BILL REQ. #:  S-0709.1 

Read first time 01/20/09.   Referred to Committee on Environment, Water & Energy.

     AN ACT Relating to providing an emergency response system for the Strait of Juan de Fuca; amending RCW 88.46.130, 88.46.068, and 88.46.010; and adding a new section to chapter 88.46 RCW.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 88.46.130 and 1991 c 200 s 426 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) An emergency response system for the Strait of Juan de Fuca shall be established ((by July 1, 1992)) and maintained by the department. In establishing the emergency response system, the ((administrator)) director shall consider the recommendations of the regional marine safety committees((. The administrator shall also)) and consult with the province of British Columbia regarding its participation in the emergency response system.
     (2) Full implementation of section 2 of this act, along with implementation of the drilling requirements for a qualifying tug provided in RCW 88.46.068, represents the successful adoption of an emergency response system under this section.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 88.46 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) In addition to the contingency plan requirements adopted by the department under RCW 88.46.060, contingency plans for covered vessels entering any portion of the Strait of Juan de Fuca west of the city of Port Angeles must include a specific catastrophic event response provision requiring the vessel owner or operator to have a valid contract for the specific vessel with a multimission tug on station and available to provide assistance and response for the vessel any hour of any day that the vessel may be in the western portion of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The contracted vessel must be permanently stationed in the Neah Bay staging area identified in WAC 173-182-395, as it existed on the effective date of this section.
     (2) To satisfy the requirements of this section, the contracted tug must have the following response capabilities or equipment:
     (a) The ability to, in severe weather conditions, make up, stop, and tow to safety a fully loaded tanker with a deadweight tonnage capacity of one hundred eighty thousand metric tons;
     (b) Be equipped with an Orville hook and line throwing gun;
     (c) The ability to deploy high seas boom and oil spill skimmers while towing an oil recovery barge or, alternatively, the ability to store recovered oil on board;
     (d) The ability to provide a platform for salvage operations, including divers and firefighters;
     (e) The ability to transfer passengers from a stricken vessel;
     (f) Be equipped with onboard oil storage or be contracted with a dedicated barge stationed alongside the tug, or both; and
     (g) Starting five years after the effective date of this section, be equipped with a fully integrated external firefighting system with no fewer than two pumps, a total pump capacity of not less than two thousand four hundred cubic meters per hour, a throw length of not less than one hundred twenty meters, and a throw height of not less than forty-five meters.
     (3) All covered vessels subject to this section must have a contract with a qualifying tug by July 1, 2010.
     (4) The requirements of this section may be fulfilled by a private organization or cooperative providing umbrella coverage for multiple applicable vessels. Financial support for each payee to an organization or cooperative formed to satisfy the requirements of this section should be based on the maximum total worst case spill potential of the payee's vessel or vessels.
     (5) Evidence of compliance with this section must be included as part of the contingency plan submitted or resubmitted to the department for review and approval under RCW 88.46.060. For covered vessels that have submitted a contingency plan to the department for review prior to July 1, 2010, a free-standing addendum to the previously submitted contingency plan evidencing compliance with this section satisfies the submittal requirements of this subsection.
     (6) This section does not apply if the federal government implements tug escort requirements for covered vessels in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca with comparable protective standards or requires a rescue tug to be stationed at Neah Bay. Upon the implementation of federal rules or standards, the department shall prepare agency request legislation recommending the repeal of this section.

Sec. 3   RCW 88.46.068 and 2006 c 316 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The department shall ((by rule)) adopt by rule procedures to determine the adequacy of contingency plans approved under RCW 88.46.060. The rules shall require random practice drills without prior notice that will test the adequacy of the responding entities. The rules may provide for unannounced practice drills of individual contingency plans.
     (2)(a) The department shall also provide for the drilling of any qualifying tug contracted by a covered vessel to satisfy the requirements of section 2 of this act. Drills performed on a qualifying tug must be conducted on a regular basis and test the tug's ability to satisfy oil spill contingency plan requirements.
     (b) Drills involving a qualifying tug must place an emphasis on the tug's ability to respond to a potentially worst case spill scenario caused by a fully loaded covered vessel or barge. However, drills should also test a tug's capabilities to successfully tow and respond to all covered vessels.
     (c) Procedures for the drilling of qualifying tugs are not required to be identified in rule. However, successful drills of a contracted qualifying tug may be considered as evidence of the adequacy of the contracting vessel's overall contingency plan.
     (3) The department shall review and publish a report on the drills initiated under this section, including an assessment of response time and available equipment and personnel compared to those listed in the contingency plans relying on the responding entities, and requirements, if any, for changes in the plans or their implementation.
     (4) The department may require additional drills and changes in arrangements for implementing approved plans which are necessary to ensure their effective implementation.

Sec. 4   RCW 88.46.010 and 2007 c 347 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Best achievable protection" means the highest level of protection that can be achieved through the use of the best achievable technology and those staffing levels, training procedures, and operational methods that provide the greatest degree of protection achievable. The director's determination of best achievable protection shall be guided by the critical need to protect the state's natural resources and waters, while considering (a) the additional protection provided by the measures; (b) the technological achievability of the measures; and (c) the cost of the measures.
     (2) "Best achievable technology" means the technology that provides the greatest degree of protection taking into consideration (a) processes that are being developed, or could feasibly be developed, given overall reasonable expenditures on research and development, and (b) processes that are currently in use. In determining what is best achievable technology, the director shall consider the effectiveness, engineering feasibility, and commercial availability of the technology.
     (3) "Cargo vessel" means a self-propelled ship in commerce, other than a tank vessel or a passenger vessel, of three hundred or more gross tons, including but not limited to, commercial fish processing vessels and freighters.
     (4) "Bulk" means material that is stored or transported in a loose, unpackaged liquid, powder, or granular form capable of being conveyed by a pipe, bucket, chute, or belt system.
     (5) "Covered vessel" means a tank vessel, cargo vessel, or passenger vessel.
     (6) "Department" means the department of ecology.
     (7) "Director" means the director of the department of ecology.
     (8) "Discharge" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping.
     (9)(a) "Facility" means any structure, group of structures, equipment, pipeline, or device, other than a vessel, located on or near the navigable waters of the state that transfers oil in bulk to or from a tank vessel or pipeline, that is used for producing, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or transporting oil in bulk.
     (b) A facility does not include any: (i) Railroad car, motor vehicle, or other rolling stock while transporting oil over the highways or rail lines of this state; (ii) retail motor vehicle motor fuel outlet; (iii) facility that is operated as part of an exempt agricultural activity as provided in RCW 82.04.330; (iv) underground storage tank regulated by the department or a local government under chapter 90.76 RCW; or (v) marine fuel outlet that does not dispense more than three thousand gallons of fuel to a ship that is not a covered vessel, in a single transaction.
     (10) "Marine facility" means any facility used for tank vessel wharfage or anchorage, including any equipment used for the purpose of handling or transferring oil in bulk to or from a tank vessel.
     (11) "Navigable waters of the state" means those waters of the state, and their adjoining shorelines, that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide and/or are presently used, have been used in the past, or may be susceptible for use to transport intrastate, interstate, or foreign commerce.
     (12) "Oil" or "oils" means oil of any kind that is liquid at atmospheric temperature and any fractionation thereof, including, but not limited to, crude oil, petroleum, gasoline, fuel oil, diesel oil, biological oils and blends, oil sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with wastes other than dredged spoil. Oil does not include any substance listed in Table 302.4 of 40 C.F.R. Part 302 adopted August 14, 1989, under section 101(14) of the federal comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act of 1980, as amended by P.L. 99-499.
     (13) "Offshore facility" means any facility located in, on, or under any of the navigable waters of the state, but does not include a facility any part of which is located in, on, or under any land of the state, other than submerged land. "Offshore facility" does not include a marine facility.
     (14) "Onshore facility" means any facility any part of which is located in, on, or under any land of the state, other than submerged land, that because of its location, could reasonably be expected to cause substantial harm to the environment by discharging oil into or on the navigable waters of the state or the adjoining shorelines.
     (15)(a) "Owner or operator" means (i) in the case of a vessel, any person owning, operating, or chartering by demise, the vessel; (ii) in the case of an onshore or offshore facility, any person owning or operating the facility; and (iii) in the case of an abandoned vessel or onshore or offshore facility, the person who owned or operated the vessel or facility immediately before its abandonment.
     (b) "Operator" does not include any person who owns the land underlying a facility if the person is not involved in the operations of the facility.
     (16) "Passenger vessel" means a ship of three hundred or more gross tons with a fuel capacity of at least six thousand gallons carrying passengers for compensation.
     (17) "Person" means any political subdivision, government agency, municipality, industry, public or private corporation, copartnership, association, firm, individual, or any other entity whatsoever.
     (18) "Qualifying tug" means a tug boat that satisfies the capabilities and equipment standards set forth in section 2 of this act.
     (19) "Severe weather conditions" means observed nautical conditions with sustained winds measured at forty or more knots and wave heights measured at twelve feet or more.
     (20) "Ship" means any boat, ship, vessel, barge, or other floating craft of any kind.
     (((19))) (21) "Spill" means an unauthorized discharge of oil into the waters of the state.
     (((20))) (22) "Tank vessel" means a ship that is constructed or adapted to carry, or that carries, oil in bulk as cargo or cargo residue, and that:
     (a) Operates on the waters of the state; or
     (b) Transfers oil in a port or place subject to the jurisdiction of this state.
     (((21))) (23) "Waters of the state" includes lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, inland waters, underground water, salt waters, estuaries, tidal flats, beaches and lands adjoining the seacoast of the state, sewers, and all other surface waters and watercourses within the jurisdiction of the state of Washington.
     (((22))) (24) "Worst case spill" means: (a) In the case of a vessel, a spill of the entire cargo and fuel of the vessel complicated by adverse weather conditions; and (b) in the case of an onshore or offshore facility, the largest foreseeable spill in adverse weather conditions.