The long-range health and economic and environmental goals for the state of Washington require the protection of the state's surface and underground waters for the health, safety, use, and enjoyment of its people. It is the purpose of this chapter to provide public bodies an additional means by which to provide for financing, development, and operation of water pollution control facilities needed for achievement of state and federal water pollution control requirements for the protection of the state's waters.

It is the intent of the legislature that public bodies be authorized to provide service from water pollution control facilities by means of service agreements with public or private parties as provided in this chapter.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Water pollution control facilities" or "facilities" means any facilities, systems, or subsystems owned or operated by a public body, or owned or operated by any person or entity for the purpose of providing service to a public body, for the control, collection, storage, treatment, disposal, or recycling of wastewater, including but not limited to sanitary sewage, stormwater, residential wastes, commercial wastes, industrial wastes, and agricultural wastes, that are causing or threatening the degradation of subterranean or surface bodies of water due to concentrations of conventional, nonconventional, or toxic pollutants. Water pollution control facilities do not include dams or water supply systems.

(2) "Public body" means the state of Washington or any agency, county, city or town, political subdivision, municipal corporation, or quasi-municipal corporation.

(3) "Water pollution" means such contamination, or other alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of any surface or subterranean waters of the state, including change in temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of the waters, or such discharge of any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive, or other substance into any waters of the state as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters harmful, detrimental, or injurious to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish, or other aquatic life.

(4) "Agreement" means any agreement to which a public body and a service provider are parties by which the service provider agrees to deliver service to such public body in connection with its design, financing, construction, ownership, operation, or maintenance of water pollution control facilities in accordance with this chapter.

(5) "Service provider" means any privately owned or publicly owned profit or nonprofit corporation, partnership, joint venture, association, or other person or entity that is legally capable of contracting for and providing service with respect to the design, financing, ownership, construction, operation, or maintenance of water pollution control facilities in accordance with this chapter.

(1) Public bodies may enter into agreements with service providers for the furnishing of service in connection with water pollution control facilities pursuant to the process set forth in RCW 70A.140.040. The agreements may provide that a public body pay a minimum periodic fee in consideration of the service actually available without regard to the amount of service actually used during all or any part of the contractual period. Agreements may be for a term not to exceed forty years or the life of the facility, whichever is longer, and may be renewable.

(2) The source of funds to meet periodic payment obligations assumed by a public body pursuant to an agreement permitted under this section may be paid from taxes, or solely from user fees, charges, or other revenues pledged to the payment of the periodic obligations, or any of these sources.

The legislative authority of a public body may secure services by means of an agreement with a service provider. Such an agreement may obligate a service provider to perform one or more of the following services: Design, finance, construct, own, operate, or maintain water pollution control facilities by which services are provided to the public body. Service agreements and related agreements under this chapter shall be entered into in accordance with the following procedure:

(1) The legislative authority of the public body shall publish notice that it is seeking to secure certain specified services by means of entering into an agreement with a service provider. The notice shall be published in the official newspaper of the public body, or if there is no official newspaper then in a newspaper in general circulation within the boundaries of the public body, at least once each week for two consecutive weeks. The final notice shall appear not less than thirty days before the date for submission of proposals. The notice shall state (a) the nature of the services needed, (b) the location in the public body's offices where the requirements and standards for construction, operation, or maintenance of projects needed as part of the services are available for inspection, and (c) the final date for the submission of proposals. The legislative authority may undertake a prequalification process by the same procedure set forth in this subsection.

(2) The request for proposals shall (a) indicate the time and place responses are due, (b) include evaluation criteria to be considered in selecting a service provider, (c) specify minimum requirements or other limitations applying to selection, (d) insofar as practicable, set forth terms and provisions to be included in the service agreement, and (e) require the service provider to demonstrate in its proposal to the public body's satisfaction that it is in the public interest to enter into the service agreement and that the service agreement is financially sound and advantageous to the public body from the standpoint of annual costs, quality of services, experience of the provider, reduction of risk, and other factors.

(3) The criteria set forth in the request for proposals shall be those determined to be relevant by the legislative authority of the public body, which may include but shall not be limited to: The respondent's prior experience, including design, construction, or operation of other similar facilities; respondent's management capability, schedule availability, and financial resources; cost of the service; nature of facility design proposed by respondents; system reliability; performance standards required for the facilities; compatibility with existing service facilities operated by the public body or other providers of service to the public body; project performance warranties; penalty and other enforcement provisions; environmental protection measures to be used; and allocation of project risks. The legislative authority may designate persons or entities within or outside the public body (a) to assist it in issuing the request for proposals to ensure that proposals will be responsive to its needs, and (b) to assist it in evaluating the proposals received.

(4) After proposals under subsections (1) through (3) of this section have been received, the legislative authority or its designee shall determine, on the basis of its review of the proposals, whether one or more proposals have been received from respondents which are (a) determined to be qualified to provide the requested services, and (b) responsive to the notice and evaluation criteria, which shall include, but not be limited to, cost of services. These chosen respondents may, at the discretion of the public body, be aggregated into a short list of qualified respondents, who shall be referred to as the selected respondents in this section. The legislative authority or its designee shall conduct a bidder's conference to include all these selected respondents to assure a full understanding of the proposals. The bidder's conference shall make these selected respondents aware of any changes in the request for proposal. Any information related to revisions in the request for proposal shall be made available to all these selected respondents. Any selected respondent shall be accorded a reasonable opportunity for revision of its proposal prior to commencement of the negotiation provided in subsection (5) of this section, for the purpose of obtaining best and final proposals.

(5) After such conference is held, the legislative authority or its designee may negotiate with the selected respondent whose proposal it determines to be the most advantageous to the public body, considering the criteria set forth in the request for proposals. If negotiations are conducted by the designee, the legislative authority shall continue to oversee the negotiations and provide direction to its designee. If the negotiation is unsuccessful, the legislative authority may commence negotiations with any other selected respondent. On completion of this process, and after the department of ecology review and comments as provided for in subsection (9) of this section, and after public hearing as provided for in subsection (10) of this section, the legislative authority may approve a contract with its chosen respondent.

(6) Any person aggrieved by the legislative authority's approval of a contract may appeal the determination to an appeals board selected by the public body, which shall consist of not less than three persons determined by the legislative authority to be qualified for such purposes. Such board shall promptly hear and determine whether the public body entered into the agreement in accordance with this chapter and other applicable law. The board shall have the power only to affirm or void the agreement.

(7) Notwithstanding the foregoing, where contracting for design services by the public body is done separately from contracting for other services permitted under this chapter, the contracting for design services shall be done in accordance with chapter 39.80 RCW.

(8) If a public body elects to enter into an agreement whereby the service provider will own all or a portion of the water pollution control facilities it constructs, the service agreement shall include provision for an option by which a public body may acquire at fair market value facilities dedicated to such service.

(9) Before any service agreement is entered into by the public body, it shall be reviewed by the department of ecology to ensure consistency with the purposes of chapters 90.46 and 90.48 RCW.

The department of ecology has thirty days from receipt of the proposed service agreement to complete its review and provide the public body with comments. A review under this section is not intended to replace any additional permitting or regulatory reviews and approvals that may be required under other applicable laws.

(10) Prior to entering into any service agreement under this chapter, the public body must have made written findings, after holding a public hearing on the proposal, that it is in the public interest to enter into the service agreement and that the service agreement is financially sound and advantageous compared to other methods.

(11) Each service agreement shall include project performance bonds or other security by the service provider which in the judgment of the public body is sufficient to secure adequate performance by the service provider.

Effective date—1989 c 175: See note following RCW 34.05.010.

Competitive bids—Inapplicability to certain agreements: RCW 35.22.625 and 36.32.265.

A public body may sell, lease, or assign public property for fair market value to any service provider as part of a service agreement entered into under the authority of this chapter. The property sold or leased shall be used by the provider, directly or indirectly, in providing services to the public body. Such use may include demolition, modification, or other use of the property as may be necessary to execute the purposes of the service agreement.

A public body that enters into a service agreement pursuant to this chapter, under which a facility is owned wholly or partly by a service provider, shall be eligible for grants or loans to the extent permitted by law or regulation as if the entire portion of the facility dedicated to service to such public body were publicly owned. The grants or loans shall be made to and shall inure to the benefit of the public body and not the service provider. Such grants or loans shall be used by the public body for all or part of its ownership interest in the facility, and/or to defray a part of the payments it makes to the service provider under a service agreement if such uses are permitted under the grant or loan program.

RCW 70A.140.030 through 70A.140.060 shall be deemed to provide an additional method for the provision of services from and in connection with facilities and shall be regarded as supplemental and additional to powers conferred by other state laws and by federal laws.

Part headings and captions not law—Effective dates—Severability—2007 c 494: See RCW 39.10.903 through 39.10.905.

(1) The provisions of chapters 39.12, 39.19, and * 39.25 RCW shall apply to a service agreement entered into under this chapter to the same extent as if the facilities dedicated to such service were owned by a public body.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not be construed to apply to agreements or actions by persons or entities which are not undertaken pursuant to this chapter.

(3) Except for RCW 39.04.175, this chapter shall not be construed as a limitation or restriction on the application of Title 39 RCW to public bodies.

(4) Prevailing wages shall be established as the prevailing wage in the largest city of the county in which facilities are built.

*Reviser's note: Chapter 39.25 RCW was repealed by 1994 c 138 s 2.

This chapter may be cited as the water quality joint development act.