(1) Who may serve as DNR's SEPA responsible official? Since the responsible official shall carry out duties and functions for the purpose of assuring DNR's compliance with SEPA and the SEPA rules, it is important that DNR clearly designates who will be the responsible official for a proposal.

(a) DNR's responsible official will be as follows:

(i) Division manager;

(ii) Designated region manager;

(iii) Designated assistant division manager; or

(iv) Designated assistant region manager.

(b) The responsible official for the harbor line commission shall be the division manager of the aquatic resources division.

(c) When the region manager or assistant region manager is involved with the proposal, or during emergencies, i.e., fire season, it may be necessary to assign the responsible official duties for a proposal to a region manager in another region. The division manager may also assume responsible official duties for the proposal.

(d) When potentially significant conflicting DNR interests exist involving DNR proposals that converge at the division manager or region manager level, or the proposal involves more than one region, a superior management-level official may act as the responsible official. See subsection (4) of this section for recommended qualifications.

(2) What are the responsible official's duties? When DNR is the lead agency, the responsible official shall review the environmental checklist and make the threshold determination in compliance with this chapter, chapters 43.21C RCW and 197-11 WAC, and specifically, WAC 197-11-330.

(3) What other procedural requirements must be followed? The responsible official shall carry out further SEPA compliance under WAC 197-11-340, 197-11-350, or 197-11-360, as appropriate. This includes notice and circulation requirements for threshold determinations.

(4) What are the general qualifications of a DNR responsible official? The responsible official shall not be the applicant, project leader, or the decision maker for the proposal. The official shall have general technical expertise sufficient to assess the impacts of the proposal.

(5) What if a determination of significance is issued? When an environmental impact statement is required based on the threshold determination, scoping and EIS preparation under chapter 197-11 WAC shall occur under direction of the responsible official.

PDFWAC 332-41-910

Designation of responsible official.