wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 2668 > Substitute Bill
The legislature finds that protecting public health and the safety of municipal and private drinking water supplies is a fundamental responsibility of the state. In 2024 and 2025, groundwater monitoring conducted by Lewis county, the city of Centralia, and the department of fish and wildlife identified nitrate concentrations in multiple private drinking water wells in the Fords Prairie area that exceeded the federal maximum contaminant level for nitrates. Subsequent investigation, including the Bob Oke game farm groundwater investigation completed in November 2025, confirmed that manure generated by pheasants at the Bob Oke game farm contributes to nitrate loading in the underlying aquifer serving residential and municipal water users.
The legislature further finds that the Bob Oke game farm is located over a highly productive and hydrologically sensitive aquifer system that flows toward residential and municipal water supply areas. While the department of fish and wildlife has taken steps to reduce nutrient loading and has committed to voluntary participation in the department of ecology's concentrated animal feeding operation permitting program, the legislature finds that continued operation at the current site presents an ongoing risk of future impacts to drinking water supplies that cannot be fully mitigated through best management practices alone.
The legislature therefore declares that it is in the public interest to move the Bob Oke game farm to an alternate location where pheasant rearing and associated operations can be conducted without risk of contaminating municipal or residential drinking water sources. The legislature intends to require the department of fish and wildlife, in coordination with the department of enterprise services, to identify a suitable alternate site within a swift and reasonable time frame, to develop a relocation plan that ensures continuity of wildlife management functions, and to commence the orderly wind down of operations at the current site.
It is further the intent of the legislature to ensure that the existing site is remediated to protect groundwater quality, to prevent further nitrate loading to the aquifer, and to restore the property for future use consistent with the protection of public water supplies and surrounding communities. The legislature intends that state agencies model best practices for environmental stewardship, transparency, and accountability in managing public lands and facilities.
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
(1) The department shall identify one or more alternate locations potentially suitable for the relocation of the Bob Oke game farm. The department shall first determine whether a property that the department currently owns or manages is suitable for relocation of the Bob Oke game farm. By December 1, 2026, the department shall report the list to the committees of the house of representatives and the senate with jurisdiction over the capital appropriations act and the senator and members of the house of representatives representing the legislative district in which the Bob Oke game farm is located.
(1) The department shall submit a capital appropriations request for the 2027-2029 biennial capital appropriations act to complete design work associated with the remediation of the existing location of the Bob Oke game farm. Design will include work to be done prior to closure and work to be done upon closure.
Sections 1 through 4 and 6 of this act constitute a new chapter in Title 77 RCW.
Sections 1 through 4 of this act expire June 30, 2033.