Senate Bill 5597 amends multiple sections of chapter 70.90 RCW to update regulation of water recreation facilities. It directs the state board of health to adopt rules under the Administrative Procedure Act covering safety, sanitation, and water quality for water recreation facilities, including requirements for design, operation, injury and illness reporting, contamination standards, water quality monitoring, inspection, permitting, and enforcement. The board may adopt limited minimum health and safety rules for residential aquatic facilities focused on preventing drowning, injury, and recreational water illness, limited to measures such as preventing unsupervised use by children, restroom access, emergency equipment, signage, illness and injury reporting, and water quality. The board must review the CDC Model Aquatic Health Code when adopting rules. The secretary of health enforces the rules and may coordinate with local health jurisdictions. The bill changes procedures and requirements for plan review, permitting, fees, and insurance. It requires plan and specification submittals to be made to either the applicable local health jurisdiction or the Department of Health (not both), requires the reviewing authority to respond within 30 days on approval/denial/pending status, and requires construction permits to be issued within 30 days of plan approval. Local health officers and the Department of Health may establish and collect fees (with an explicit prohibition on charging both state and local fees for the same services). Aquatic facilities may not operate unless the owner or operator carries at least $1,000,000 liability insurance per bodily injury or death per accident or equivalent coverage. Sellers of aquatic venues must provide purchasers with operating instructions on safe use and proper water treatment, including information about health risks and a caution regarding pregnancy. The chapter applies broadly to water recreation facilities with specified exemptions; residential aquatic facilities at single-family dwellings and residential communities with fewer than 15 living units are exempt from preconstruction design review, routine inspection, permit, and fee requirements. Facilities existing on July 26, 1987 may continue to operate without modification if they meet water quality, sanitation, and lifesaving equipment requirements. This bill modifies existing law (amending RCW 70.90.110; 70.90.120; 70.90.140; 70.90.150; 70.90.160; 70.90.230; 70.90.240; 70.90.250) and creates new administrative rulemaking duties, procedural requirements for plan review and permitting, fee collection rules, an insurance requirement, seller disclosure obligations, and specified statutory exemptions. The provided text is incomplete: it cuts off mid-sentence and the list of examples of residential communities and any additional provisions in the omitted portion are missing, and the fragment referencing "homeowner groups or associations" lacks clear context.

If enacted, the bill would require the State Board of Health to set statewide safety, sanitation, and water-quality rules for virtually all public and commercial pools, spas, water parks, and similar venues, and make the Department of Health responsible for enforcing those rules while allowing local health jurisdictions to review plans, issue permits, inspect, and collect fees. Owners and operators of aquatic facilities should expect a clearer permitting process with 30-day responses for plan review and 30-day issuance of construction permits after approval, a required minimum $1,000,000 liability policy (or equivalent), mandatory reporting and monitoring obligations, and a likely combination of state and local oversight though a person cannot be charged duplicate fees for the same service. Sellers of aquatic venues must provide safety and treatment instructions and pregnancy-specific cautions, and facilities that existed in 1987 may continue if they meet basic water quality, sanitation, and lifesaving equipment standards. The groups most affected are commercial and public aquatic facility owners and operators, who will likely face new compliance costs (insurance, design and operation changes, reporting, and permitting fees), clearer timelines for approvals, and possible local inspections; local health jurisdictions will take on plan review, permitting, enforcement, and fee administration duties and the Department of Health will add enforcement and rulemaking responsibilities. Residential aquatic facilities, and residential communities with fewer than 15 living units, are largely exempt from preconstruction review, routine inspection, permits, and fees, which reduces costs and obligations for many homeowners, though the exact scope and any ties to homeowner associations or other residency categories are unclear because some qualifying language and examples are missing from the available text.