BILL REQ. #:  H-2619.1 

READ FIRST TIME 2/28/07.   

     AN ACT Relating to requiring the use of alternatives to lead wheel weights that reduce environmental health impacts; adding a new chapter to Title 70 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that:
     (1) Lead hazards associated with lead wheel weights represent a preventable environmental health problem. Lead wheel weights fall off of vehicle wheels along Washington's roadways and become a hazard to children who collect them and to people that are exposed to fragments and dust generated when lead wheel weights are abraded and pulverized by traffic. Lead wheel weights that come to be located on and alongside roadways can contribute to soil, surface, and groundwater contamination, and pose a hazard to downstream aquatic life.
     (2) Lead negatively affects every system of the body. It is harmful to individuals of all ages and is especially harmful to children, fetuses, and adults of childbearing age. The effects of lead on a child's cognitive, behavioral, and developmental abilities may necessitate large expenditures of public funds for health care and special education. The irreversible damage to children and subsequent expenditures could be avoided if exposure to lead is reduced.
     (3) There are no federal regulatory controls governing the use of lead wheel weights. The legislature recognizes the state's need to protect the public from exposure to lead hazards.
     (4) This chapter is intended to work in concert with the persistent, bioaccumulative toxins rule, chapter 173-333 WAC, administered by the department. The rule describes a requirement for the department, in consultation with the department of health, to develop a multiyear schedule for the preparation of chemical action plans. In September 2006, lead was the department's highest ranked recommendation for its next chemical action plan. The chemical action plan for lead is proposed for completion in March 2008. While the formal process for the chemical action plan moves forward, the legislature believes it is prudent to act in an accelerated manner on known and readily available opportunities to reduce the environmental health impacts of lead.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Commercial driver's license" means the same as defined in RCW 46.25.010.
     (2) "Department" means the department of ecology.
     (3) "Environmentally preferred wheel weights" means wheel weights used for the purpose of balancing motor vehicle wheels that are listed by the department as approved alternatives for lead wheel weights and that also have a lower impact on human health and the environment.
     (4) "Lead wheel weight" means any externally affixed or attached wheel weight for the purpose of balancing motor vehicle wheels and composed of greater than 0.1 percent lead by weight.
     (5) "Person" includes any individual, firm, association, partnership, corporation, governmental entity, organization, or joint venture.
     (6) "Vehicle" means any motor vehicle registered in Washington that does not require the driver to possess a commercial driver's license to operate, or for which the driver is not specifically exempted from the requirement to possess a commercial driver's license under RCW 46.25.050.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   (1) The department shall establish an advisory committee, in consultation with the department of health and the department of general administration, to identify and make readily available to tire distributors and retailers by January 1, 2008, an approved list of environmentally preferred alternatives to lead wheel weights that are currently available for purchase. Any alternatives on the approved list must not pose a statistically significant greater traffic safety risk than do lead wheel weights as a result of their design or increased volume to mass ratio if they fall off a wheel during operation of the vehicle.
     (2) The approved list of environmentally preferred alternatives to lead wheel weights must be updated by the department every six months starting July 1, 2008.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   Use of environmentally preferred alternative wheel weights is required at the time of the first tire replacement, the first tire repair if the tire is removed from the wheel, or the first tire balancing after:
     (1) June 30, 2008, for all state-owned vehicles;
     (2) June 30, 2009, for all used vehicles registered in Washington state; and
     (3) June 30, 2010, for all new vehicles registered in Washington state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   (1) Enforcement of this chapter shall rely on notification and information exchange between the department and tire distributors and retailers. The department shall achieve compliance with this chapter using the following enforcement sequence:
     (a) At least ninety days prior to the implementation dates for vehicles identified in section 4 of this act, the department shall prepare and distribute information to persons in the tire and wheel weight manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, and retail industry, to the maximum extent practicable, to assist them in identifying environmentally preferred alternative products for lead wheel weights.
     (b) The department may issue a warning letter to a person in the tire distribution, wholesale, retail, or associated industries that violates the requirements of this chapter.
     (c) The department shall offer information or other appropriate assistance to the person in (b) of this subsection. If, after one year, compliance is not achieved, penalties may be assessed under subsection (2) of this section.
     (2) Failure of a person that installs wheel weights to comply with this chapter is punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed five hundred dollars for each violation in the case of a first offense. Persons who are repeat violators are liable for a civil penalty not to exceed one thousand dollars for each repeat offense. Penalties collected under this section shall be deposited in the state toxics control account created in RCW 70.105D.070. The owner of a vehicle is not liable for failing to comply with this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   The department may adopt rules to fully implement this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   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.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   Sections 1 through 7 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 70 RCW.