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Natural Resources & Energy committee amends H481 to add regional stormwater utility study, votes 5-0
Summary
The Natural Resources & Energy committee approved an amendment to House bill H481 (draft 4.1) that adds a study on regional stormwater management and potential creation of regional stormwater utility districts and recommended the amended bill to the Senate in a 5-0 vote.
The Natural Resources & Energy committee voted unanimously to amend House Bill H481 (draft 4.1) to add a study on regional stormwater management and to recommend the amended bill to the Senate.
The amendment moves material from a previously required ANR report into a renamed study section on stormwater mapping and the creation of regional stormwater utility districts. The committee directed the study to evaluate whether and how a regional stormwater utility could improve management of parcel-based stormwater issues, address stormwater systems that cross homeowner association (HOA) or other private property boundaries, and whether municipal stormwater permitting, permit renewal or fee processes could be streamlined to improve application processing.
Committee staff presented a redlined draft and walked members through technical edits, including small wording changes and renumbering of sections that affected future repeal dates. The chair and staff said they will produce a clean copy of draft 4.1 and circulate it to committee members. Committee members noted the study is intended to explore a regionalized model because smaller municipalities often lack capacity to manage complex stormwater issues alone, and that multiple steps would be required before any utility could be established.
A motion to amend H481 as proposed in draft 4.1 and recommend it to the Senate passed on a roll-call vote: Senator Beck (yes), Senator Bombardier (yes), Senator Purdy (yes), Senator Williams (yes) and Senator Lawson (yes) — 5-0. The motion’s mover was not identified in the transcript; no amendment motions changing the substance of the study were recorded.
Committee members also received informational updates on related legislation (referred to in the meeting as “SALT,” S 29 and S 319) and a separate suggestion to add language referring to William Crosswell into a different bill; those items were discussed but no formal committee action on them was recorded during this meeting.
Staff next steps noted in the meeting were preparing a clean copy of the amended draft and sending it to committee members and relevant legislative offices before the Senate receives the recommendation. The transcript did not specify statutory deadlines or an exact submission date for the study report.
