BILL REQ. #:  H-3589.2 

Read first time 01/19/2004.   Referred to Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources.

     AN ACT Relating to water pollution control; and amending RCW 90.48.010 and 90.48.080.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 90.48.010 and 1973 c 155 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     It is declared to be the public policy of the state of Washington to maintain the highest possible standards to ((insure)) ensure the purity of all waters of the state consistent with public health and public enjoyment thereof, the propagation and protection of wild life, birds, game, fish and other aquatic life, and the industrial development of the state, and to that end require the use of all known available and reasonable methods by industries and others, except urban storm water runoff, to prevent and control the pollution of the waters of the state of Washington. Urban storm water runoff shall be required to reduce the discharge of pollutants to the maximum extent practicable, including management practices, control techniques, and system design and engineering methods, and such other provisions as the administrator of the federal environmental protection agency, under the guidance of the federal environmental protection agency's storm water regulations, shall determine appropriate for the control of such pollutants. Consistent with this policy, the state of Washington will exercise its powers, as fully and as effectively as possible, to retain and secure high quality for all waters of the state. The state of Washington in recognition of the federal government's interest in the quality of the navigable waters of the United States, of which certain portions thereof are within the jurisdictional limits of this state, proclaims a public policy of working cooperatively with the federal government in a joint effort to extinguish the sources of water quality degradation, while at the same time preserving and vigorously exercising state powers to ((insure)) ensure that present and future standards of water quality within the state shall be determined by the citizenry, through and by the efforts of state government, of the state of Washington.

Sec. 2   RCW 90.48.080 and 1987 c 109 s 126 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) It shall be unlawful for any person to throw, drain, run, or otherwise discharge into any of the waters of this state, or to cause, permit or suffer to be thrown, run, drained, allowed to seep or otherwise discharged into such waters any organic or inorganic matter that shall cause or tend to cause pollution of such waters according to the determination of the department, as provided for in this chapter.
     (2) For the purposes of urban storm water runoff, it shall be unlawful for any person to throw, drain, run, or otherwise discharge into any of the waters of this state, or to cause, permit, or suffer to be thrown, run, drained, allowed to seep or otherwise discharged into such waters any organic or inorganic matter that shall cause or tend to cause pollution of such waters according to the provisions of the federal environmental protection agency's storm water regulations, and the determination of the administrator of the federal environmental protection agency under the guidance of those regulations.