PART II. DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS

 

§342J-2  Definitions.  As used in thischapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

“Any state” means any of the several states,the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

“Complaint” means any written charge filed withor by the department that a person is violating any provision of this chapteror any rule or order adopted pursuant to this chapter.

“Department” means the department of health.

“Director” means the director of health or thedirector’s authorized agent.

“Disposal” means the discharge, deposit,injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any hazardous or solidwaste into or on any land or water so that hazardous or solid waste or anyconstituent thereof may enter the environment, be emitted into the air, ordischarged into any waters, including ground waters.

“Financial responsibility” means a trust fund,surety bond, insurance, corporate guarantee, or letter of credit provided byowners or operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposalfacilities to assure proper closure, post closure, corrective action, andcompensation for injuries to people or damage to property.

“Generator” means any person, by site, whoseact or process produces hazardous waste or whose act first causes a hazardouswaste to become subject to regulation under this chapter.

“Hazardous waste” means a solid waste, orcombination of solid wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, orphysical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may:

(1)  Cause or significantly contribute to an increasein mortality or an increase in a serious irreversible or incapacitatingreversible illness; or

(2)  Pose a substantial existing or potential hazardto human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored,transported, disposed of, or otherwise managed.

“Hazardous waste broker” means any person who:

(1)  Acts as an intermediary between:

(A)  A generator and a transporter; or

(B)  A generator and a person who treats,stores, or disposes of hazardous waste; or

(C)  A generator and another broker; and

(2)  Performs one or more of the following:

(A)  Mixes hazardous wastes of different UnitedStates Department of Transportation shipping descriptions by placing them intoa single container or tank as defined in 40 Code of Federal Regulations Part260 (provided that a broker who mixes hazardous waste must comply with allstatutory and regulatory provisions applicable to generators);

(B)  Packages or repackages hazardous waste;

(C)  Labels, marks, or manifests hazardouswaste;

(D)  Performs waste characterization ofhazardous waste; or

(E)  Arranges the storage, treatment,transportation, disposal, or recycling of hazardous waste for a fee based uponthe completion of the transaction.

“Hazardous waste management” means thesystematic control over the generation, collection, source separation, storage,transportation, processing, treatment, recovery, and disposal of hazardouswaste.

“Hazardous waste management facility” or“facility” means all contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances, andimprovements on the land used for treating, storing, or disposing of hazardouswaste.  A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposaloperational units (for example, one or more landfills, surface impoundments, orcombinations of them).

“Household waste” means any material (includinggarbage, trash and sanitary wastes in septic tanks) derived from households(including single and multiple residences, hotels, motels, bunk houses, rangerstations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds and day user recreationareas).

“Manifest” means the form used for identifyingthe quantity, composition, origin, routing, and destination of hazardous wasteduring its transportation from the point of generation to the point oftreatment, storage, or disposal.

“Operator” means the person responsible for theoverall operation of a facility.

“Owner” means the person who owns the facilityor part of the facility.

“Party” means each person or agency named asparty or properly entitled to be a party in any court or agency proceeding.

“Permit” means written authorization from thedirector for the owner or operator of a proposed or existing hazardous wastemanagement facility to engage in the treatment, storage, or disposal ofhazardous waste.  A permit authorizes the owner or operator to treat, store, ordispose of hazardous waste in a manner or amount, or to do any act, notforbidden by this chapter or by rules adopted under this chapter, but requiringreview by the department.

“Person” means any individual, partnership,firm, joint stock company, association, public or private corporation, federalagency, the State or any of its political subdivisions, any state and any ofits political subdivisions, trust, estate, interstate body, or any other legalentity.

“Pollution” means hazardous waste pollution.

“RCRA” means the Resource Conservation andRecovery Act, as amended, 42 United States Code §§6901 to 6991i.

“Solid waste” means garbage, refuse, and otherdiscarded materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseousmaterials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agriculturaloperations, sludge from waste treatment plants and water supply treatmentplants, and residues from air pollution control facilities and communityactivities, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domesticsewage, irrigation return flows, or industrial discharges which are subject topermit under chapter 342D.

“Storage” means the containment of hazardouswaste, temporarily or for a period of years, in a manner which does notconstitute disposal.

“Transporter” means a person engaged in theoff-site transportation of hazardous waste by air, rail, highway, water, orpipeline.

“Treatment” means any method, technique, orprocess, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical,or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste so as toneutralize the waste or render it nonhazardous, less hazardous, safer fortransport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, or reduced in volume. This term includes any activity or processing designed to change the physicalform or chemical composition of hazardous waste so as to render itnonhazardous. [L 1989, c 212, pt of §5; am L 1990, c 298, §9; am L 1991, c 259,§§3, 4; am L 1994, c 267, §3; am L 1995, c 180, §24]