HB1029 – Adds requirements for Ecology’s assessments of Federal water quality permit applications.
Prime Sponsor – Senator Walsh (R, 19th District, Aberdeen)
Current status – Referred to the Committee on Environment & Energy. (Reintroduced and retained in present status for 2020 session.)
Next step would be – Action by the committee.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –
Getting a permit for activities that may result in discharging a pollutant into waters of the United States, requires applying for a water quality certificate from Ecology stating that your releases meet the standards of the Federal Clean Water Act. The bill adds requirements about how Ecology manages these applications, and limits the discharges and environmental effects that Ecology can take into account.

Comments –
At first glance it doesn’t seem as if water quality has much to do with greenhouse gases. However, these permits also cover the management of manure at feed lots and the operation of wastewater treatment plants, which are sources of methane emissions.  The bill prohibits Ecology from considering any environmental damages that might result from impacts based on the end use of a product outside the state’s borders, or from other “impacts of the activities that are not within the jurisdiction of the state  to regulate.” (Presumably, this is related to recent decisions by Ecology and the Shorelines Management Board denying permits to new  fossil fuel export terminals that did include the eventual greenhouse gas emissions from burning those exports into account.)