02/20/2008: "House & Senate Water Down Stormwater Regulation"

With the House passing House Bill 2558 by 96-0, and the Senate voting 48-0, the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) has moved closer to removing at least one “regulatory burden without environmental benefits.”

The action by the House and the Senate was in response by a request by DOE to “correct the unintended consequences of additional workload for local governments” that resulted as a result of a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) that applied to construction projects that disturb one or more acres of land.

HB2558 exempts certain minor new construction associated with construction storm water general permits from the state environmental policy act.

Until 2005, construction projects that disturbed less than five acres of land were exempt from obtaining a construction stormwater permit from Ecology, and were not required to comply with the requirements of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).

All that changed in 2005 when Ecology adopted a new construction stormwater permit designed to meet more stringent federal stormwater requirements, but in doing so, the exemption from SEPA for construction projects that disturbed less than five acres of land was not updated.