New laws for 2013, Washington State edition

New Year’s Day is more than just a fes­tive hol­i­day and a turn­ing point on the Gre­go­ri­an cal­en­dar. It’s also the occa­sion when many laws and admin­is­tra­tive rules go into effect, as pre­scribed by our Leg­is­la­ture. Here’s a sum­ma­ry of some of the new laws and rules tak­ing effect in Wash­ing­ton today:

• The min­i­mum wage in Wash­ing­ton is increas­ing to $9.19 as of today, in accor­dance with Ini­tia­tive 688. That’s good news for work­ing men and women whose employ­ers pay them no more than what the law requires (which is not a liv­ing wage). Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the fed­er­al min­i­mum wage remains at $7.25 an hour. Wash­ing­ton and Ore­gon have high­er min­i­mum wages which are also the high­est in the country.
• Car­bon monox­ide alarms are now required in all homes. Car­bon monox­ide is an odor­less gas that can build up in enclosed spaces and result in seri­ous injury or death. A car­bon monox­ide alarm is the only way to detect a harm­ful buildup of the gas, which is why the law now requires alarms to be installed. Don’t have alarms installed on each floor of your house yet? Home Depot has a large selec­tion. If you’d rather keep your dol­lars in the com­mu­ni­ty, pick one up at a local hard­ware store like McLen­don’s.
• Start­ing today, man­u­fac­tur­ers of brake fric­tion mate­ri­als are required under one of the pro­vi­sions of the “Bet­ter Brakes” law to report to the Depart­ment of Ecol­o­gy the con­cen­tra­tions of cop­per, nick­el, zinc, and anti­mo­ny in their prod­ucts. The goal is to reduce the amount of tox­ic deposits left behind on the state’s road­ways by auto­mo­tive brakes.
• Atten­tion anglers: The Wash­ing­ton Depart­ment of Fish & Wildlife wants you to know that bar­b­less hooks are now required for salmon, steel­head (the state fish) and cut­throat trout in the main­stem Colum­bia Riv­er above McNary Dam. See F&W’s announce­ment for more details.
• Manda­to­ry recy­cling of com­pact flu­o­res­cent bulbs begins today. RCW 70.275.080 pro­hibits Wash­ing­to­ni­ans from know­ing­ly plac­ing light bulbs that con­tain mer­cury in the trash. CFL bulbs con­tain­ing mer­cury must be recy­cled. No excep­tions! Ecol­o­gy has a web page with more infor­ma­tion about prop­er­ly dis­pos­ing of CFL bulbs.
• The Under­ground Util­i­ties Dam­age Pre­ven­tion Act is now in effect. This leg­is­la­tion is an update of Wash­ing­ton’s so-called dig law, and it assigns new respon­si­bil­i­ties to local gov­ern­ments and con­trac­tors when soil is to be exca­vat­ed. High­er penal­ties are also now in effect for vio­la­tions of the law.

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