BILL REQ. #:  S-0487.1 

Read first time 01/12/2007.   Referred to Committee on Natural Resources, Ocean & Recreation.

     AN ACT Relating to the Northwest weather and avalanche center; adding new sections to chapter 79A.05 RCW; creating a new section; providing an effective date; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that the Northwest weather and avalanche center (NWAC) provides valuable forecasting and education services, provides valuable information to the public, and reduces the impacts of adverse mountain weather and avalanches on recreation, industry, and transportation in Washington state. To conduct its forecasts, the NWAC receives information from the forty-two weather stations it maintains or helps to maintain, consults sources of on-the-ground weather observations, and utilizes information from the national weather service. The NWAC provides mountain weather and avalanche information through a public hotline recording and over the internet.
     The NWAC program, which was initiated in 1975, has been administered by the United States forest service since 1976. Throughout its history, the NWAC has been an interagency funded program, receiving significant funds from state, federal, and private sources. However, the NWAC faces funding shortfalls beginning in 2007 and for the foreseeable future, creating the possibility that the NWAC will have to reduce its services or close. It is the intent of the legislature to ensure, in continued cooperation with federal and private sources, that the NWAC receives the resources necessary to continue providing weather and avalanche forecasts for the benefit of Washington state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 79A.05 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The commission shall negotiate with the United States forest service to develop an intergovernmental agreement for the transfer of the Northwest weather and avalanche center program from the United States forest service to the commission. The agreement may provide for cooperative administration over the center, and the forest service and the commission may determine which agency will have administrative control over the employees, equipment, and facilities of the center. The commission shall work to include within the interagency agreement a commitment by both agencies that the center maintain into the future the level of service provided by the center during calendar years 2001 through 2006, including:
     (a) The commission's agreement to seek state funding for not less than fifty percent of the funding necessary to maintain this level of service; and
     (b) The United States forest service's agreement to seek federal funding for not less than thirty-five percent of the funding necessary to maintain this level of service.
     (2) The commission shall work with relevant agencies of the federal government, neighboring states, local governments, and private organizations to ensure long-term, interagency funding to support the functions of the Northwest weather and avalanche center.
     (3) The commission shall, by December 1, 2007, and by December 1, 2008, provide an update on the commission's progress in carrying out subsections (1) and (2) of this section to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the senate and house of representatives.
     (4) This section expires June 30, 2009.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 79A.05 RCW to read as follows:
     The Northwest weather and avalanche center is created within the commission. The purpose of the Northwest weather and avalanche center is to reduce the impacts of adverse mountain weather and avalanches through data collection, forecasting, and education. The Northwest weather and avalanche center shall be administered in cooperation with the United States forest service and pursuant to an intergovernmental agreement between the commission and the United States forest service.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   A new section is added to chapter 79A.05 RCW to read as follows:
     The Northwest weather and avalanche center account is created in the state treasury. All receipts from gifts or grants to the account, or legislative appropriations to the account, must be deposited in the account. Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation. Expenditures from the account may be used only to carry out the purposes of the Northwest weather and avalanche center.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   Sections 3 and 4 of this act take effect July 1, 2009.