WAC 173-905-100

(1) Legislative mandate. Each battery stewardship organization shall pay annual fees to the department to cover the department's administrative costs related to overseeing the battery stewardship program authorized under chapter 70A.555 RCW.

(2) Plan review fee. Each battery stewardship organization shall pay a one-time plan review base fee when it submits a plan to the department for review and approval.

(a) The department will annually determine the plan review base fee and will post the fee on its website. If the actual cost of review exceeds the plan review base fee, the department will charge an additional per-hour fee to cover the additional cost. The department will also post the per-hour fee on its website.

(b) This fee covers:

(i) Costs of staff hours, including salaries and benefits required by law to be paid to, or on behalf of, employees; and

(ii) Other costs incurred as a direct result of department staff working on the plan including travel related to plan review, printing and publishing plan documents, and other work, contracted or otherwise.

(c) This fee does not apply to the submission of a plan renewal or plan amendment.

(3) Administrative fee. Beginning 2026, each stewardship organization shall pay an administrative fee to the department. This fee is due each year on June 1st.

(a) The department will annually determine the administrative fee and will post the fee on its website.

(b) The department will base the administrative fee on annual costs from the previous calendar year including:

(i) Costs of staff hours, including salaries and benefits required by law to be paid to, or on behalf of, employees; and

(ii) Other costs incurred as a direct result of department staff working on annual report review, plan amendments, quarterly meetings, required studies, maintaining websites, developing and publishing guidance documents, and other work, contracted or otherwise.

(c) The administrative fee amount may be adjusted by the fiscal growth factor (FGF) as calculated under RCW 43.135.025.

(d) If there is only one approved plan, that battery stewardship organization is responsible for the entire fee.

(e) In the case of multiple stewardship organizations, the fee will be allocated in proportion to the market share a stewardship organization represents. The department will base market share on data provided by stewardship organizations and any available data.

(i) By April 1st each year, battery stewardship organizations shall submit to the department the total sales, in pounds, of covered batteries or battery-containing products of their participating producers for the previous calendar year. The department will use the sales data to determine the aggregated market share of the battery stewardship organization.

(ii) If the department does not receive sales data from the battery stewardship organizations, the market share estimate will be calculated using available data.

(4) Responsible battery management account. Fees paid under this section must be deposited into the responsible battery management account created under RCW 70A.555.120.