BILL REQ. #:  S-4437.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/11/14.   

     AN ACT Relating to the safety of the transport of hazardous materials; amending RCW 90.56.250; adding new sections to chapter 90.56 RCW; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The state of Washington has a long history of leading in efforts to protect our natural environment while encouraging economic opportunities. Public safety, protection of the natural environment, and economic opportunities are goals shared by all Washingtonians.
     (2) Hazardous material spill prevention and response programs in Washington state, created through thoughtful cooperation and coordination between industry and the communities they serve, is a model to the rest of the nation and a model to the world. As modes of transport for various types of hazardous materials change and as the volume of hazardous materials transported through Washington changes, it is important that proactive steps are taken to ensure public safety and protection of natural resources.
     (3) This act is intended to build upon strong and prudent plans currently in effect, identify areas that need further protections, and invest taxpayer funds today to increase safety and prevent spills.
     (4) Prevention of hazardous materials spills is a top priority of the legislature. Providing first responders, local communities, and impacted parties with the tools to respond when spills do occur is in the vital interest of the citizens of Washington state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) The department of ecology, in consultation with the utilities and transportation commission, the federal railroad administration, and industry representatives, shall conduct a study on the safety of transporting oil and hazardous materials in bulk by rail. For the purposes of this act, the term hazardous materials has the same meaning as hazardous substances as defined in RCW 88.40.011. The study must include:
     (a) A review of:
     (i) The federal, state, and local emergency response and prevention programs and activities for spills from railcars transporting oil and hazardous materials with a focus on high hazard areas where emergency response equipment can be strategically placed for use by federal, state, regional, or local governments or other emergency responders;
     (ii) The capacity of local jurisdictions to prevent and respond to oil and hazardous materials spills;
     (iii) The identification of weaknesses or gaps in federal, state, and local oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response; and
     (iv) Federal regulations governing oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response for transport by rail;
     (b) A survey of:
     (i) Local government funding for emergency oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response programs;
     (ii) Sources of funding, entities assessed, or contributions required by participants of emergency oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response programs; and
     (iii) Regional or countywide cooperative agreements implementing oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response programs;
     (c) Recommendations for legislative consideration on at least the following:
     (i) Levels of funding and sources of funding for emergency oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response programs;
     (ii) Participants that should be included in an emergency oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response program and the amount these participants should be assessed;
     (iii) Appropriate use of funds such as: Oil and hazardous materials spill response, equipment, training, or other benefits to those who are assessed;
     (iv) Cooperative regional or countywide agreements to meet emergency oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response program needs, while maintaining an individual organization's distinct purpose; and
     (v) Methods to increase cooperation and coordination among organizations responding to oil and hazardous materials spills, including:
     (A) Sharing resources or mutual aide between terrestrial and on-water oil and hazardous materials spill emergencies; and
     (B) Communication to ensure a common understanding of the potential threat from oil or hazardous materials spills.
     (2) The department of ecology must provide: (a) A preliminary evaluation on the status of the safety of transporting hazardous materials in the state, and include recommendations for near-term legislative action to address needs identified in the review as required under subsection (1)(a)(i) of this section, to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the senate and house of representatives by December 31, 2014; and (b) using the study and reviews conducted under this section, a final report regarding the safety of the transport of hazardous materials, as well as recommendations for policy, budget needs, or legislation to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the senate and house of representatives by December 31, 2015.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   The department of ecology shall conduct an evaluation of the safety of transporting oil and hazardous materials in bulk on waters of the state. To the extent possible and practicable, the department may use or incorporate applicable studies and reports completed by international, federal, or state agencies or organizations.
     (1) The evaluation must include:
     (a) The status of federal, state, and local waterborne oil spill and hazardous materials spill prevention and preparedness including a review of:
     (i) The capacity to address risks posed by increased waterborne traffic of oil and hazardous materials; and
     (ii) Weaknesses or gaps in oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response programs;
     (b) Barge and tug operations within the state related to the movement of oil and petroleum products or hazardous materials;
     (c) A description of:
     (i) Risks and potential areas of concern where increased prevention and response activities are needed; and
     (ii) Oil spill response organizations and related contractors currently available for oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response activities and their level of readiness; and
     (d) A report on those areas of the state where the oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response plans and programs are needed but not completed or robust, including but not limited to Grays Harbor and the Columbia river.
     (2) The department of ecology must: (a) Provide to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the senate and house of representatives by December 31, 2014, an initial evaluation that includes examples of excellent oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response programs and area or regional efforts; an overview of regional or state deficiencies or gaps in programs, plans, equipment, or resources; and recommendations for near-term legislative action; and (b) deliver the final report regarding the transporting of oil and hazardous materials on waters of the state, as well as recommendations for policy, budget needs, or legislation, to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the senate and house of representatives by December 31, 2015.

Sec. 4   RCW 90.56.250 and 1991 c 200 s 205 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The department shall annually publish an index of available, up-to-date descriptions of prevention plans and contingency plans for oil spills submitted and approved pursuant to RCW 90.56.200, 90.56.210, 88.46.040, and 88.46.060 and an inventory of equipment available for responding to such spills.
     (2) The department shall make available on its web site: (a) Descriptions of prevention and contingency programs for oil or hazardous materials spills; (b) descriptions of how the department is responding to or has addressed public concerns regarding oil and hazardous materials spill prevention and response; and (c) in the event of an oil or hazardous materials spill, information and updates regarding all efforts taken to clean up the spill, in consultation with and in agreement with the unified command, if applicable. The department may not make available on its web site specific plan elements or confidential information.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   A new section is added to chapter 90.56 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The department must provide to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the senate and house of representatives:
     (a) A review of all state and federal geographic response plans as needed in contingency plans required under RCW 90.56.210 and 88.46.060 by December 31, 2014; and
     (b) Annual updates, beginning December 31, 2015, and ending December 31, 2021, as required under RCW 43.01.036, as to the progress made in completing state and federal geographic response plans as needed in contingency plans required under RCW 90.56.060, 90.56.210, and 88.46.060.
     (2) The department must contract, if practicable, with eligible independent third parties to ensure completion by December 1, 2016, of at least fifty percent of the geographic response plans as needed in contingency plans required under RCW 90.56.210 and 88.46.060 for the state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   A new section is added to chapter 90.56 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The owner or operator for each facility other than a transmission pipeline shall submit to the department data and information on the volume and type of crude oil that arrived at and departed from the facility each month, including the place of origin of the crude oil, the mode of arrival and departure at the facility including, but not limited to, arrival by vessel, rail, or pipeline.
     (2)(a) Any person required to present information to the department pursuant to subsection (1) of this section may request that specific information be held in confidence. Information requested to be held in confidence is presumed to be confidential.
     (b) Information presented to the department pursuant to subsection (1) of this section must be held in confidence by the department or aggregated to the extent necessary to ensure confidentiality if public disclosure of the specific information or data would result in an unfair competitive disadvantage to the person supplying the information.
     (c)(i) Whenever the department receives a request to publicly disclose unaggregated information or otherwise proposes to publicly disclose information submitted pursuant to subsection (1) of this section, notice of the request or proposal must be provided to the person submitting the information. The notice must indicate the form in which the information is to be released. Upon receipt of notice, the person submitting the information has ten working days in which to respond to the notice to justify the claim of confidentiality on each specific item of information covered by the notice on the basis that public disclosure of the specific information would result in an unfair competitive disadvantage to the person supplying the information.
     (ii) The department shall consider the respondent's submittal in determining whether to publicly disclose the information submitted to it to which a claim of confidentiality is made. The department shall issue a written decision that sets forth its reasons for making the determination whether each item of information for which a claim of confidentiality is made remains confidential or must be publicly disclosed.
     (iii) The department shall not publicly disclose information submitted to it pursuant to subsection (1) of this section within ten working days after the department has issued its written decision required in (c)(ii) of this subsection.
     (iv) No information submitted to the department pursuant to subsection (1) of this section may be deemed confidential if the person submitting the information or data has made it public.
     (v) With respect to information provided under subsection (1) of this section, neither the department nor any employee of the department may do any of the following:
     (A) Use the information for any purpose other than the statistical purposes for which it is supplied;
     (B) Make any publication whereby the information furnished by any particular establishment or individual can be identified; or
     (C) Permit anyone other than department employees to examine the individual reports provided under subsection (1) of this section.
     (d) Any confidential information pertinent to the responsibilities of the department that is obtained by another state agency must be available to the department and must be treated in a confidential manner.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   The department of ecology and the utilities and transportation commission shall jointly hold a symposium on emergency prevention and response activities for oil and hazardous materials transported in the Pacific Northwest region. The department of ecology and the utilities and transportation commission must invite state representatives from the Pacific Northwest economic region authorized under chapter 43.147 RCW and representatives from interested tribes and local governments. The symposium must include representatives from neighboring states, territories, and countries. The symposium must at a minimum address:
     (1) Cooperative emergency prevention and response activities between the shared international and state borders;
     (2) Expected risks posed by increased transport of Canadian crude oil or hazardous materials throughout the Pacific Northwest region within the next three to five years;
     (3) Changes in methods for transporting oil and hazardous materials and associated risks;
     (4) Identification of responsible agencies and corresponding activities that can be taken to address expected risks; and
     (5) Consideration of new or emerging technologies to make transport safer.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   (1) The department of ecology shall provide grants to emergency responders to assist with oil spill response and firefighting equipment and resources needed to meet the requirements of this act.
     (2) The department of ecology, in consultation with emergency first responders, representatives from the oil and rail industries, and businesses that are recipients of bulk hazardous materials shall review grant applications.
     (a) The application review must include evaluation of equipment and resource requests, funding requirements, and coordination with existing equipment and resources in the area.
     (b) Funding must be prioritized for applicants from areas where oil or other hazardous materials are transferred from one mode of transportation to another.
     (c) Grants must be coordinated to maximize currently existing equipment and resources that have been put in place by first responders and industry.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 9   This act may be known and cited as the spill prevention and response act.