This bill creates a new chapter in Title 70A RCW and amends existing law to address the use of 6PPD in tires and substitutes. It prohibits, effective January 1, 2035, the manufacture, sale, distribution, or offering for use in Washington of new tires that contain intentionally added 6PPD or a “regrettable 6PPD substitute” as identified by rule. The Department of Ecology must adopt rules to identify regrettable substitutes, consulting the Department of Health and considering other jurisdictions, and the new chapter does not limit Ecology’s existing authority under chapter 70A.350 RCW. The bill establishes a new 6PPD mitigation fee and account and changes tire fee procedures. Beginning January 1, 2027, retail sales of new replacement 6PPD-containing tires are subject to a mitigation fee of $3 per tire for load ratings up to 2,500 pounds and $6 per tire for higher load ratings; the mitigation fees increase 10% annually starting January 1, 2028. Sellers must pay the mitigation fee to the Department of Revenue and may not show or collect it separately from buyers; certain tires (6PPD-free, original equipment, retreaded, warranty/recall replacements) are exempt. The act creates a 6PPD mitigation account for fee receipts, authorizes the Department of Ecology and Revenue to use funds for specified monitoring, grants, education, implementation, and administrative costs, and directs the first $600,000 of net receipts from the existing $5 per-tire fee each fiscal year to the waste tire removal account. The bill adds enforcement, penalty, and administrative procedures. The Department of Ecology may adopt implementation rules, issue corrective action orders, and assess civil penalties up to $5,000 per violation for a first offense and up to $10,000 for repeat offenses; penalties and orders may be appealed to the Pollution Control Hearings Board. Penalties become due 30 days after notice (subject to appeal and local authority disposition rules), and unpaid penalties may be sued for in superior court by the Attorney General or affected authority. The Department of Revenue administers fee collection, audit, and a certification process for 6PPD-free tires including periodic testing; sellers who misappropriate fees may be guilty of a gross misdemeanor and are personally liable for unremitted fees. The act includes retailer retention for waste tire management, grants and program administration by Ecology, and a severability clause. The provided text is incomplete in places: implementing language for a temporary distributor fee referenced in legislative intent is not included; some statutory amendments and specific seller retention details are cut off; portions of Sec. 6 and Sec. 11 are incomplete; and cross-referenced definitions in RCW 70A.350.010 and RCW 46.04.670 are not reproduced here. Those missing details are not inferred.

If enacted, retailers and tire manufacturers will face new, recurring fees and future product limits tied to 6PPD, a tire antioxidant linked to fish kills. Beginning January 1, 2027, sellers must pay a 6PPD mitigation fee on retail sales of new replacement tires that contain intentionally added 6PPD ($3 per tire for lighter-load tires and $6 per tire for heavier-load tires), with the fee rising 10% each January 1 starting in 2028; sellers may not show or separately collect that fee from customers. The existing $5 per-tire retail fee remains in place (with a seller retention allowance and the first $600,000 a year directed to waste-tire cleanup), and all 6PPD mitigation receipts go into a new 6PPD mitigation account to cover state administrative costs, Ecology’s monitoring and regulatory work, grants for cleanup and enforcement, and related activities. Sellers who fail to remit fees can face personal liability or criminal penalties for misappropriation, and Ecology will have enforcement authority with civil penalties up to $5,000 for a first violation and $10,000 for repeats, enforceable through corrective orders and appealable to the Pollution Control Hearings Board. Those most affected are tire manufacturers, distributors, and retail sellers, who will need to track which tires contain 6PPD, may incur testing or documentation costs to certify tires as 6PPD-free to avoid fees, and face a ban on selling new tires with intentionally added 6PPD or department-identified “regrettable substitutes” as of January 1, 2035. The Department of Revenue will administer fee collection, audits, certification lists, and testing authority, while the Department of Ecology gains funding and rulemaking responsibility to identify unsafe substitutes and carry out monitoring and cleanup programs. Important details are missing from the provided text—most notably full implementing rules, the exact process and criteria and timeline for identifying “regrettable 6PPD substitutes,” and some penalty procedure language that was incomplete—so the timing and specific compliance steps for businesses and agencies remain uncertain.