Section 324.20101 - Definitions.
NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT (EXCERPT)
Act 451 of 1994
324.20101 Definitions.
Sec. 20101.
(1) As used in this part:
(a) “Act of God” means an unanticipated grave natural disaster or other natural phenomenon of an exceptional, inevitable, and irresistible character, the effects of which could not have been prevented or avoided by the exercise of due care or foresight.
(b) “Agricultural property” means real property used for farming in any of its branches, including cultivating of soil; growing and harvesting of any agricultural, horticultural, or floricultural commodity; dairying; raising of livestock, bees, fish, fur-bearing animals, or poultry; turf and tree farming; and performing any practices on a farm as an incident to, or in conjunction with, these farming operations. Agricultural property does not include property used for commercial storage, processing, distribution, marketing, or shipping operations.
(c) “Attorney general” means the department of the attorney general.
(d) “Baseline environmental assessment” means an evaluation of environmental conditions which exist at a facility at the time of purchase, occupancy, or foreclosure that reasonably defines the existing conditions and circumstance at the facility so that, in the event of a subsequent release, there is a means of distinguishing the new release from existing contamination.
(e) “Board” means the brownfield redevelopment board created in section 20104a.
(f) “Department” means the director of the department of environmental quality or his or her designee to whom the director delegates a power or duty by written instrument.
(g) “Director” means the director of the department of environmental quality.
(h) “Directors” means the directors or their designees of the departments of environmental quality, community health, agriculture, and state police.
(i) “Disposal” means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any hazardous substance into or on any land or water so that the hazardous substance or any constituent of the hazardous substance may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any groundwater or surface water.
(j) “Enforcement costs” means court expenses, reasonable attorney fees of the attorney general, and other reasonable expenses of an executive department that are incurred in relation to enforcement under this part or rules promulgated under this part, or both.
(k) “Environment” or “natural resources” means land, surface water, groundwater, subsurface, strata, air, fish, wildlife, or biota within the state.
(l) “Environmental contamination” means the release of a hazardous substance, or the potential release of a discarded hazardous substance, in a quantity which is or may become injurious to the environment or to the public health, safety, or welfare.
(m) “Evaluation” means those activities including, but not limited to, investigation, studies, sampling, analysis, development of feasibility studies, and administrative efforts that are needed to determine the nature, extent, and impact of a release or threat of release and necessary response activities.
(n) “Exacerbation” means the occurrence of either of the following caused by an activity undertaken by the person who owns or operates the property, with respect to existing contamination:
(i) Contamination that has migrated beyond the boundaries of the property which is the source of the release at levels above cleanup criteria specified in section 20120a(1)(a) unless a criterion is not relevant because exposure is reliably restricted pursuant to section 20120b.
(ii) A change in facility conditions that increases response activity costs.
(o) “Facility” means any area, place, or property where a hazardous substance in excess of the concentrations which satisfy the requirements of section 20120a(1)(a) or (17) or the cleanup criteria for unrestricted residential use under part 213 has been released, deposited, disposed of, or otherwise comes to be located. Facility does not include any area, place, or property at which response activities have been completed which satisfy the cleanup criteria for the residential category provided for in section 20120a(1)(a) and (17) or at which corrective action has been completed under part 213 which satisfies the cleanup criteria for unrestricted residential use.
(p) “Feasibility study” means a process for developing, evaluating, and selecting appropriate response activities.
(q) “Foreclosure” means possession of a property by a lender on which it has foreclosed on a security interest or the expiration of a lawful redemption period, whichever occurs first.
(r) “Free product” means a hazardous substance in a liquid phase equal to or greater than 1/8 inch of measurable thickness that is not dissolved in water and that has been released into the environment.
(s) “Fund” means the cleanup and redevelopment fund established in section 20108.
(t) “Hazardous substance” means 1 or more of the following, but does not include fruit, vegetable, or field crop residuals or processing by-products, or aquatic plants, that are applied to the land for an agricultural use or for use as an animal feed, if the use is consistent with generally accepted agricultural management practices developed pursuant to the Michigan right to farm act, Act No. 93 of the Public Acts of 1981, being sections 286.471 to 286.474 of the Michigan Compiled Laws:
(i) Any substance that the department demonstrates, on a case by case basis, poses an unacceptable risk to the public health, safety, or welfare, or the environment, considering the fate of the material, dose-response, toxicity, or adverse impact on natural resources.
(ii) Hazardous substance as defined in the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act of 1980, Public Law 96-510, 94 Stat. 2767.
(iii) Hazardous waste as defined in part 111.
(iv) Petroleum as described in part 213.
(u) “Interim response activity” means the cleanup or removal of a released hazardous substance or the taking of other actions, prior to the implementation of a remedial action, as may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate injury to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment. Interim response activity also includes, but is not limited to, measures to limit access, replacement of water supplies, and temporary relocation of people as determined to be necessary by the department. In addition, interim response activity means the taking of other actions as may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate a threatened release.
(v) “Lender” means any of the following:
(i) A state or nationally chartered bank.
(ii) A state or federally chartered savings and loan association or savings bank.
(iii) A state or federally chartered credit union.
(iv) Any other state or federally chartered lending institution or regulated affiliate or regulated subsidiary of any entity listed in this subparagraph or subparagraphs (i) to (iii).
(v) An insurance company authorized to do business in this state pursuant to the insurance code of 1956, Act No. 218 of the Public Acts of 1956, being sections 500.100 to 500.8302 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.
(vi) A motor vehicle finance company subject to the motor vehicle finance act, Act No. 27 of the Extra Session of 1950 , being sections 492.101 to 492.141 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, with net assets in excess of $50,000,000.00.
(vii) A foreign bank.
(viii) A retirement fund regulated pursuant to state law or a pension fund regulated pursuant to federal law with net assets in excess of $50,000,000.00.
(ix) A state or federal agency authorized by law to hold a security interest in real property or a local unit of government holding a reversionary interest in real property.
(x) A nonprofit tax exempt organization created to promote economic development in which a majority of the organization's assets are held by a local unit of government.
(xi) Any other person who loans money for the purchase of or improvement of real property.
(xii) Any person who retains or receives a security interest to service a debt or to secure a performance obligation.
(w) “Local health department” means that term as defined in section 1105 of the public health code, Act No. 368 of the Public Acts of 1978, being section 333.1105 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.
(x) “Local unit of government” means a county, city, township, or village, an agency of a local unit of government, an authority or any other public body or entity created by or pursuant to state law. Local unit of government does not include the state or federal government or a state or federal agency.
(y) “Operator” means a person who is in control of or responsible for the operation of a facility. Operator does not include either of the following:
(i) A person who holds indicia of ownership primarily to protect the person's security interest in the facility, unless that person participates in the management of the facility as described in section 20101a.
(ii) A person who is acting as a fiduciary in compliance with section 20101b.
(z) “Owner” means a person who owns a facility. Owner does not include either of the following:
(i) A person who holds indicia of ownership primarily to protect the person's security interest in the facility, including, but not limited to, a vendor's interest under a recorded land contract, unless that person participates in the management of the facility as described in section 20101a.
(ii) A person who is acting as a fiduciary in compliance with section 20101b.
(aa) “Permitted release” means 1 or more of the following:
(i) A release in compliance with an applicable, legally enforceable permit issued under state law.
(ii) A lawful and authorized discharge into a permitted waste treatment facility.
(iii) A federally permitted release as defined in the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act of 1980, Public Law 96-510, 94 Stat. 2767.
(bb) “Release” includes, but is not limited to, any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of a hazardous substance into the environment, or the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing a hazardous substance. Release does not include any of the following:
(i) A release that results in exposure to persons solely within a workplace, with respect to a claim that these persons may assert against their employers.
(ii) Emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, or vessel.
(iii) A release of source, by-product, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined in the atomic energy act of 1954, chapter 1073, 68 Stat. 919, if the release is subject to requirements with respect to financial protection established by the nuclear regulatory commission under section 170 of chapter 14 of title I of the atomic energy act of 1954, chapter 1073, 71 Stat. 576, 42 U.S.C. 2210, or any release of source by-product or special nuclear material from any processing site designated under section 102(a)(1) of title I or 302(a) of title III of the uranium mill tailings radiation control act of 1978, Public Law 95-604, 42 U.S.C. 7912 and 7942.
(iv) If applied according to label directions and according to generally accepted agricultural and management practices, the application of a fertilizer, soil conditioner, agronomically applied manure, or pesticide, or fruit, vegetable, or field crop residuals or processing by-products, aquatic plants, or a combination of these substances. As used in this subparagraph, fertilizer and soil conditioner have the meaning given to these terms in part 85, and pesticide has the meaning given to that term in part 83.
(v) A release does not include fruits, vegetables, field crop processing by-products, or aquatic plants, that are applied to the land for an agricultural use or for use as an animal feed, if the use is consistent with generally accepted agricultural and management practices developed pursuant to the Michigan right to farm act, Act No. 93 of the Public Acts of 1981, being sections 286.471 to 286.474 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.
(cc) “Remedial action” includes, but is not limited to, cleanup, removal, containment, isolation, destruction, or treatment of a hazardous substance released or threatened to be released into the environment, monitoring, maintenance, or the taking of other actions that may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate injury to the public health, safety, or welfare, or to the environment.
(dd) “Remedial action plan” means a work plan for performing remedial action under this part.
(ee) “Response activity” means evaluation, interim response activity, remedial action, demolition, or the taking of other actions necessary to protect the public health, safety, or welfare, or the environment or the natural resources. Response activity also includes health assessments or health effect studies carried out under the supervision, or with the approval of, the department of public health and enforcement actions related to any response activity.
(ff) “Response activity costs” or “costs of response activity” means all costs incurred in taking or conducting a response activity, including enforcement costs.
(gg) “Security interest” means any interest, including a reversionary interest, in real property created or established for the purpose of securing a loan or other obligation. Security interests include, but are not limited to, mortgages, deeds of trusts, liens, and title pursuant to lease financing transactions. Security interests may also arise from transactions such as sale and leasebacks, conditional sales, installment sales, trust receipt transactions, certain assignments, factoring agreements, accounts receivable financing arrangements, consignments, or any other transaction in which evidence of title is created if the transaction creates or establishes an interest in real property for the purpose of securing a loan or other obligation.
(hh) “Site” means the location of environmental contamination.
(ii) “Threatened release” or “threat of release” means any circumstance that may reasonably be anticipated to cause a release.
(2) As used in this part, the phrase “a person who is liable” includes a person who is described as being subject to liability in section 20126. The phrase “a person who is liable” does not presume that liability has been adjudicated.
History: 1994, Act 451, Eff. Mar. 30, 1995 ;-- Am. 1995, Act 71, Imd. Eff. June 5, 1995 ;-- Am. 1995, Act 117, Imd. Eff. June 29, 1995 ;-- Am. 1996, Act 115, Imd. Eff. Mar. 6, 1996 ;-- Am. 1996, Act 380, Imd. Eff. July 24, 1996 ;-- Am. 1996, Act 383, Imd. Eff. July 24, 1996
Popular Name: Act 451
Popular Name: Environmental Remediation
Popular Name: Environmental Response Act
Popular Name: NREPA