The board on geographic names is created to establish a procedure for the retention and formal recognition of existing geographic names; to standardize the procedures for naming or renaming geographical features within the state of Washington; to identify one body as the responsible agency to coordinate this important activity between local, state, and federal agencies; to identify the responsible agency for the purpose of serving the public interest; to avoid the duplication of names for similar features whenever possible; and as far as possible, to retain the significance, spelling, and color of names associated with the early history of Washington.

The board on geographic names has the following duties:

(1) Establish the official names for the lakes, mountains, streams, places, towns, and other geographic features within the state and the spellings thereof except when a name is specified by law. For the purposes of this subsection, geographic features do not include human-made features or administrative areas such as parks, game reserves, and dams, but do include human-made lakes;

(2) Assign names to lakes, mountains, streams, places, towns, and other geographic features in the state for which no generally accepted name has been in use;

(3) Cooperate with county commissions, state departments, agencies, the state legislature, and the United States board on geographic names to establish, change, or determine the appropriate names of lakes, mountains, streams, places, towns, and other geographic features for the purposes of eliminating, as far as possible, duplications of place names within the state;

(4) Serve as a state of Washington liaison with the United States board on geographic names;

(5) Periodically issue a list of names approved by the board on geographic names; and

(6) Establish policies to carry out the purposes of this section and RCW 43.30.292 through 43.30.294.