READ FIRST TIME 01/23/09.   

     AN ACT Relating to requiring the use of alternatives to lead wheel weights that reduce environmental health impacts; adding a new chapter to Title 70 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that:
     (1) Environmental health hazards associated with lead wheel weights are a preventable problem. People are exposed to lead fragments and dust when lead wheel weights fall from vehicles on Washington roadways and are then abraded and pulverized by traffic. Lead wheel weights on and alongside roadways can contribute to soil, surface, and groundwater contamination and pose a hazard to downstream aquatic life.
     (2) Lead negatively affects every bodily system. While injurious to individuals of all ages, it is especially harmful to children, fetuses, and adults of childbearing age. Effects of lead on a child's cognitive, behavioral, and developmental abilities may necessitate large expenditures of public funds for health care and special education. Irreversible damage to children and subsequent expenditures could be avoided if exposure to lead is reduced.
     (3) There are no federal regulatory controls governing use of lead wheel weights. The legislature recognizes the state's need to protect the public from exposure to lead hazards.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Department" means the department of ecology.
     (2) "Environmentally preferred wheel weights" means wheel weights used for balancing motor vehicle wheels that do not include more than 0.5 percent by weight of any chemical, group of chemicals, or metals of concern identified by rule under chapter 173-333 WAC.
     (3) "Lead wheel weight" means any externally affixed or attached wheel weight used for balancing motor vehicle wheels and composed of greater than 0.1 percent lead by weight.
     (4) "Person" includes any individual, firm, association, partnership, corporation, governmental entity, organization, or joint venture.
     (5) "Vehicle" means any motor vehicle registered in Washington with a wheel diameter of less than 19.5 inches or a gross vehicle weight of fourteen thousand pounds or less.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   If a wheel weight alternative no longer meets the criteria of an environmentally preferred wheel weight, tire distributors and retailers have two years to use existing stock and to phase in other environmentally preferred wheel weight alternatives.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   Use of environmentally preferred wheel weights is required at the time of tire replacement or the tire balancing after January 1, 2011, for all vehicles registered in Washington state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   Tire retailers and distributors must recycle lead wheel weights that are removed by the tire retailers and distributors.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   (1) The department shall achieve compliance with this chapter using the following enforcement sequence:
     (a) At least ninety days prior to the implementation under section 4 of this act, the department shall prepare and distribute information to persons in the tire and wheel weight manufacturing, distribution, wholesale and retail industries, to the maximum extent practicable, to assist them in identifying environmentally preferred wheel weights.
     (b) The department shall issue a warning letter to a person in the tire distribution, wholesale, retail, or associated industries that violates the requirements of this chapter.
     (c) The department shall offer information or other appropriate assistance to the person in (b) of this subsection. If compliance is not achieved within one year of issuing a warning letter, the department may assess civil penalties against the person under subsection (2) of this section.
     (2) Failure of a person that installs wheel weights in compliance with this chapter is a violation punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed five hundred dollars for the first violation. A violation occurs for each vehicle registered in Washington state that does not comply with this chapter. Persons who are repeat violators are liable for a civil penalty not to exceed one thousand dollars for each repeat offense. Penalties collected under this section must be deposited in the state toxics control account created in RCW 70.105D.070. The owner of a vehicle is not subject to the provisions of this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   The department may adopt rules to fully implement this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 9   Sections 1 through 8 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 70 RCW.