S-1927.2  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5636

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Parks (originally sponsored by Senators Oke, Swecker, Rossi and Horn)

Read first time 03/03/97.

Revising health inspection warrants for local health officers in response to pollution in commercial or recreational shellfish harvesting areas.

    AN ACT Relating to health inspection warrants; and amending RCW 70.118.030.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 70.118.030 and 1977 ex.s. c 133 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:

    Local boards of health shall identify failing septic tank drainfield systems in the normal manner and will use reasonable effort to determine new failures.  The local health officer or his or her designee may apply for an administrative search warrant to a court official authorized to issue a criminal search warrant.  The warrant may only be applied for after the local health officer has requested inspection of the person's property pursuant to the specific administrative plan in this section and the person has refused the health officer or his or her designee access to the person's property.  Timely notice must be given to any affected person that a warrant is being requested and the person may be present at any court proceeding to consider the requested search warrant.  The court official may issue the warrant upon probable cause.  It is sufficient probable cause to show the inspection, examination, test, or sampling is in response to pollution in commercial or recreational shellfish harvesting areas.  A specific administrative plan must be developed expressly in response to the pollution.  The local health officer shall submit the plan to the court as part of the justification for the warrant.  The plan must include each of the following elements:

(1) The overall goal of the inspection;

(2) The location and identification by address of the properties being authorized for inspection by the health officer;

(3) Requirements for giving the person owning the property notice of the plan, its provisions, and times of any inspections;

(4) The survey procedures to be used in the inspection;

(5) The criteria that would be used to define an on-site sewage system failure; and

(6) The follow-up actions that would be pursued once an on-site sewage system failure has been identified and confirmed.

    Discretionary judgment will be made in implementing corrections by specifying nonwater-carried sewage disposal devices or other alternative methods of treatment and effluent disposal as a measure of ameliorating existing substandard conditions.  Local regulations shall be consistent with the intent and purposes stated herein.

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