ESSB 5312 -
By Committee on Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness
ADOPTED 04/04/2007
Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:
"NEW SECTION. Sec. 1
(1) "Commercial account" means a relationship between a scrap metal
business and a commercial enterprise that is ongoing and properly
documented under section 3 of this act.
(2) "Commercial enterprise" means a corporation, partnership,
limited liability company, association, state agency, political
subdivision of the state, public corporation, or any other legal or
commercial entity.
(3) "Commercial metal property" means: Utility access covers;
street light poles and fixtures; road and bridge guardrails; highway or
street signs; water meter covers; traffic directional and control
signs; traffic light signals; any metal property marked with the name
of a commercial enterprise, including but not limited to a telephone,
commercial mobile radio services, cable, electric, water, natural gas,
or other utility, or railroad; unused or undamaged building
construction materials consisting of copper pipe, tubing, or wiring, or
aluminum wire, siding, downspouts, or gutters; aluminum or stainless
steel fence panels made from one inch tubing, forty-two inches high
with four inch gaps; aluminum decking, bleachers, or risers; historical
markers; statue plaques; grave markers and funeral vases; or
agricultural irrigation wheels, sprinkler heads, and pipes.
(4) "Nonferrous metal property" means metal property for which the
value of the metal property is derived from the property's content of
copper, brass, aluminum, bronze, lead, zinc, nickel, and their alloys.
"Nonferrous metal property" does not include precious metals.
(5) "Precious metals" means gold, silver, and platinum.
(6) "Record" means a paper, electronic, or other method of storing
information.
(7) "Scrap metal business" means a scrap metal supplier, scrap
metal recycling center, and scrap metal processor.
(8) "Scrap metal processor" means a person with a current business
license that conducts business from a permanent location, that is
engaged in the business of purchasing or receiving nonferrous metal
property and commercial metal property for the purpose of altering the
metal in preparation for its use as feedstock in the manufacture of new
products, and that maintains a hydraulic bailer, shearing device, or
shredding device for recycling.
(9) "Scrap metal recycling center" means a person with a current
business license that is engaged in the business of purchasing or
receiving nonferrous metal property and commercial metal property for
the purpose of aggregation and sale to another scrap metal business and
that maintains a fixed place of business within the state.
(10) "Scrap metal supplier" means a person with a current business
license that is engaged in the business of purchasing or receiving
nonferrous metal property for the purpose of aggregation and sale to a
scrap metal recycling center or scrap metal processor and that does not
maintain a fixed business location in the state.
(11) "Transaction" means a pledge, or the purchase of, or the trade
of any item of nonferrous metal property by a scrap metal business
from a member of the general public. "Transaction" does not include
donations or the purchase or receipt of nonferrous metal property by a
scrap metal business from a commercial enterprise, from another scrap
metal business, or from a duly authorized employee or agent of the
commercial enterprise or scrap metal business.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2
(a) The signature of the person with whom the transaction is made;
(b) The time, date, location, and value of the transaction;
(c) The name of the employee representing the scrap metal business
in the transaction;
(d) The name, street address, and telephone number of the person
with whom the transaction is made;
(e) The license plate number and state of issuance of the license
plate on the motor vehicle used to deliver the nonferrous metal
property subject to the transaction;
(f) A description of the motor vehicle used to deliver the
nonferrous metal property subject to the transaction;
(g) The current driver's license number or other government-issued
picture identification card number of the seller or a copy of the
seller's government-issued picture identification card; and
(h) A description of the predominant types of nonferrous metal
property subject to the transaction, including the property's
classification code as provided in the institute of scrap recycling
industries scrap specifications circular, 2006, and weight, quantity,
or volume.
(2) For every transaction that involves nonferrous metal property,
every scrap metal business doing business in the state shall require
the person with whom a transaction is being made to sign a declaration.
The declaration may be included as part of the transactional record
required under subsection (1) of this section, or on a receipt for the
transaction. The declaration must state substantially the following:
"I, the undersigned, affirm under penalty of law that the property
that is subject to this transaction is not to the best of my knowledge
stolen property."
The declaration must be signed and dated by the person with whom
the transaction is being made. An employee of the scrap metal business
must witness the signing and dating of the declaration and sign the
declaration accordingly before any transaction may be consummated.
(3) The record and declaration required under this section must be
open to the inspection of any commissioned law enforcement officer of
the state or any of its political subdivisions at all times during the
ordinary hours of business, or at reasonable times if ordinary hours of
business are not kept, and must be maintained wherever that business is
conducted for one year following the date of the transaction.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3
(2) No scrap metal business may purchase or receive commercial
metal property unless the seller: (a) Has a commercial account with
the scrap metal business; (b) can prove ownership of the property by
producing written documentation that the seller is the owner of the
property; or (c) can produce written documentation that the seller is
an employee or agent authorized to sell the property on behalf of a
commercial enterprise.
(3) No scrap metal business may enter into a transaction to
purchase or receive metallic wire that was burned in whole or in part
to remove insulation unless the seller can produce written proof to the
scrap metal business that the wire was lawfully burned.
(4) No transaction involving nonferrous metal property valued at
greater than thirty dollars may be made in cash or with any person who
does not provide a street address under the requirements of section 2
of this act. For transactions valued at greater than thirty dollars,
the person with whom the transaction is being made may only be paid by
a nontransferable check, mailed by the scrap metal business to a street
address provided under section 2 of this act, no earlier than ten days
after the transaction was made. A transaction occurs on the date
provided in the record required under section 2 of this act.
(5) No scrap metal business may purchase or receive beer kegs from
anyone except a manufacturer of beer kegs or licensed brewery.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4
(a) The full name of the commercial enterprise or commercial
account;
(b) The business address and telephone number of the commercial
enterprise or commercial account; and
(c) The full name of the person employed by the commercial
enterprise who is authorized to deliver nonferrous metal property and
commercial metal property to the scrap metal business.
(2) The record maintained by a scrap metal business for a
commercial account must document every purchase or receipt of
nonferrous metal property and commercial metal property from the
commercial enterprise. The documentation must include, at a minimum,
the following information:
(a) The time, date, and value of the property being purchased or
received;
(b) A description of the predominant types of property being
purchased or received; and
(c) The signature of the person delivering the property to the
scrap metal business.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 5
(2) If the scrap metal business has good cause to believe that any
nonferrous metal property or commercial metal property in his or her
possession has been previously lost or stolen, the scrap metal business
shall promptly report that fact to the applicable commissioned law
enforcement officer of the state, the chief of police, or the county's
chief law enforcement officer, together with the name of the owner, if
known, and the date when and the name of the person from whom it was
received.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6
(2) A commissioned law enforcement officer of the state or any of
its political subdivisions shall not place on hold any item of
nonferrous metal property or commercial metal property unless that law
enforcement agency reasonably suspects that the property is a lost or
stolen item. Any hold that is placed on the property must be removed
within ten business days after the property on hold is determined not
to be stolen or lost and the property must be returned to the owner or
released.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7
(1) Any person to deliberately remove, alter, or obliterate any
manufacturer's make, model, or serial number, personal identification
number, or identifying marks engraved or etched upon an item of
nonferrous metal property or commercial metal property in order to
deceive a scrap metal business;
(2) Any scrap metal business to enter into a transaction to
purchase or receive any nonferrous metal property or commercial metal
property where the manufacturer's make, model, or serial number,
personal identification number, or identifying marks engraved or etched
upon the property have been deliberately and conspicuously removed,
altered, or obliterated;
(3) Any person to knowingly make, cause, or allow to be made any
false entry or misstatement of any material matter in any book, record,
or writing required to be kept under this chapter;
(4) Any scrap metal business to enter into a transaction to
purchase or receive nonferrous metal property or commercial metal
property from any person under the age of eighteen years or any person
who is discernibly under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs;
(5) Any scrap metal business to enter into a transaction to
purchase or receive nonferrous metal property or commercial metal
property with anyone whom the scrap metal business has been informed by
a law enforcement agency to have been convicted of a crime involving
drugs, burglary, robbery, theft, or possession of or receiving stolen
property, manufacturing, delivering, or possessing with intent to
deliver methamphetamine, or possession of ephedrine or any of its salts
or isomers or salts of isomers, pseudoephedrine or any of its salts or
isomers or salts of isomers, or anhydrous ammonia with intent to
manufacture methamphetamine within the past ten years whether the
person is acting in his or her own behalf or as the agent of another;
(6) Any person to sign the declaration required under section 2 of
this act knowing that the nonferrous metal property subject to the
transaction is stolen. The signature of a person on the declaration
required under section 2 of this act constitutes evidence of intent to
defraud a scrap metal business if that person is found to have known
that the nonferrous metal property subject to the transaction was
stolen;
(7) Any scrap metal business to possess commercial metal property
that was not lawfully purchased or received under the requirements of
this chapter; or
(8) Any scrap metal business to engage in a series of transactions
valued at less than thirty dollars with the same seller for the
purposes of avoiding the requirements of section 3(4) of this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 8
(2) Within two years of being convicted of a violation of any of
the requirements of this chapter that are not subject to the criminal
penalties under section 7 of this act, each subsequent violation shall
be punishable, upon conviction, by a fine of not more than two thousand
dollars.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 9
(1) Motor vehicle dealers licensed under chapter 46.70 RCW;
(2) Vehicle wreckers or hulk haulers licensed under chapter 46.79
or 46.80 RCW;
(3) Persons in the business of operating an automotive repair
facility as defined under RCW 46.71.011; and
(4) Persons in the business of buying or selling empty food and
beverage containers, including metal food and beverage containers.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 10 Sections 1 through 9 of this act constitute
a new chapter in Title
NEW SECTION. Sec. 11 RCW 9.91.110 (Metal buyers -- Records of
purchases -- Penalty) and 1971 ex.s. c 302 s 18 are each repealed.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 12 Captions used in this act are not any part
of the law.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 13 If any provision of this act or its
application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other
persons or circumstances is not affected."
Correct the title.
EFFECT: (1) Provides that metal property marked with the name of
a commercial mobile radio services entity is "commercial metal
property."
(2) Modifies the definitions section as follows:
(a) Removes the reference to "unwanted electronic product" from the
definition of nonferrous metal property.
(b) Clarifies a reference to nonferrous metal property in the
definition of scrap metal processor.
(c) Includes entities engaged in the business of purchasing or
receiving commercial metal property in the definition of scrap metal
processor and scrap metal recycling center.
(3) Applies the requirement related to providing records to law
enforcement to records from the purchase or receipt of commercial metal
property (instead of just nonferrous metal property).