The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) “Ballast tank” means any tank or hold on a vessel used for carrying ballast water, whether or not the tank or hold was designed for that purpose.

(2) “Ballast water” means any water and matter taken on board a vessel to control or maintain trim, draft, stability, or stresses of the vessel, without regard to the manner in which it is carried.

(3) “Biofouling” means the accumulation of aquatic organisms on a vessel such as attached or associated mobile microorganisms, plants, and animals on surfaces and structures immersed in or exposed to the aquatic environment.

(4) “Empty/refill exchange” means to pump out, until the tank is empty or as close to empty as the master or operator determines is safe, the ballast water taken on in ports, estuarine, or territorial waters, and then refilling the tank with open sea waters.

(5) “Exchange” means to replace the water in a ballast tank using either flow through exchange, empty/refill exchange, or other exchange methodology recommended or required by the United States coast guard.

(6) “Flow through exchange” means to flush out ballast water by pumping in midocean water at the bottom of the tank and continuously overflowing the tank from the top until three full volumes of water have been changed to minimize the number of original organisms remaining in the tank.

(7) “Nonindigenous species” means any species or other viable biological material that enters an ecosystem beyond its natural range.

(8) “Open sea exchange” means an exchange that occurs fifty or more nautical miles offshore. If the United States coast guard requires a vessel to conduct an exchange further offshore, then that distance is the required distance for purposes of compliance with this chapter.

(9) “Recognized marine trade association” means those trade associations in Washington state that promote improved ballast water management practices by educating their members on the provisions of this chapter, participating in regional ballast water coordination through the Pacific ballast water group, assisting the department in the collection of ballast water exchange forms, and the monitoring of ballast water. This includes members of the Puget Sound marine committee for Puget Sound and the Columbia river steamship operators association for the Columbia river.

(10) “Sediments” means any matter settled out of ballast water within a vessel.

(11) “Untreated ballast water” includes exchanged or unexchanged ballast water that has not undergone treatment.

(12) “Vessel” means a ship, boat, barge, or other floating craft of three hundred gross tons or more, United States and foreign, carrying, or capable of carrying, ballast water into the coastal waters of the state after operating outside of the coastal waters of the state, except those vessels described in RCW 77.120.020.

(13) “Voyage” means any transit by a vessel destined for any Washington port.

(14) “Waters of the state” means any surface waters, including internal waters contiguous to state shorelines within the boundaries of the state.

Reviser’s note: The definitions in this section have been alphabetized pursuant to RCW 1.08.015(2)(k).