The purpose of chapter 381, Laws of 1997 is to create a voluntary program authorizing environmental excellence program agreements with persons regulated under the environmental laws of the state of Washington, and to direct agencies of the state of Washington to solicit and support the development of agreements that use innovative environmental measures or strategies to achieve environmental results more effectively or efficiently.

Agencies shall encourage environmental excellence program agreements that favor or promote pollution prevention, source reduction, or improvements in practices that are transferable to other interested entities or that can achieve better overall environmental results than required by otherwise applicable rules and requirements.

In enacting chapter 381, Laws of 1997 it is not the intent of the legislature that state environmental standards be applied in a manner that could result in these state standards being waived under section 121 of the federal comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 9261 [9621]).