Washington Revised Code Title 88. Navigation and Harbor Improvements § 88.46.135. Emergency response system--Vessel planning standards

(a) Be underway within twenty minutes of a decision to deploy;

(b) Be able to deploy at any hour of any day to provide emergency assistance within the capabilities of the minimum planning standards and be safely manned to remain underway for at least forty-eight hours;

(c) In severe weather conditions, be capable of making up to, stopping, holding, and towing a drifting or disabled vessel of one hundred eighty thousand metric dead weight tons;

(d) In severe weather conditions, be capable of holding position within one hundred feet of another vessel;

(e) Be equipped with and maneuverable enough to effectively employ a ship anchor chain recovery hook and line throwing gun;

(f) Be capable of a bollard pull of at least seventy short tons; and

(g) Be equipped with appropriate equipment for:

(3)(a) The department must be authorized to contract with the emergency response towing vessel, at the discretion of the department, in response to a potentially emerging maritime casualty or as a precautionary measure during severe storms. All instances of use by the department must be paid for by the department.

(b) Covered vessels that are required to provide an emergency response towing vessel under RCW 88.46.130 may not restrict the emergency response towing vessel from responding to distressed vessels that are not covered vessels.