Hudgins proposal to address pollution fees wins Legislature’s support

March 12, 2008

Spurred on by outcries over a seemingly unfair system of hazardous-waste management in the state, Rep. Zack Hudgins (D – Tukwila) set out this legislative session to address the way in which the Department of Ecology collects fees from businesses that release toxic industrial pollution into our air, land, and water. 

Currently the state Department of Ecology can collect fees from companies up to a certain limit – and that limit is what has many smaller companies, as well as environmental advocates, calling for change. The more a company pollutes, they argue, the less impact the fee has.

Hudgins challenged Ecology’s experts and lobbied his legislative colleagues in the House and Senate to come up with a new way of funding the program and incentives for pollution reduction strategies adopted by businesses.  His efforts led to the creation in this year’s state budget of a stakeholder advisory group to weigh in on the fee cap.  

“We have to find a new way of doing business,” said Hudgins. “The current model is unsustainable for our state’s economy and our state’s natural resources.” 

The group, overseen by Ecology, will gather input from businesses both large and small affected by the fee, as well as other stakeholder groups. Not only are they tasked with addressing the fee scale, Hudgins and other lawmakers in Olympia want the group to recommend ways to help businesses achieve a fifty percent toxics reduction use goal.

The advisory group will have until this November to report its findings to the House Environmental Health Committee, on which Rep. Hudgins is the Majority Party Leader.  It’s Hudgins’ hope their work will lead to a new state policy for reducing hazardous emissions.  

The Department of Ecology has been helping businesses reduce their pollution for years but we need to start thinking differently about pollution,” added Hudgins. “The existing fee should not only fund these efforts to help businesses and protect jobs – it should also discourage pollution and the need for these programs.”

“Done right, we will get two benefits from one policy.”

While budget negotiations have been finalized, lawmakers plan to approve this year’s supplemental budget on Thursday, the last day of the 2008 legislative session.

The following is the full text contained in the 2008 Supplemental Budget:

$80,000 of the state toxics control account — state appropriation is provided solely for the department to create a stakeholder advisory committee to review and develop recommendations to help businesses achieve a fifty percent toxics reduction use goal.

 

The committee shall: (a) Review and make recommendations to improve the effectiveness and delivery of technical assistance in pollution prevention planning; (b) develop recommendations for strategies to encourage moving away from "end-of-pipe" pollution reduction approaches to increase hazardous waste prevention throughout the state; and (c)review and make recommendations on revising the hazardous waste planning fee under RCW 70.95E.030, including opportunities to provide incentives that reward businesses for toxic use reduction successes in report its findings and recommendations to the fiscal and policy committees of the senate and house of representatives by November 1,2008.