Committee advances environmental-crimes bill after extensive amendment debate

On March 20, 2025, the Washington State House Environment & Energy Committee voted to report out engrossed substitute Senate Bill 5,360 by a voice and roll-call vote, 11-10, after adopting striking amendment H2028.2 and debating more than a dozen member amendments.

The striking amendment H2028.2 narrows some potential criminal exposure and adds several provisions: it excepts permit-compliant conduct (including required reporting or corrective actions) from criminal liability under the Water Pollution Control Act, the state Clean Air Act and the Hazardous Waste Management Act; it creates an exception to Clean Air Act criminal penalties for odors or fugitive dust from agricultural activities consistent with good agricultural practices; it excepts outdoor burning done under valid state or local permits; it clarifies that negligent violations must be criminally negligent to be felonies; it requires the Department of Ecology to prepare and publish information about criminal penalty provisions and to provide that information when issuing permits; it removes the bill's prior definition of “entity”; and it adds a severability and an intent section.

Committee members described sharply different views of the bill. Representative Mena, the bill sponsor, said the measure "enhances the tools we already have in…