Several septic and sewer related bills emerge

If you have concerns or comments with any of these bills please send them to Carl Schroeder.

HB 1683 amends the Growth Management Act and specifies that counties and cities are not required to provide sewer service throughout an urban growth area within a twenty year planning period under specific circumstances where sewer service is not necessary.

HB 1476 adopts a set of new requirements for the On-Site Septic Management Plans prepared by the local health jurisdictions in the twelve counties bordering Puget Sound. While this bill would most directly affect counties, please let us know if you have any concerns with these new requirements. Send your comments to Carl Schroeder.

HB 1503 amends several existing statutes to say that the law “does not require a local health jurisdiction to require that periodic inspections of an on-site sewage system in operation be conducted by a professional inspector” Instead It specifies that self-inspections (i.e. inspections conducted by the homeowner) may suffice.

HB 1632/SB 5281 would limit what the State Board of Health (BOH) could require for On-site Septic Use permits that are administered by the counties. Specifically the bill would prohibit BOH rules that:

• Require an OSS use permit to be encumbered by a monitoring contract between a private company and a private individual;
• Require dedicated easements for inspection, maintenance, or further expansion of an OSS;
• Require the replacement, or exclude the repair, of an existing OSS if a repair is sufficient to restore the previous functionality of the OSS.