Washington § 88.46.210 - Volunteer coordination system.

(1) The department shall establish a volunteer coordination system. The volunteer coordination system may be included as a part of the state's overall oil spill response strategy, and may be implemented by local emergency management organizations, in coordination with any analogous federal efforts, to supplement the state's timely and effective response to spills.

(2) The department should consider how the volunteer coordination system will:

(a) Coordinate with the incident commander or unified command of an oil spill and any affected local governments to receive, screen, and register volunteers who are not affiliated with the emergency management organization or a local nongovernmental organization;

(b) Coordinate the management of volunteers with local nongovernmental organizations and their affiliated volunteers;

(c) Coordinate appropriate response operations with different classes of volunteers, including pretrained volunteers and convergent volunteers, to fulfill requests by the department or an oil spill incident commander or unified command;

(d) Coordinate public outreach regarding the need for and use of volunteers;

(e) Determine minimum participation criteria for volunteers; and

(f) Identify volunteer training requirements and, if applicable, provide training opportunities for volunteers prior to an oil spill response incident.

(3) An act or omission by any volunteer participating in a spill response or training as part of a volunteer coordination system, while engaged in such activities, does not impose any liability on any state agency, any participating local emergency management organization, or the volunteer for civil damages resulting from the act or omission. However, the immunity provided under this subsection does not apply to an act or omission that constitutes gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.

(4) The decisions to utilize volunteers in an oil spill response, which volunteers to utilize, and to determine which response activities are appropriate for volunteer participation in any given response are the sole responsibilities of the designated incident commander or unified command.