RCW 15.54.270 Definitions

• Library: Washington Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through the 2023 1st Special Session
• Year: 2023
• Citation: RCW 15.54.270

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.