Aquatic Noxious Weed Control General Permit

This permit controls freshwater and marine noxious weeds in Washington. It covers the indirect discharge of herbicides, adjuvants, and marker dyes into estuaries, marine areas, wetlands, along lake shorelines, rivers, streams, and other wet areas.

An indirect discharge occurs when there may be incidental overspray — spray that goes beyond the intended area — or dripping of a chemical from the treated plants into waters of the state.

We issue statewide coverage under this permit to the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA). Individuals or entities may contract with WSDA to be Limited Agents for riparian and emergent noxious weed control projects statewide.

Permit documents

Modifications to the 2017 Permit

We modified the 2017 permit to allow the use of additional tools (herbicides) to control Washington state-listed noxious weeds and Washington state-quarantine-listed weeds. The modification covers marine and freshwater applications that may indirectly enter surface waters of Washington.

We accepted comments on the modified permit documents from Nov. 7, 2018 until Dec. 21, 2018. We held two public workshops and hearings on Dec. 10, 2018. We published a Response to Comments as an appendix to the fact sheet to address comments submitted during this period.

Additional documents

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