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Dust is moving off of my business property before/during/after construction. What are the requirements?

Construction site - (c) Microsoft The Tri-Cities is located in the most arid part of Washington State. In fact, the annual rainfall of 6-8 inches is drier than most part of Arizona. Because of the combination of climate, soil conditions, and human interaction with the land, dust is often an inevitable result. The major sources of moving dust, or "fugitive dust" in the Tri-Cities originates from agricultural areas, both irrigated and dryland farms, and from urban construction areas.

Throughout Washington State, it is the responsibility of the owner or operator of a source of dust to ensure that dust does not move off property to impact others. WAC 173-400-040 (8)(a) states that:

"The owner of operator of a source of fugitive dust shall take reasonable precautions to prevent fugitive dust from becoming airborne and shall maintain and operate the source to minimize emissions."

Sources of fugitive dust are required under this regulation to control the movement of dust off their property. The BCAA Urban Fugitive Dust Policy (FDP) PDF is an available resource for providing owners and operators information of methods for controlling fugitive dust. These methods are called "reasonable precautions." It is in the best interest of the owners and operators to control the fugitive dust on their property by being familiar with the FDP and with the applicable State and local regulations. If there are no precautions taken and dust impacts others, the BCAA can take enforcement actions with penalties up to $10,000 per day.

For those that are being impacted by dust from sources, complaints can be made to the BCAA office. The information needed is the complainant’s name, daytime phone number, the name of the site, owner, or contractor, and any other descriptive information about the situation. This will later help the BCAA to identify and contact the source owner or operator.

If the BCAA has not received any complaints about the source in the past, the Inspector will issue a warning letter outlining the regulations to the owner or operator of the source. If previous complaints have been received, the Inspector may issue a Notice of Correction (OC) or a Notice of Violation (NOV). The OC outlines a specific list of requirements that the source must take to avoid a penalty. The NOV is essentially a ticket for violating the fugitive dust regulation.

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