(1) No fee shall be charged for the inspection of public records, including inspecting records on the agency's website.

(2) In order to avoid unduly burdensome fee calculations, the agency will implement a fee schedule consistent with the Public Records Act. The agency adopts the state legislature's approved fees and costs for most of the agency records, as authorized in RCW 42.56.120 and as published in the agency's fee schedule.

(3) The fee schedule is available at the agency's office and on the agency's website at www.plia.wa.gov.

(4) The agency will charge for copies of records pursuant to the default fees in RCW 42.56.120 (2)(b) and (c). The agency will charge for customized services pursuant to RCW 42.56.120(3). Under RCW 42.56.130, the agency may charge other copy fees authorized by statutes outside of chapter 42.56 RCW. The agency may enter into a contract, memorandum of understanding, or other agreement with a requestor that provides an alternative fee arrangement to the charges, or in response to a voluminous or frequently occurring request as allowed by RCW 42.56.120(4).

(5) A requestor may ask the agency to provide a summary of the applicable charges before any copies are made or before processing a customized service. The requestor may revise the request to reduce the number of copies to be made and reduce the applicable charges.

(6) Requestors are required to pay for copies in advance of receiving records. Fee waivers are an exception and are available for some smaller requests. If a fee waiver is requested, the requestor must submit the fee waiver request in writing describing how the conditions are met. A determination by the public records officer to waive all or part of copying fees will be made on a case-by-case review of the fee waiver request.

(a) To request a fee waiver, the requestor must submit the request in writing to the agency, describing how at least one of the conditions set forth in (b) of this subsection are met. If the public records officer determines condition(s) for a fee waiver are met, that decision will be documented in writing.

(b) The public records officer may grant a fee waiver request under the following conditions:

(i) All of the records responsive to an entire request are paper copies only and are twenty-five or fewer pages;

(ii) All of the records for an entire request are electronic and can be provided in a single email with attachments of a size equivalent to up to one hundred printed pages; or

(iii) The records responsive to an entire request consists of a number of duplicate documents.

(c) Fee waivers are not applicable to records provided in installments.

(7) Before beginning to make the copies or processing a customized service, the public records officer or designee may require a deposit of up to ten percent of the estimated costs of copying all the records selected by the requestor. The public records officer or designee may also require the payment of the remainder of the copying costs before providing all the records, or the payment of the costs of copying an installment before providing that installment. The agency does not charge sales tax when it makes copies of public records.

(8) All required fees must be paid in advance of release of the copies or an installment of copies. The agency will notify the requestor of when payment is due.

(9) The agency may also charge actual costs of mailing, including the costs of the shipping container.

(10) Payment should be made by check or money order to the pollution liability insurance agency. The agency prefers not to receive cash. For cash payments it is within the public record officer's discretion to determine the denomination of bills and coins that will be accepted.

(11) The agency will close a request when a requestor fails by the payment date to pay in the manner prescribed for records, an installment of records, or a required deposit.