Second Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5360 (69th Legislature, 2025) is titled "An act relating to environmental crimes." The bill creates new criminal offenses in multiple environmental statutes and changes enforcement procedures. It adds first-, second-, and third-degree offenses for violating chapter 90.48 RCW (water pollution control), creates parallel first-, second-, and third-degree offenses for violations of chapter 70A.15 RCW (air quality) and for chapter 70A.300 RCW (hazardous substances), and amends and reenacts certain air quality definitions. First-degree offenses are class B felonies, second-degree offenses are class C felonies, and third-degree offenses are gross misdemeanors with specified fines and jail terms. For each degree the bill includes vicarious liability so an entity can be guilty if an agent commits the offense within the scope of duties, treats each day of a continuing violation as potentially a separate violation while directing confinement treatment under RCW 9.94A.589, and excludes permit‑compliant reporting or corrective actions from being violations. The bill also establishes defenses and limits on liability: it provides an affirmative defense the defendant may prove by a preponderance of the evidence (that the defendant did not know the conduct was unlawful, acted within the scope of employment, and followed employer orders), and it states conduct done at the direction of an applicable permitting agency is not a violation. It adds employment protections prohibiting termination or discipline of employees who refuse to violate the chapters or who report suspected violations. Agency and procedural changes include requiring the responsible department(s) to prepare and post information about the criminal penalties and to provide that information with permit issuances or renewals, requiring local air authorities and the Department of Ecology to give at least 30 days' written notice and an opportunity to meet before commencing formal enforcement under RCW 70A.15.3160, authorizing Department of Health enforcement for radionuclide emissions consistent with specified RCWs, directing EFSEC permit coordination, and requiring the Attorney General to report annually beginning July 1, 2026 on criminal enforcement actions under chapters 70A.15, 70A.300, and 90.48 RCW. The bill also amends RCW 9.94A.515 (offense seriousness table) and repeals RCW 90.48.140, 70A.15.3150, 70A.300.100, and 70A.300.110. Important textual gaps in the extracted material remain. The exact new section numbers added to chapter 90.48 RCW are not provided, the specific department named in some provisions is not identified in the extracts, parts of some definitions (including the full best available control technology definition) and portions of the amended seriousness table (RCW 9.94A.515 Table 2) are incomplete, and some cross‑referenced statutory texts are not included here. These missing items are not inferred or filled in.

If enacted, the bill sharply raises the criminal stakes for businesses and people who discharge pollutants, emit toxic air pollutants, or mishandle hazardous substances by creating three tiers of criminal offenses (felony to gross misdemeanor) that can apply to the individual who acted and to the employer if the agent was acting within their duties. That change makes compliance with permits and following a permitting agency’s direction critical because those actions are expressly excluded from violations, while failure to comply, or actions that create an imminent danger to people, property, or government-owned natural resources could lead to felony exposure, daily-counting violations for charging purposes, and added legal and operational risk for companies and facility operators. The bill also adds worker protections against discipline for refusing to violate rules or for reporting violations, requires the relevant department(s) to publish and hand out explanatory materials when issuing or renewing permits (within existing resources), requires 30-day pre-enforcement notices from air authorities and ecology, and mandates annual Attorney General reports on criminal enforcement starting July 1, 2026. Those most affected are owners and operators of stationary sources, permit-holding facilities, waste handlers, and their insurers and legal teams, who will likely face higher compliance and legal costs, greater exposure to criminal prosecution, and pressure to tighten internal controls and training; permitting and enforcement agencies must add outreach and reporting duties (claimed to be within existing resources, which may create workload or resource strain); employees gain clearer whistleblower protections and may feel more empowered to refuse unlawful orders. Important details are missing or unclear in the provided text—some department names, specific section numbers, and certain definitions and repealed provisions are incomplete—so the exact scope of some duties, exclusions, and how new offenses interact with prior law cannot be fully determined from these extracts.