H-1541              _______________________________________________

                                                    HOUSE BILL NO. 865

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1985 Regular Session

By Representatives Valle, Rust, Isaacson, Jacobsen, Allen and Lux

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

AN ACT Relating to toxic substance information; adding new sections to chapter 70.105 RCW; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 70.105 RCW to read as follows:

          There is hereby created the toxic substance information and education office.  Through this office the department shall:

          (1) Facilitate access to existing information on chemicals within a community;

          (2) At the request of citizens or public health or public safety organizations, compile existing information about chemical use at specified locations and facilities.  This information shall include but not be limited to:

          (a) Historic point and nonpoint air and water emissions;

          (b) Historic quantity of hazardous substances produced, used, stored, transported from, or disposed of by any facility;

          (c) Data on acute and chronic health and environmental effects of chemicals at a site;

          (d) Data on commercial and governmental pesticide use at a given site; and

          (e) Compliance history of any facility.

          (3) Provide education to the public on the proper production, use, storage, and disposal of toxic and hazardous substances, including but not limited to:

          (a) Programs, in cooperation with local government, to educate generators of nonregulated dangerous waste, that provide information regarding the potential hazards to human health and the environment resulting from improper use and disposal of the waste and proper methods of handling, reducing, recycling, and disposing of the waste;

          (b) Public information and education relating to the safe handling and disposal of dangerous household substances; and

          (c) Guidelines to aid counties in developing and implementing a dangerous household substances program.

          Requests for information from the toxic substance information and education office may be made by letter or by a toll-free telephone line, if one is established by the department.  Requests shall be responded to within thirty working days.

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

          Agencies and businesses failing to respond to requests for information from the toxic substance energy and information office shall be subject to penalties as determined by the director.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     The sum of two hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1987, from the general fund to the department of ecology for the purposes of this act.