_______________________________________________
SUBSTITUTE
SENATE BILL 5636
_______________________________________________
AS
AMENDED BY THE HOUSE
Passed
Legislature - 1998 Regular Session
State of Washington 55th
Legislature 1997 Regular Session
By
Read first time 03/03/97.
Revising
health inspection warrants for local health officers in response to pollution
in commercial or recreational shellfish harvesting areas.
AN
ACT Relating to health inspection warrants; and amending RCW 70.118.030.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
70.118.030 and 1977 ex.s. c 133 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
Local boards of health shall identify failing septic tank drainfield systems in
the normal manner and will use reasonable effort to determine new failures. The
local health officer, environmental health director, or equivalent officer may
apply for an administrative search warrant to a court official authorized to
issue a criminal search warrant. The warrant may only be applied for after the
local health officer or the health officer's designee has requested inspection
of the person's property under the specific administrative plan required in
this section, and the person has refused the health officer or the health
officer's designee access to the person's property. Timely notice must be
given to any affected person that a warrant is being requested and that the
person may be present at any court proceeding to consider the requested search
warrant. The court official may issue the warrant upon probable cause. A
request for a search warrant must show the inspection, examination, test, or
sampling is in response to pollution in commercial or recreational shellfish
harvesting areas or pollution in fresh water. A specific administrative plan
must be developed expressly in response to the pollution. The local health
officer, environmental health director, or equivalent officer shall submit the
plan to the court as part of the justification for the warrant, along with
specific evidence showing that it is reasonable to believe pollution is coming
from the septic system on the property to be accessed for inspection. The plan
must include each of the following elements:
(a)
The overall goal of the inspection;
(b)
The location and identification by address of the properties being authorized
for inspection;
(c)
Requirements for giving the person owning the property and the person occupying
the property if it is someone other than the owner, notice of the plan, its
provisions, and times of any inspections;
(d)
The survey procedures to be used in the inspection;
(e)
The criteria that would be used to define an on-site sewage system failure; and
(f)
The follow-up actions that would be pursued once an on-site sewage system
failure has been identified and confirmed.
(2)
Discretionary judgment will be made in implementing corrections by specifying
nonwater-carried sewage disposal devices or other alternative methods of
treatment and effluent disposal as a measure of ameliorating existing
substandard conditions. Local regulations shall be consistent with the intent
and purposes stated ((herein)) in this section.
