CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

 

                  SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5636

 

 

                   Chapter 152, Laws of 1998

 

 

                        55th Legislature

                      1998 Regular Session

 

 

HEALTH INSPECTION WARRANTS IN RESPONSE TO POLLUTION IN SHELLFISH HARVESTING AREAS--REVISIONS

 

 

 

                    EFFECTIVE DATE:  6/11/98

Passed by the Senate March 9, 1998

  YEAS 41   NAYS 2

 

 

 

               BRAD OWEN

President of the Senate

 

Passed by the House March 5, 1998

  YEAS 97   NAYS 0

             CERTIFICATE

 

I, Mike O=Connell, Secretary of the Senate of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is  SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5636 as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the dates hereon set forth.

 

 

 

             CLYDE BALLARD

Speaker of the

      House of Representatives

           MIKE O'CONNELL

                            Secretary

 

 

Approved March 25, 1998 Place Style On Codes above, and Style Off Codes below.  

                                FILED          

 

 

           March 25, 1998 - 4:38 p.m.

 

 

 

              GARY LOCKE

Governor of the State of Washington

                   Secretary of State

                  State of Washington


          _______________________________________________

 

                    SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5636

          _______________________________________________

 

                      AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE

 

             Passed Legislature - 1998 Regular Session

 

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

 

By Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Parks (originally sponsored by Senators Oke, Swecker, Rossi and Horn)

 

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.


    Passed the Senate March 9, 1998.

    Passed the House March 5, 1998.

Approved by the Governor March 25, 1998.

    Filed in Office of Secretary of State March 25, 1998.