Senate Bill 6219 (S-3481.1) repeals the pollution prevention planning requirements in chapter 70A.214 RCW and makes multiple statutory changes across environmental code. It reenacts and amends RCW 43.21B.110 to list the Pollution Control Hearings Board’s jurisdiction and many exclusions for appeals, and it amends RCW 70A.15.2280 to direct the department to prepare nonbinding recommendations to reduce air emissions for certain source categories (removing a parenthetical consistency reference to chapter 70A.214). The bill also repeals RCW 70A.218.030 and a set of chapter 70A.214 sections listed in the repeal section. The bill creates a new annual hazardous waste generator fee and new and amended fiscal accounts. RCW 70A.218.020 as amended imposes a $35 annual hazardous waste generator fee on every hazardous waste generator doing business in Washington, with an exemption for businesses with value of products, gross proceeds of sales, or gross income under $12,000 in the calendar year; the fee is due by July 1 of the year following the calendar year. RCW 70A.218.040 requires annual fee adjustments using a quarterly “price deflator” ratio and publication of an adjusted fee schedule by March 1; RCW 70A.218.050 authorizes use of RCW 43.17.240 for enforcement and collection. The bill creates the hazardous waste assistance account (RCW 70A.218.060) to receive fee revenues and legislative appropriations and authorizes departmental use of those funds for technical assistance, compliance education, grants to local governments, and administration (RCW 70A.218.070). It also creates or reenacts and amends model toxics control operating and capital accounts (RCW 70A.305.180 and RCW 70A.305.190) with listed permissible uses including hazardous waste planning, cleanup, public participation grants (no grant over $60,000), local government grants and loans, and certain toxic pollution reduction programs; the legislature may direct transfers from these accounts to the state general fund during specified biennia. The bill amends RCW 78.56.100 to add requirements for metals mining and milling tailings facilities and waste rock holdings constructed after April 1, 1994, including design and operation standards to prevent pollution, a Department of Ecology and Department of Natural Resources–approved waste rock management plan with specified elements (acid-generation identification, encapsulation strategies, reclamation and closure minimizing infiltration), required detailed engineering reports, and a citizen observation and verification option incorporated into normal water sampling at least once every six months. The amendment provides that sampling results be kept on file with the county and available for public inspection, and it states the state and its employees are immune from civil actions for injuries from citizen participation and that operators are not liable for injuries to observers on their property under chapter 232, Laws of 1994. These are procedural and fiscal statutory changes (repeal of an existing planning chapter, new and adjusted fees, creation of accounts, grant and expenditure authorities, administrative rulemaking and permit-related requirements, and specified appeal/jurisdiction rules). The bill does not, in the provided extracts, create any new crimes or change criminal penalties; it authorizes fee collection enforcement under an existing collection statute. Several details are incomplete or not specified in the extracts: the exact identity of the repeatedly referenced “department” is not always named here, the source or statutory definition of the “price deflator” used for fee adjustments is not provided, portions describing the full intended uses of grants from the hazardous waste assistance account are truncated, and the full text of some amended sections (including parts of RCW 70A.305.180, 70A.305.190, and related provisions) is not included in the provided facts.

If enacted, the bill would eliminate the state’s older pollution prevention planning requirements and instead impose a $35 annual hazardous waste generator fee on each hazardous waste generator doing business in Washington (with a bright-line exemption for businesses with under $12,000 in sales or income). Those fees, adjusted annually by a "price deflator" and deposited into a new hazardous waste assistance account, would fund technical assistance, compliance education, grants to local governments, and administration; the department named in the bill would collect the fee and is directed to provide and contract for assistance. For businesses that generate hazardous waste this is a small, predictable added cost and for local governments and hazardous substance users it likely means more stable, targeted grant and assistance funding, but the exact scope of grant uses and which department is responsible are not fully clear from the available text. The bill also tightens standards for metals mining and milling tailings and waste rock facilities built after 1994 by requiring detailed engineering reports and joint approval of waste rock management plans by Ecology and DNR, and by authorizing citizen observation of water sampling at least twice a year with required public filing of results; mining operators should expect more planning, review, public scrutiny, and likely increased compliance costs. The model toxics accounts’ rules are clarified to fund cleanups and grants, but the legislature may direct transfers from those accounts to the general fund in specified biennia, which could reduce money available for cleanup or grants; several provisions and definitions (including the full grant language and the exact meaning of "price deflator") are missing from the extracted text, leaving some implementation details uncertain.