The Washington State Department of Ecology (sometimes referred to simply as "Ecology") is the

state of Washington Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

's environmental regulatory agency. Created in February 1970, it was the first environmental regulation agency in the U.S. predating the creation of the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

(EPA) by several months. The department administers laws and regulations pertaining to the areas of

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

, water rights and water resources, shoreline management, toxics clean-up, nuclear waste, hazardous waste, and air quality. It also conducts monitoring and scientific assessments.

Duties

The agency has an operating budget of approximately $459 million, a capital budget of approximately $325 million and close to 1600 employees The department's authorizing statute is RCW 43.21A. It is responsible for administering the Shoreline Management Act (RCW 90.58), the Water Code (RCW 90.03), the state Water Pollution Control Act (RCW 90.48), the state Clean Air Act (RCW 70.94), and the Model Toxics Control Act. Appeals of Ecology's decisions are made to the Environmental Hearings office, which includes the Pollution Control Hearings Board and the Shoreline Hearings Board, as well as several boards that address appeals of decisions by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Natural Resources.

Administration

Leadership

The Director of the Department of Ecology is appointed by the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

and subject to confirmation by the State Senate. The current director is Laura Watson, who replaced

Maia Bellon Maia D. Bellon is an American attorney and former government official from the State of Washington. She served as Director of the Washington Department of Ecology from 2013 to 2020. A member of the Mescalero Apache, Bellon was the first Native ...

in 2020.

Headquarters and regional offices

Ecology has its headquarters office in Lacey, Washington, near

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

and abutting the campus of St. Martin's University. It has four regional offices located in Lacey (Southwest Region), Yakima (Central Region), Bellevue (Northwest Region) and Spokane (Eastern Region). In addition, it has smaller field offices in Bellingham,

Twisp Twisp is a town in Okanogan County in north central Washington, which sits at the confluence of the Twisp and Methow rivers. The population was 938 at the time of the 2000 census and decreased to 919 at the time of the 2010 census. History On ...

, Richland, Vancouver, Washington and Wenatchee.

Programs

The Ecology Youth Corps is a summer jobs program for teenagers in Washington that is managed by the Department of Ecology. Established in 1975, the program is tasked with cleaning litter on state highways and pays hired teenagers a minimum wage. The Department of Ecology began a vehicle inspection program in 1982, requiring vehicles registered within the state to be inspected for emissions quality. The program ended on December 31, 2019, following a 14-year phase-out approved by the state legislature in 2005 as air quality in Washington cities had improved to above federal standards. Some emissions testing facilities, including two in Seattle, were repurposed as drive-thru

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

testing sites during the

2020 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

References

External links

Department of Ecology official web site

Environmental Hearings office
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Ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

State environmental protection agencies of the United States

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...