2018 legislative review
Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles, requires the Department of Natural Resources to do periodic reporting on marbled murrelet conditions and protections. A coalition of businesses and local government representatives succeeded in amending the final Supplemental Operating Budget, SB 6032 Section 308( 24), to reiterate the state’ s trust mandate obligation to beneficiaries of trust land resource revenues. Other marbled murrelet bills included House Bill 2300 and Senate bills 6020 and 6032( the final Supplemental Operating Budget).
HB 2658 pfas in food packaging
Passed / AWB Opposed
AWB members have been advisory committee members to the poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances( PFAS) Chemical Action Plan( CAP) at the state Department of Ecology since 2015. The CAP process seeks to convene stakeholders and scientists to provide recommendations to the Legislature for whether and how to regulate certain chemicals. The CAP was scheduled to finish in 2018, but before it had the chance, the environmentalist group Toxic-Free Future( which was also a member of the CAP Advisory Committee) introduced legislation to ban PFAS in food packaging. House Bill 2658, sponsored by Rep. Joan McBride, D-Kirkland, requires an Alternative Assessment to be performed prior to the ban taking place, but since the products are federally-regulated and considered safe by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, it is unclear whether the assessment will produce truly safer alternatives. Banning a substance before creating private-sector consensus and phase-out opportunities is an unprecedented move that could expose Washington state to litigation.
SB 6413 pfas in firefighting foams
Passed / AWB Opposed
In past years, the Washington state Department of Ecology has discovered
Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, is the ranking member of the Capital Budget Committee and assistant ranking member of the Technology & Economic Development Committee.
“ long-chain” PFAS chemicals PFOA and PFOS in groundwater reserves surrounding military bases. The PFOA and PFOS contamination results from military and firefighter training exercises using the chemicals to extinguish fires ignited by flammable liquids such as aircraft or vehicle fires. The PFOA and PFOS are found to be persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic, so industry voluntarily phased out their manufacture and replaced them with“ short-chain” PFAS chemistries that are not shown to have the same damaging characteristics. However, the group Toxic- Free Future proposed Senate Bill 6413, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, to ban the use of PFAS in all firefighting foams that are not required to meet military specifications. As such, federal military bases, airports, or other facilities may still use the long-chain foams. The bill did not address remediation measures such as groundwater cleanup on those sites, which are a higher priority for the PFAS CAP. Rather than an outright ban, AWB members supported sticking to the recommendations of the PFAS CAP which include protecting drinking water, collecting legacy stockpiles, and examining research on safer alternatives.
land use, water resources and regulatory reform
ESSB 6091 legislative hirst fix
Passed / AWB Supported
AWB supported Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6091, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, which provided a legislative fix for the Hirst water rights decision. In 2016, in a ruling known as the Hirst decision, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that counties( not the state) must determine whether adequate water is available before issuing a building permit. This caused many counties, especially in rural areas to stop issuing building permits.
30 association of washington business