49-281

49-281. Definitions

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Applicant" means any individual, employee, officer, managing body, trust, firm,
joint stock company, consortium, public or private corporation, including a government
corporation, partnership or association, this state, a political subdivision of this
state, or a commission of the United States government or a federal facility, an
interstate body or any other entity that applies for a settlement under either section
49-292.01 or 49-292.02.

2. "Community" means the broad spectrum of persons determined by the director to be
within an existing or proposed site placed on the registry pursuant to section 49-287.01.

3. "Community involvement area" means the geographical area that is within a site
placed on the registry pursuant to section 49-287.01 and additional geographic areas as
found appropriate in the director's discretion.

4. "Dispose" means the deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of
any pollutant into or on any land or water so that the pollutant or any constituent of
the pollutant may enter the environment or be discharged into any waters, including
aquifers.

5. "Eligible party" means a person who enters into a written agreement with the
director to implement and complete a remedial investigation and feasibility study with
respect to a site or portion of a site that was on the annual priority list on May 1,
1997 or any other person who incurs costs for a remedial action that is in substantial
compliance with section 49-282.06 as determined by the director.

6. "Facility" means any land, building, installation, structure, equipment, device,
conveyance, area, source, activity or practice.

7. "Fund" means the water quality assurance revolving fund established by section
49-282.

8. "Hazardous substance" has the same meaning prescribed in section 49-201 but does
not include petroleum as defined in section 49-1001, except to the extent that a
constituent of petroleum is subject to the provisions of section 49-283.02.

9. "Nonrecoverable costs" means any costs incurred by the director after June 30,
1997:

(a) That consist of salaries and benefits paid to state employees, including direct
and indirect costs, except as specifically provided in section 49-282.05, section
49-285, subsection B, section 49-285.01, section 49-287.01, section 49-287.06, subsection
H and section 49-287.07 and for epidemiological studies conducted by the department of
health services.

(b) For activities conducted pursuant to section 49-287.02.

(d) For well inspections, but not other remedial actions, to determine whether
vertical cross-contamination is resulting from a well pursuant to section 45-605 or
49-282.04.

(e) For the advisory board established by section 49-289.04.

(f) For rule making.

10. "Orphan shares" means the shares of the cost of a remedial action that are
allocated to an identified person who is determined to be a responsible party and that
are not paid or otherwise satisfied by that responsible party due to any of the
following:

(a) The party cannot be located or no longer exists.

(b) The party has entered into a qualified business settlement pursuant to this
article.

(c) The party has entered into a settlement pursuant to this article for an amount
that is less than its allocated share.

(d) The director has determined that the share allocated to the party is
uncollectible.

11. "Release" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying,
discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping or disposing into the environment but
excludes:

(a) Any release which results in exposure to persons solely within a workplace,
with respect to a claim which such persons may assert against the employer of such
persons.

(b) Emissions from the engine exhaust of any motor vehicle, rolling stock,
aircraft, vessel or pipeline pumping station engine.

(c) Release of source, by-product or special nuclear material, as those terms are
defined in section 30-651, resulting from the operation of a production or utilization
facility as defined in the atomic energy act of 1954 (68 Stat. 919; 42 United States Code
sections 2011 through 2297), which is subject to the regulatory authority of the United
States nuclear regulatory commission as specified in that act, and the agreement, dated
March 30, 1967, entered into between the governor of this state and the United States
atomic energy commission pursuant to section 30-656 and section 274 of the atomic energy
act of 1954, as amended.

(d) The normal application of fertilizer.

12. "Remedial actions" means those actions that are reasonable, necessary,
cost-effective and technically feasible in the event of the release or threat of release
of hazardous substances into the environment, such actions as may be necessary to
investigate, monitor, assess and evaluate such release or threat of release, actions of
remediation, removal or disposal of hazardous substances or taking such other actions as
may be necessary to prevent, minimize or mitigate damage to the public health or welfare
or to the environment which may otherwise result from a release or threat of release of a
hazardous substance. Remedial actions include the use of biostimulation with indigenous
microbes and bioaugmentation using microbes that are nonpathogenic, that are
nonopportunistic and that are naturally occurring. Remedial actions may include
community information and participation costs and providing an alternative drinking water
supply.

13. "Remedy" means a remedial action selected in a record of decision issued
pursuant to section 49-287.04.

14. "Site" means the geographical areal extent of contamination.

15. "Vertical cross-contamination" means the vertical migration of released
hazardous substances in groundwater through a well from an aquifer or aquifer layer to
another aquifer or aquifer layer.