State overlay · WAC 173-443
Washington on top of the 15-pound rule
Sections read · 2026-09-11The federal rule is the floor everywhere. Washington runs its own programme, the Refrigerant Management Program, and it reaches lower, sooner or harder in the places below. Refrigeration or air conditioning systems with a full charge of 50 pounds or more using a refrigerant with a GWP of 150 or more. Every line names the section it was read from and the date; nothing here is advice, and nothing here says whether any system is in compliance.
What the state adds, beside the federal floor
15 pounds or more of an HFC or a substitute with a GWP above 53; residential and light commercial air conditioning excluded.
50 pounds or more with a GWP of 150 or more, refrigeration or air conditioning (WAC 173-443-105).
Calculated on every addition; 20 percent commercial refrigeration, 30 industrial process, 10 comfort cooling and other, annualized.
Calculated at each inspection and each addition by the 12-month rolling average; 16 percent retail food and cold storage, 24 industrial process, 8 air conditioning; Ecology notified within 30 days of an exceedance (WAC 173-443-155).
30 days from the addition that exceeded the rate (120 with an industrial process shutdown), then two verification tests.
14 calendar days from detection; 45 or 120 in the named cases; verification on completion and a follow-up within 14 days if evacuated (WAC 173-443-165).
After an exceedance: yearly under 500 pounds, quarterly at 500 pounds and above in refrigeration, until the rate is back under the limit.
On a schedule phased in by size: monthly at 1,500 and above from 2024, quarterly at 200 to under 1,500 from 2026, annually at 50 to under 200 from 2028 (WAC 173-443-145).
Only the chronic-leak report: 125 percent of full charge in a calendar year, to the EPA by March 1.
Registration phased in by size from March 15, 2024, and an annual report by March 15 at 200 pounds and above (WAC 173-443-115, 173-443-185).
Three years, paper or electronic; the appliance record until three years after retirement.
Five years, at the facility (WAC 173-443-195).
The Washington entries, in the rule's words
The refrigerant management programme applies to facilities with a refrigeration or air conditioning system with a full charge of 50 pounds or more that uses a refrigerant with a global warming potential of 150 or more.
Systems of 1,500 pounds or more operating before 2024 register by March 15, 2024; 200 to 1,499 pounds before 2026 by March 15, 2026; 50 to 199 pounds before 2028 by March 15, 2028; a system starting after those dates by the March 15 following; a new owner by the March 15 following the change; a new facility within three months of operating.
Year-round systems of 1,500 pounds or more are inspected monthly from January 1, 2024; 200 to under 1,500 pounds quarterly from January 1, 2026; 50 to under 200 pounds annually from January 1, 2028; a system not run year-round within 30 days of startup and quarterly after. An automatic leak detection system that detects 10 parts per million and alerts at 100, or alerts at a loss of 50 pounds or 10 percent of the charge, replaces the schedule; an alert is followed by an inspection within 24 hours.
The leak rate is calculated at each leak inspection and each time refrigerant is added, by the 12-month rolling average method. The thresholds are 16 percent for retail food refrigeration and cold storage, 24 percent for industrial process refrigeration and 8 percent for air conditioning. Ecology is notified within 30 days of determining an exceedance, and verification test results within 30 days of the repair deadline and of completion.
A refrigerant leak must be repaired by a certified technician within 14 calendar days of its detection; 45 days where a certified technician or the parts are unavailable or an industrial process shutdown is required; 120 days for industrial process refrigeration at an entity under greenhouse gas reporting. A verification test on completion of any repair, and a follow-up test within 14 days of normal operating conditions if the system was evacuated. If the leak continues, a retrofit or retirement plan or a further repair within double the original time (28, 90 or 240 days).
A facility with a system of 200 pounds or more using a refrigerant with a GWP of 150 or more reports by March 15 for the previous calendar year, phased in from March 15, 2025 for systems of 1,500 pounds or more and March 15, 2027 for 200 to 1,500 pounds: the system information, the annual leak rate with inspection, detection and repair dates, and refrigerant purchased, charged, recovered, stored and shipped.
Registration information, leak detection and inspection records, service and repair records, retrofit or retirement plans, reports, exemption applications, refrigerant purchase invoices and reclamation or destruction shipment records are kept at least five years at the facility where the system operates.
Source read: app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=173-443&full=true. The sources page lists every entry with its read date.
The free door
The federal arithmetic runs underneath every state programme. Leak rate calculator for the annualizing method on your numbers, and the four criteria for whether the federal rule reaches an appliance at all.
The other overlays
Three states run programmes of their own today. A state that starts one is added when its text is read.
Wuzler records and computes; it certifies nothing, and a state programme's registration, fees and reports are filed with the state, never here.