Revised Code of Washington
Chapter 15.54 - Fertilizers, Minerals, and Limes.
15.54.270 - Definitions.

RCW 15.54.270
Definitions.

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Brand" means a term, design, or trademark used in connection with the distribution and sale of one or more grades of commercial fertilizers.
(2) "Bulk fertilizer" means commercial fertilizer distributed in a nonpackaged form such as, but not limited to, tote bags, tote tanks, bins, tanks, trailers, spreader trucks, and railcars.
(3) "Calcium carbonate equivalent" means the acid-neutralizing capacity of an agricultural liming material expressed as a weight percentage of calcium carbonate.
(4) "Commercial fertilizer" means a substance containing one or more recognized plant nutrients and that is used for its plant nutrient content or that is designated for use or claimed to have value in promoting plant growth, and shall include limes, gypsum, and manipulated animal and vegetable manures. It does not include unmanipulated animal and vegetable manures, organic waste-derived material, and other products exempted by the department by rule.
(5) "Composting" means the controlled aerobic degradation of organic waste materials. Natural decay of organic waste under uncontrolled conditions is not composting.
(6) "Customer-formula fertilizer" means a mixture of commercial fertilizer or materials of which each batch is mixed according to the specifications of the final purchaser.
(7) "Department" means the department of agriculture of the state of Washington or its duly authorized representative.
(8) "Director" means the director of the department of agriculture.
(9) "Distribute" means to import, consign, manufacture, produce, compound, mix, or blend commercial fertilizer, or to offer for sale, sell, barter, exchange, or otherwise supply commercial fertilizer in this state.
(10) "Distributor" means a person who distributes.
(11) "Fertilizer material" means a commercial fertilizer that either:
(a) Contains important quantities of no more than one of the primary plant nutrients: Nitrogen, phosphate, and potash;
(b) Has eighty-five percent or more of its plant nutrient content present in the form of a single chemical compound; or
(c) Is derived from a plant or animal residue or by-product or natural material deposit that has been processed in such a way that its content of plant nutrients has not been materially changed except by purification and concentration.
(12) "Grade" means the percentage of total nitrogen, available phosphoric acid, and soluble potash stated in whole numbers in the same terms, order, and percentages as in the "guaranteed analysis," unless otherwise allowed by a rule adopted by the department. Specialty fertilizers may be guaranteed in fractional units of less than one percent of total nitrogen, available phosphorus or phosphoric acid, and soluble potassium or potash. Fertilizer materials, bone meal, manures, and similar materials may be guaranteed in fractional units.
(13) "Guaranteed analysis."
(a) Until the director prescribes an alternative form of "guaranteed analysis" by rule the term "guaranteed analysis" shall mean the minimum percentage of plant nutrients claimed in the following order and form:

Total nitrogen (N)
. . . .
percent

Available phosphoric acid (P2O5)
. . . .
percent

Soluble potash (K2O)
. . . .
percent

The percentage shall be stated in whole numbers unless otherwise allowed by the department by rule.
The "guaranteed analysis" may also include elemental guarantees for phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).
(b) For unacidulated mineral phosphatic material and basic slag, bone, tankage, and other organic phosphatic materials, the total phosphoric acid or degree of fineness may also be guaranteed.
(c) Guarantees for plant nutrients other than nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium shall be as allowed or required by rule of the department. The guarantees for such other nutrients shall be expressed in the form of the element.
(d) The guaranteed analysis for limes shall include the percentage of calcium or magnesium expressed as their carbonate; the calcium carbonate equivalent as determined by methods prescribed by the association of official analytical chemists; and the minimum percentage of material that will pass respectively a one hundred mesh, sixty mesh, and ten mesh sieve. The mesh size declaration may also include the percentage of material that will pass additional mesh sizes.
(e) In commercial fertilizer, the principal constituent of which is calcium sulfate (gypsum), the percentage of calcium sulfate (CaSO4.2H2O) shall be given along with the percentage of total sulfur.
(14) "Imported fertilizer" means any fertilizer distributed into Washington from any other state, province, or country.
(15) "Label" means the display of all written, printed, or graphic matter, upon the immediate container, or a statement accompanying a fertilizer.
(16) "Labeling" includes all written, printed, or graphic matter, upon or accompanying a commercial fertilizer, or advertisement, brochures, posters, television, and radio announcements used in promoting the sale of such fertilizer.
(17) "Licensee" means the person who receives a license to distribute a commercial fertilizer under the provisions of this chapter.
(18) "Lime" means a substance or a mixture of substances, the principal constituent of which is calcium or magnesium carbonate, hydroxide, or oxide, singly or combined.
(19) "Manipulation" means processed or treated in any manner, including drying to a moisture content less than thirty percent.
(20) "Manufacture" means to compound, produce, granulate, mix, blend, repackage, or otherwise alter the composition of fertilizer materials.
(21) "Micronutrients" are: Boron; chlorine; cobalt; copper; iron; manganese; molybdenum; sodium; and zinc.
(22) "Micronutrient fertilizer" means a produced or imported commercial fertilizer that contains commercially valuable concentrations of micronutrients but does not contain commercially valuable concentrations of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, available phosphorus, potash, calcium, magnesium, or sulfur.
(23) "Official sample" means a sample of commercial fertilizer taken by the department and designated as "official" by the department.
(24) "Organic waste-derived material" means grass clippings, leaves, weeds, bark, plantings, prunings, and other vegetative wastes, uncontaminated wood waste from logging and milling operations, food wastes, food processing wastes, and materials derived from these wastes through composting. "Organic waste-derived material" does not include products that include biosolids.
(25) "Packaged fertilizer" means commercial fertilizers, either agricultural or specialty, distributed in nonbulk form.
(26) "Person" means an individual, firm, brokerage, partnership, corporation, company, society, or association.
(27) "Percent" or "percentage" means the percentage by weight.
(28) "Produce" means to compound or fabricate a commercial fertilizer through a physical or chemical process, or through mining. "Produce" does not include mixing, blending, or repackaging commercial fertilizer products.
(29) "Registrant" means the person who registers commercial fertilizer under the provisions of this chapter.
(30) "Specialty fertilizer" means a commercial fertilizer distributed primarily for nonfarm use, such as, but not limited to, use on home gardens, lawns, shrubbery, flowers, golf courses, municipal parks, cemeteries, greenhouses, and nurseries.
(31) "Ton" means the net weight of two thousand pounds avoirdupois.
(32) "Total nutrients" means the sum of the percentages of total nitrogen, available phosphoric acid, and soluble potash as guaranteed and as determined by analysis.
(33)(a) "Turf" means land, including residential property, commercial property, and publicly owned land, which is planted in closely mowed, managed grass.
(b) "Turf" does not include pasture land, land used to grow grass for sod, or any other land used for agricultural production or residential vegetable or flower gardening.
(34) "Turf fertilizer" means a commercial fertilizer that is labeled for use on turf.
(35) "Washington application rate" is calculated by using an averaging period of up to four consecutive years that incorporates agronomic rates that are representative of soil, crop rotation, and climatic conditions in Washington state.
(36) "Waste-derived fertilizer" means a commercial fertilizer that is derived in whole or in part from solid waste as defined in chapter 70A.205 or 70A.300 RCW, or rules adopted thereunder, but does not include fertilizers derived from biosolids or biosolids products regulated under chapter 70A.226 RCW or wastewaters regulated under chapter 90.48 RCW.

[ 2020 c 20 § 1001. Prior: 2011 c 73 § 1; 1998 c 36 § 2; 1997 c 427 § 1; 1993 c 183 § 1; 1987 c 45 § 1; 1967 ex.s. c 22 § 1.]
NOTES:

Effective date—2011 c 73: "This act takes effect January 1, 2013." [ 2011 c 73 § 5.]

Short title—1998 c 36: See note following RCW 15.54.265.

Construction—1987 c 45: "This act shall not be construed as affecting any existing right acquired or liability or obligation incurred under the sections amended or repealed in this act or under any rule, regulation, or order adopted under those sections, nor as affecting any proceeding instituted under those sections." [ 1987 c 45 § 32.]

Severability—1987 c 45: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [ 1987 c 45 § 33.]