Local Asbestos Regulations and Guidance

Last updated 10/27/08

• Local Regulations

• Table of Contacts

Contact your local air authority  (see the table below) before starting a project that disturbs asbestos.

• The local Fire Department may require notification as well.
• In some counties the local Department of Ecology is listed as the local regulatory agency.

Local Regulations

The state Department of Labor and Industries and the local air authority generally require a written "Notice of Intent to Perform an Asbestos Project" by the owner or operator before an asbestos removal project begins.

Labor and Industries requires that any time construction, renovation, remodeling, maintenance, repair, or demolition occurs, the materials to be disturbed must be tested by an AHERA accredited inspector before the work starts.

• The survey, called a "good faith survey", an "AHERA survey" or a "Phase 1 or 2 site assessment" must be supplied to all subcontractors and posted on site for workers.
• "In the absence of a survey or if one cannot safely be performed, all surfacing materials and thermal system insulation in building constructed no later than 1980 must be presumed to contain asbestos." Labor and Industries/ WISHA Interim Interpretive Memorandum #99-1-C, January 19, 1999, Demolition of Buildings With Asbestos-Containing Materials.
• List of Asbestos Abatement Contractors Certified by the Dept of Labor & Industries Exit Ecology
• Directory of Laboratories Accredited to Perform Asbestos Fiber Analysis by the Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM) Test Method Exit Ecology

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Table of Contacts

Ecology also has a map with links to local air authorities on the Ecology Air Program web site.

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