H-754                _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1177

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State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1985 Regular Session

By Representative Lux

Read first time 2/8/85 and referred to Committee on Environmental Affairs.

AN ACT Relating to hazardous waste; adding a new section to chapter 70.105 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     The legislature finds that the public health and safety requires that:

          (1) Fire departments have access to the records of those who handle hazardous wastes so that they may better plan for emergencies; and

          (2) The public has a right to monitor the operations of those who handle hazardous wastes.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 70.105 RCW to read as follows:

          (1) Handlers of hazardous wastes shall provide copies of all records required under this chapter to the local fire department.

          (2) All records which handlers of hazardous wastes are required to keep under this chapter are subject to inspection by the public at the local fire department.  The fire department may charge a reasonable fee established by the department of ecology for the cost of making the records available to the public.  Persons requesting copies shall pay copying costs.

          (3) Any materials exempt from public inspection pursuant to RCW 42.17.310 shall be kept confidential.

          (4) This chapter does not authorize use of the disclosed information for commercial purposes.  Use of information derived from records of handlers of hazardous wastes for commercial purposes shall subject the user and all persons participating in obtaining the information to civil action.

          (5) The department of ecology shall set a standard fee scale establishing the maximum amounts local fire departments may charge for providing access to records under subsection (2) of this section.  These fees shall reflect the amount needed to compensate the local fire department for the trouble and expense of providing access to the records under subsection (2) of this section.

          (6) As used in this section, "handler of hazardous wastes" means any person who generates, transports, treats, recycles, decontaminates, discards, or in any other manner disposes of dangerous or extremely hazardous wastes, as defined in RCW 70.105.010.

          (7) The department shall adopt rules as necessary for the implementation of this section.