AN ACT Relating to aquaculture; adding new sections to chapter 90.58 RCW; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that:

(1) Some forms of aquaculture have potential for long-term benefit if carefully regulated, appropriately sited, and properly managed based on guidelines and criteria that recognize potential impacts as well as advantages;

(2) Aquaculture practices and activities are diverse and generate substantially different impacts depending on the type of aquaculture employed. Some forms of aquaculture are relatively passive and benign, with little or no potential for adverse environmental or aesthetic impact or for interference with or effect upon existing water or land uses. Other forms of aquaculture that require structural, chemical, nutrient, or other additions to the aquatic environment or which usurp large areas of public waters, shorelines, or tidelands, have a much greater potential for adverse environmental or aesthetic impact or for interference with existing water and land uses. Recognition of the diversity of aquaculture and impacts requires that preference among such uses be given to those forms of aquaculture that involve the least potential for adverse impact, while carefully regulating those forms which entail greater potential harm;

(3) New forms of aquaculture such as salmon net pens and nori production facilities are in an incipient stage in Washington. The assessment of their potential environmental impacts is hampered by insufficient information. Site monitoring of existing aquaculture facilities, field studies, and further research are important and are necessary to evaluate and minimize the environmental effects of aquaculture, however, these cannot substitute for careful regulation and siting of new aquaculture facilities;

(4) While some forms of aquaculture may represent a net economic benefit to the state at little or no environmental cost, other forms may cause environmental costs, reduce the recreational and aesthetic values of state shorelines and waters, and may displace existing aquaculture and fisheries, and interfere with existing industries and uses without providing a net benefit to the state and its people;

(5) Because of their substantial potential for impacts upon shoreline and upland uses, and interference with goals and policies of upland zoning plans, local government review of proposed aquaculture uses is particularly important.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The department shall adopt guidelines for regulation of floating aquaculture. The local government shall use the guidelines in the approval or denial of applications for necessary permits. The guidelines shall require consideration by local governments of the impact of floating aquaculture in the following areas:

(a) Aesthetic impact including but not limited to visual impact, odor, noise, and similar factors;

(b) Navigation, including commercial navigation and navigational access of upland property owners;

(c) Use of antibiotics, pesticides, or other additives with potential for environmental damage, including wildlife and human populations;

(d) Water quality as affected by factors such as fecal waste, waste from feeding, fertilization, and harvesting operations;

(e) Interference with benthic organisms;

(f) Interference with marine mammals or other wildlife;

(g) Interference with commercial and sport fishing and other recreational uses of shoreline and aquatic environment;

(h) Interference with public use of shorelines, particularly shorelines of state-wide significance, waters, or tidelands;

(i) Displacement of or interface with current aquaculture operations in the vicinity, current fisheries, or current harvesting of marine life;

(j) Methods of harvesting and processing of aquaculture products;

(k) Other relevant site characteristics; and

(l) Any other factors that may involve adverse environmental or other impacts.

(2) After consideration by a local jurisdiction of the factors in subsection (1) of this section, any aquacultural practice that will have a probable significant adverse impact may be approved if subject to enforceable conditions that eliminate or substantially mitigate potential adverse impacts. Enforceable conditions shall be amenable to monitoring and enforcement by the local governing agency without unreasonable expenditure of time or resources. The costs of enforcing the conditions shall be borne by the permittee.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The department shall adopt rules governing monitoring of sites used for floating aquaculture. The rules shall include requirements for monitoring environmental conditions prior to beginning commercial production and also during commercial production. Monitoring shall encompass the areas listed in section 2 of this act.

The department shall establish minimum water quality standards applicable to floating aquaculture sites.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A site characterization providing full information necessary for review of the areas listed in section 2 of this act shall be required by local jurisdictions before application for each substantial development permit to raise private sector cultured aquatic products, as defined in RCW 15.85.020, in a floating facility. The study shall be done after consultation with appropriate local and state officials and shall be paid for by the applicants.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Applicants for experimental aquaculture projects by private, for profit entities shall be subject to the same criteria and guidelines that apply to nonexperimental aquaculture projects.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The department shall adopt rules requiring consideration of the combined or cumulative impacts of the water-based component and the adjacent land-based component of an aquaculture proposal. All applications for a substantial development permit for an aquaculture project shall include comprehensive information on the handling and processing of aquacultural products and on any other land-based activities related to the aquaculture operation. Local government review of a substantial development permit application shall include consideration of this information.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. If a hearing is to be held on a floating aquaculture permit application, written notification of such hearing shall be made by the local government to the departments of fisheries, wildlife, natural resources, agriculture, and ecology at least thirty days before the hearing date. Written notification of such hearing shall also be made at least thirty days before the hearing date to any person who has filed with the local government a written request to receive notice of the hearings on local floating aquaculture permit applications. The local government shall ensure that adequate records of the hearing are maintained.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. The department of natural resources shall not issue leases of tidelands and bedlands for aquacultural uses in those counties and cities that have adopted a local moratorium on issuance of substantial development permits for aquacultural uses until the moratorium ceases.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. By July 1, 1990, local governing bodies shall draft amendments to their local shoreline management plans to incorporate the policies and provisions of this act. Such amendments may be more, but not less, protective of the aquatic environment than this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. By July 1, 1990, the department of fisheries shall prepare and deliver to the legislature a report on the economic impacts of salmon net pen aquaculture on the state's commercial fishing industry.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. Sections 2 through 8 of this act are each added to chapter 90.58 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. In appeals of local government decisions of application for shoreline substantial development permits for aquaculture projects, substantial weight shall be given by the reviewing body to the local government decision.