BILL REQ. #:  H-2205.2 

Read first time 02/20/2007.   Referred to Committee on Select Committee on Environmental Health.

     AN ACT Relating to addressing inequities in the location of facilities that impact human health in low-income or minority neighborhoods; and adding a new chapter to Title 70 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that certain sites or facilities may negatively impact human health, safety, and the environment. Exposure to environmental contaminants can negatively impact a population's health status. Minority and economically disadvantaged populations are known to have poorer health status than the overall population and have higher rates of a variety of diseases. People with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to live in the most hazardous environments and to work in the most hazardous occupations. While many complex factors interact to produce health disparities among minority and low-income populations, environmental and occupational exposures contribute to poorer health status. Therefore, reducing the potential for exposure to environmental health hazards from site-specific facilities is important to protect human health, safety, and the environment.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Aggregate total" means the total number of each and every individual facility or condition that is located or exists within a five-mile radius, added to the total number of each and every other individual facility or condition that is located or exists within a five-mile radius, as a sum total.
     (2) "Airport" means any area of land or water that is used, or intended for use, for the landing and takeoff of aircraft, and any appurtenant areas that are used, or intended for use, for airport buildings or other airport facilities or right-of-way, together with all airport buildings and facilities located in those areas, and including flight paths designated by the federal aviation administration.
     (3) "Area with a five-mile radius" means an area or location with a five-mile radius. Such an area may also be designated through the use of already existing data or jurisdictional lines, such as county or city boundary lines, five-digit zip code areas, or United States census tracts.
     (4) "Container terminal" means a facility where cargo containers are loaded or unloaded to or from ships or land vehicles for further transport.
     (5) "Drydock or marine maintenance facility" means a location where a drydock is located or where marine maintenance activities, such as construction or repair, occur.
     (6) "Electrical substation" means a subsidiary station of an electricity generation, transmission, and distribution system where voltage is transformed from high to low or the reverse using transformers.
     (7) "Electric transmission line" means any part of a utility district's system to conduct electric energy from the place of production to the point of distribution or at an electric power substation. The lines and related equipment are designed for or capable of operating at a nominal voltage in excess of one hundred fifteen thousand volts.
     (8) "EPA superfund site" means a site listed on the national priorities list under the federal comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 9601 et seq., as amended).
     (9) "Facility" means any site or planned action and includes any site or planned action that requires an environmental impact statement as set forth in chapter 43.21C RCW or equivalent land use action notice by local ordinance.
     (10) "Free or reduced-price lunches" means lunches served by a school district that qualify for federal reimbursement as free or reduced-price lunches under the national school lunch program.
     (11) "Fuel farm" means a facility used for the purpose of storing and distributing fuel or petroleum that holds more than one thousand gallons.
     (12) "Hazardous waste facility" means all contiguous land, structures, and improvements on the land used for recycling, storing, treating, incinerating, or disposing of hazardous waste.
     (13) "Highway of statewide significance" means an existing or proposed state route or federal interstate designated as a highway of statewide significance by the transportation commission, the department, or the legislature.
     (14) "Industrial factory" means a building located in an area zoned as industrial by local ordinance where goods or products are manufactured and that contains a smokestack that facilitates the discharge of combustion vapors, gases, or smoke.
     (15) "Intermodal railway facility" means a facility where freight is transferred from one mode of transport to another, including transport on railway lines.
     (16) "Intermodal solid waste transfer facility" means either a facility that receives solid waste from refuse collection trucks and other sources and compacts the waste into intermodal containers or a facility that loads intermodal containers onto vehicles, such as trains, trucks, container ships, and railways, for transportation to another location, or both.
     (17) "National priorities list" means a list of hazardous waste sites at which the United States environmental protection agency intends to proceed with enforcement or cleanup action.
     (18) "Oil pipeline" means all or parts of a pipeline that transports oil within a storage field, or transports oil from an interstate pipeline or storage facility to a distribution facility that has statewide importance.
     (19) "Passenger ship terminal facility" means a location providing berth for a ship or vessel greater than three hundred or more gross tons or five hundred or more international gross tons carrying passengers for compensation.
     (20) "Personal wireless service facilities" means unstaffed facilities that are used for the transmission or reception, or both, of personal wireless services including, but not limited to, antenna arrays, transmission cables, equipment shelters, and support structures.
     (21) "Rail corridor" means a railway line or lines on which freight or passenger trains or rail vehicles travel between an origination and destination point on the railway lines.
     (22) "Regional transit system" means a high-capacity transportation system under the jurisdiction of one or more transit agencies, including a regional transit authority.
     (23) "Sex offender facility" means a residential facility for persons civilly confined under the provisions of chapter 71.09 RCW and includes security measures sufficient to protect the community. These facilities include total confinement facilities, secure community transition facilities, and any residence used as a court-ordered placement under RCW 71.09.096. "Total confinement facility" and "secure community transition facility" have the same meanings as defined in RCW 71.09.020.
     (24) "Transportation night storage facilities" means a facility or location that is used for overnight storage of an average of fifty transportation vehicles, including cars or buses, per night, and may be referred to as a bus barn.
     (25) "Tugboat or barge facility" means a location providing berth for tugboats or barges.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   (1) No more than twenty-five of each of the following facilities or conditions, as an aggregate total, may be located or exist within an area with a five-mile radius:
     (a) Airport;
     (b) Fuel farm;
     (c) EPA superfund site;
     (d) Oil pipeline;
     (e) Sex offender facility;
     (f) Highway of statewide significance;
     (g) Intermodal solid waste transfer facility;
     (h) Electric transmission line corridor;
     (i) Seaport facility with one or more container terminals with rail access;
     (j) Passenger ship terminal facility;
     (k) Nonattainment area for national ambient air quality standards as established by the environmental protection agency;
     (l) Rail corridor;
     (m) Transportation night storage facilities;
     (n) Industrial factory that consumes more than one thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity per month and releases emissions into the air;
     (o) Electrical substation;
     (p) Intermodal railway facility;
     (q) Areas or zones designated by local ordinance for adult entertainment use;
     (r) Public high school as designated by the office of the superintendent of public instruction;
     (s) Hazardous waste facility;
     (t) Tugboat or barge facility;
     (u) Drydock or marine maintenance facility;
     (v) Electrical substation;
     (w) Personal wireless service facility;
     (x) Regional transit system;
     (y) Population density of the city in which the area with a five-mile radius is located is greater than five thousand residents per square mile as forecasted by the office of financial management as of the effective date of this section;
     (z) Average income level is less than fifty percent of the median county income level;
     (aa) Birth rate of women who receive medical assistance or medical care services under chapter 74.09 RCW is greater than the county birth rate of women who receive medical assistance or medical care services under chapter 74.09 RCW;
     (bb) Greater than one hundred lots zoned as industrial by local ordinance;
     (cc) Greater than thirty percent of the population within a five-mile radius is at one hundred fifty percent of the United States average poverty rate as determined by the most current United States census data;
     (dd) The number of children that receive free or reduced-price lunches is greater than the average number of children that receive free or reduced-price lunches in the county in which the five-mile area is located; and
     (ee) The population density within the five-mile area with regard to race and Hispanic origin as determined by the most current United States census data is greater than three times the Washington state average population density with regard to race and Hispanic origin.
     (2) As of the effective date of this section, this chapter does not apply to any five-mile area with already existing facilities or conditions that result in noncompliance with subsection (1) of this section. After the effective date of this section, no additional facility or condition as listed in subsection (1) of this section may be added to or located in such a five-mile area with already existing facilities or conditions in noncompliance.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   Sections 1 through 3 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 70 RCW.