AN ACT Relating to commercial soil amendments; amending RCW 15.54.270, 15.54.800, and 70.95.240; adding a new section to chapter 15.54 RCW; and adding a new section to chapter 70.95 RCW.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 15.54.270 and 1993 c 183 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

Terms used in this chapter have the meaning given to them in this chapter unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

(1) "Brand" means a term, design, or trademark used in connection with the distribution and sale of one or more grades of commercial fertilizers.

(2) "Bulk fertilizer" means commercial fertilizer distributed in a nonpackage form such as, but not limited to, tote bags, tote tanks, bins, tanks, trailers, spreader trucks, and railcars.

(3) "Calcium carbonate equivalent" means the acid-neutralizing capacity of an agricultural liming material expressed as a weight percentage of calcium carbonate.

(4) "Commercial fertilizer" means a substance containing one or more recognized plant nutrients and that is used for its plant nutrient content or that is designated for use or claimed to have value in promoting plant growth, and shall include limes, gypsum, ((~~and~~)) manipulated animal and vegetable manures, and a material approved under section 5 of this act. It does not include unmanipulated animal and vegetable manures and other products exempted by the department by rule.

(5) "Customer-formula fertilizer" means a mixture of commercial fertilizer or materials of which each batch is mixed according to the specifications of the final purchaser.

(6) "Department" means the department of agriculture of the state of Washington or its duly authorized representative.

(7) "Director" means the director of the department of agriculture.

(8) "Distribute" means to import, consign, manufacture, produce, compound, mix, or blend commercial fertilizer, or to offer for sale, sell, barter, exchange, or otherwise supply commercial fertilizer in this state.

(9) "Distributor" means a person who distributes.

(10) "Grade" means the percentage of total nitrogen, available phosphoric acid, and soluble potash stated in whole numbers in the same terms, order, and percentages as in the "guaranteed analysis," unless otherwise allowed by a rule adopted by the department. Specialty fertilizers may be guaranteed in fractional units of less than one percent of total nitrogen, available phosphorus or phosphoric acid, and soluble potassium or potash. Fertilizer materials, bone meal, manures, and similar materials may be guaranteed in fractional units.

(11) "Guaranteed analysis."

(a) Until the director prescribes an alternative form of "guaranteed analysis" by rule the term "guaranteed analysis" shall mean the minimum percentage of plant nutrients claimed in the following order and form:

Total nitrogen (N) ......... percent

Available phosphoric acid (P205) percent

Soluble potash (K20) .... percent

The percentage shall be stated in whole numbers unless otherwise allowed by the department by rule.

The "guaranteed analysis" may also include elemental guarantees for phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

(b) For unacidulated mineral phosphatic material and basic slag, bone, tankage, and other organic phosphatic materials, the total phosphoric acid or degree of fineness may also be guaranteed.

(c) Guarantees for plant nutrients other than nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium shall be as allowed or required by rule of the department. The guarantees for such other nutrients shall be expressed in the form of the element.

(d) The guaranteed analysis for limes shall include the percentage of calcium or magnesium expressed as their carbonate; the calcium carbonate equivalent as determined by methods prescribed by the association of official analytical chemists; and the minimum percentage of material that will pass respectively a one hundred mesh, sixty mesh, and ten mesh sieve. The mesh size declaration may also include the percentage of material that will pass additional mesh sizes.

(e) In commercial fertilizer, the principal constituent of which is calcium sulfate (gypsum), the percentage of calcium sulfate (CaS04.2H20) shall be given along with the percentage of total sulfur.

(f) The guaranteed analysis for a material approved under section 5 of this act and to be used as a soil amendment shall include the name and percentage of each soil amending ingredient and the total percentage of all other ingredients.

(12) "Label" means the display of all written, printed, or graphic matter, upon the immediate container, or a statement accompanying a fertilizer.

(13) "Labeling" includes all written, printed, or graphic matter, upon or accompanying a commercial fertilizer, or advertisement, brochures, posters, television, and radio announcements used in promoting the sale of such fertilizer.

(14) "Licensee" means the person who receives a license to distribute a fertilizer under the provisions of this chapter.

(15) "Lime" means a substance or a mixture of substances, the principal constituent of which is calcium or magnesium carbonate, hydroxide, or oxide, singly or combined.

(16) "Manipulation" means processed or treated in any manner, including drying to a moisture content less than thirty percent.

(17) "Manufacture" means to compound, produce, granulate, mix, blend, repackage, or otherwise alter the composition of fertilizer materials.

(18) "Official sample" means a sample of commercial fertilizer taken by the department and designated as "official" by the department.

(19) "Packaged fertilizer" means commercial fertilizers, either agricultural or specialty, distributed in nonbulk form.

(20) "Person" means an individual, firm, brokerage, partnership, corporation, company, society, or association.

(21) "Percent" or "percentage" means the percentage by weight.

(22) "Registrant" means the person who registers commercial fertilizer under the provisions of this chapter.

(23) "Specialty fertilizer" means a commercial fertilizer distributed primarily for nonfarm use, such as, but not limited to, use on home gardens, lawns, shrubbery, flowers, golf courses, municipal parks, cemeteries, greenhouses, and nurseries.

(24) "Ton" means the net weight of two thousand pounds avoirdupois.

(25) "Total nutrients" means the sum of the percentages of total nitrogen, available phosphoric acid, and soluble potash as guaranteed and as determined by analysis.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 15.54 RCW to read as follows:

A material approved under section 5 of this act may be distributed as a commercial fertilizer and may be registered as a packaged commercial fertilizer. However, the department may refuse to register such a material as a packaged commercial fertilizer, may cancel the registration of the material as a packaged commercial fertilizer, and may prohibit its distribution as a commercial fertilizer if the department finds evidence that use of the material as a commercial fertilizer poses unacceptable hazards to human health or the environment that were not known during the approval process specified in section 5 of this act.

Sec. 3. RCW 15.54.800 and 1993 c 183 s 14 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The director shall administer and enforce the provisions of this chapter and any rules adopted under this chapter. All authority and requirements provided for in chapter 34.05 RCW apply to this chapter in the adoption of rules.

(2) The director may adopt appropriate rules for carrying out the purpose and provisions of this chapter, including but not limited to rules providing for:

(a) Definitions of terms;

(b) Determining standards for labeling and registration of commercial fertilizers ((~~and agricultural minerals and limes~~));

(d) Recordkeeping by registrants and licensees;

(e) Regulation of the use and disposal of commercial fertilizers for the protection of ground water and surface water; and

(f) The safe handling, transportation, storage, display, and distribution of commercial fertilizers.

Sec. 4. RCW 70.95.240 and 1993 c 292 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) After the adoption of regulations or ordinances by any county, city, or jurisdictional board of health providing for the issuance of permits as provided in RCW 70.95.160, it shall be unlawful for any person to dump or deposit or permit the dumping or depositing of any solid waste onto or under the surface of the ground or into the waters of this state except at a solid waste disposal site for which there is a valid permit. This section shall not:

(a) Prohibit a person from dumping or depositing solid waste resulting from his own activities onto or under the surface of ground owned or leased by him when such action does not violate statutes or ordinances, or create a nuisance; or

(b) Apply to a person using a material or materials on the land as commercial fertilizer if (i) the department of ecology has issued written approval for the use of the material or materials as commercial fertilizer as provided in section 5 of this act, (ii) the registration of the material or materials as a packaged commercial fertilizer has not been canceled under section 2 of this act, and (iii) the distribution of the material or materials as a commercial fertilizer has not been prohibited by the department of agriculture under section 2 of this act.

(2)(a) It is a class 3 civil infraction as defined in RCW 7.80.120 for a person to litter in an amount less than or equal to one cubic foot.

(b) It is a class 1 civil infraction as defined in RCW 7.80.120 for a person to litter in an amount greater than one cubic foot. Unless suspended or modified by a court, the person shall also pay a litter cleanup fee of twenty-five dollars per cubic foot of litter. The court may, in addition to or in lieu of part or all of the cleanup fee, order the person to pick up and remove litter from the property, with prior permission of the legal owner or, in the case of public property, of the agency managing the property.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 70.95 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The legislature finds that an optional procedure should be established that provides certainty as to whether certain materials generated as byproducts from the manufacturing of wood products may clearly be distributed and used as commercial fertilizer. It is the intent of the legislature in establishing such a procedure that it be truly optional, and that the procedure or the legislature's establishment of the procedure not be construed, except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, as suggesting in any manner whatsoever that a material submitted or not submitted for approval under the procedure or generated or not generated as a byproduct from the manufacturing of wood products is or is not to be regulated as a solid waste.

(2) If a person desires to receive the express approval of the department of ecology to distribute a material generated as a byproduct from the manufacturing of wood products as a commercial fertilizer under chapter 15.54 RCW for use as a commercial fertilizer, the person may request in writing the department to provide such approval. The department shall issue written approval to the person and to the department of agriculture that the material may be used as a commercial fertilizer, if the material characteristics and management methods will not pose unacceptable hazards to human health and the environment. The written approval shall certify, to the extent practicable, that the use of the material as a commercial fertilizer is consistent with the following:

(a) The biosolids standards set forth in rule or guidance under chapter 70.95J RCW, municipal sewage sludge;

(b) Chapter 70.105D RCW, model toxics control act;

(d) Chapter 70.94 RCW, Washington clean air act;

(e) Chapter 70.105 RCW, hazardous waste management act; and

(f) Other factors intended to protect human health and the environment.

(3) A material generated as a byproduct from the manufacturing of wood products that is approved by the department under this section for use as commercial fertilizer and that is distributed and used as such shall not be regulated as solid waste.

(4) A party aggrieved by a decision of the department to issue a written approval under this section or to deny the issuance of such an approval may appeal the decision to the pollution control hearings board within thirty days of the decision. Review of such a decision shall be conducted in accordance with chapter 43.21B RCW. Any subsequent appeal of a decision of the hearings board shall be obtained in accordance with RCW 43.21B.180.