extended grant payments under which eligible costs may be paid on an advanced or deferred basis. The dollar amount of extended grant payments paid by the department may not exceed seventeen and one-half million dollars during any one fiscal year.

(2) Extended grant payments shall be in equal annual payments, the total of which does not exceed, on a net present value basis, fifty percent of the total eligible cost of the project incurred at the time of design and construction. The duration of such extended grant payments shall be for a period not to exceed twenty years. The total of federal and state grant moneys received for the eligible costs of the project shall not exceed fifty percent of the eligible costs.

(3) Any moneys appropriated by the legislature from the water quality account shall be first used by the department of ecology to satisfy the conditions of the extended grant payment contracts and shall not be considered a distribution under section 2 of this act.

(4) By July 1, 1995, the department shall enter into an extended grant contract for the prevention and mitigation of water pollution to the federally designated sole source aquifer in the Spokane Rathdrum Prairie. The contract shall provide five million dollars annually and shall terminate June 30, 2010.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. RCW 70.146.080 and 1994 sp.s. c 6 s 902, 1993 sp.s. c 24 s 924, 1991 sp.s. c 16 s 923, & 1986 c 3 s 11 are each repealed.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. 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 immediately.