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

(1) "Board" means the public works board.

(2) "Capital facility plan" means a capital facility plan required by the Growth Management Act under chapter 36.70A RCW or, for local governments not fully planning under the Growth Management Act, a plan required by the public works board.

(3) "Department" means the department of commerce.

(4) "Financing guarantees" means the pledge of money in the public works assistance account, or money to be received by the public works assistance account, to the repayment of all or a portion of the principal of or interest on obligations issued by local governments to finance public works projects.

(5) "Local governments" means cities, towns, counties, special purpose districts, and any other municipal corporations or quasi-municipal corporations in the state excluding school districts and port districts.

(6) "Public works project" means a project of a local government for the planning, acquisition, construction, repair, reconstruction, replacement, rehabilitation, or improvement of streets and roads, bridges, water systems, storm or sanitary sewer systems, lead remediation of drinking water systems, and solid waste/recycling systems. A planning project may include the compilation of biological, hydrological, or other data on a county, drainage basin, or region necessary to develop a base of information for a capital facility plan.

(7) "Solid waste or recycling project" means remedial actions necessary to bring abandoned or closed landfills into compliance with regulatory requirements and the repair, restoration, and replacement of existing solid waste transfer, recycling facilities, and landfill projects limited to the opening of landfill cells that are in existing and permitted landfills.

(8) "Emergency public works project" means a public works project made necessary by a natural disaster, or an immediate and emergent threat to the public health and safety due to unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances.

(9) "Value planning" means a uniform approach to assist in decision making through systematic evaluation of potential alternatives to solving an identified problem.