§ 6602 - Definitions
§ 6602. Definitions
For the purposes of this chapter:
(1) "Secretary" means the secretary of the agency of natural resources, or his duly authorized representative.
(2) "Solid waste" means any discarded garbage, refuse, septage, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply plant, or pollution control facility and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, or agricultural operations and from community activities but does not include animal manure and absorbent bedding used for soil enrichment; high carbon bulking agents used in composting; or solid or dissolved materials in industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under the Water Pollution Control Act, chapter 47 of this title.
(3) "Generator" means any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste or whose act first causes a hazardous waste to become subject to regulation.
(4) "Hazardous waste" means any waste or combination of wastes of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semi-solid form, including but not limited to those which are toxic, corrosive, ignitable, reactive, strong sensitizers, or which generate pressure through decomposition, heat or other means, which in the judgment of the secretary may cause, or contribute to, an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness, taking into account the toxicity of such waste, its persistence and degradability in nature, and its potential for assimilation, or concentration in tissue, and other factors that may otherwise cause or contribute to adverse acute or chronic effects on the health of persons or other living organisms, or any matter which may have an unusually destructive effect on water quality if discharged to ground or surface waters of the state. All special nuclear, source, or by-product material, as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and amendments thereto, codified in 42 U.S.C. § 2014, is specifically excluded from this definition.
(5) "Hazardous waste management" means the systematic and comprehensive management of the generation, storage, transport, treatment, including recycling and recovery, or disposal of hazardous waste materials.
(6) "Person" means any individual, partnership, company, corporation, association, unincorporated association, joint venture, trust, municipality, the state of Vermont or any agency, department or subdivision of the state, federal agency, or any other legal or commercial entity.
(7) "Storage" means the actual or intended containment of wastes, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years; in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of such wastes.
(8) "Transport" or "transportation" means the movement of wastes by air, rail, highway, or water.
(9) "Treatment" means any method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical or biological character or composition of any hazardous or solid waste, so as to neutralize such waste, or so as to recover energy or material resources from the waste, or so as to render such waste safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, or reduced in volume, or for hazardous wastes, so as to render such waste non-hazardous.
(10) "Facility" means all contiguous land, structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land, used for treating, storing, or disposing of waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposal operational units.
(11) "Sanitary landfill" means a land disposal site employing an engineered method of disposing of solid waste on land in a manner that minimizes environmental hazards by spreading the solid waste in thin layers, compacting the solid waste to the smallest practical volume, and applying and compacting cover material at the end of each operating day.
(12) "Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid waste or hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that such solid waste or hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any ground or surface waters.
(13) "Waste" means a material that is discarded or is being accumulated, stored, or physically, chemically or biologically treated prior to being discarded or has served its original intended use and is normally discarded or is a manufacturing or mining by-product and is normally discarded.
(14) "Economic poison" means
(A) any substance produced, distributed, or used as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant;
(B) any substance produced, distributed or used for preventing, destroying, or repelling any insects, rodents, nematodes, fungi, weeds, or other forms of plant or animal life or viruses, except viruses on or in living man or other animals, which the commissioner shall declare to be a pest.
(15) [Deleted.]
(16)(A) "Hazardous material" means all petroleum and toxic, corrosive or other chemicals and related sludge included in any of the following:
(i) any substance defined in section 101(14) of the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980;
(ii) petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof; or
(iii) hazardous wastes, as determined under subdivision (4) of this section;
(B) "Hazardous material" does not include herbicides and pesticides when applied consistent with good practice conducted in conformity with federal, state and local laws and regulations and according to manufacturer's instructions. Nothing in this subdivision shall affect the authority granted and the limitations imposed by section 6608a of this title.
(17) "Release" means any intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, dumping, or disposing of hazardous materials into the surface or groundwaters, or onto the lands in the state, or into waters outside the jurisdiction of the state when damage may result to the public health, lands, waters or natural resources within the jurisdiction of the state.
(18) "Administrative costs" mean those additional costs incurred by an applicant to directly manage the specific planning or implementation project approved in the assistance application.
(19) "Implementation plan" means that plan which is adopted to be consistent with the state solid waste management plan. This plan must include all the elements required for consistency with the state plan. This implementation plan is the basis for state certification of facilities under subsection 6605(c) of this title.
(20) "Regional plan" means that plan which is prepared and adopted in accordance with the provisions of 24 V.S.A. § 4348.
(21) "Municipal plan" means that plan which is prepared and adopted in accordance with the provisions of 24 V.S.A. § 4385.
(22) [Deleted.]
(23) "Secured lender" means a person who holds indicia of ownership in a facility, furnished by the owner or person in lawful possession, primarily to assure the repayment of a financial obligation. Such indicia include interests in real or personal property which are held as security or collateral for repayment of a financial obligation such as a mortgage, lien, security interest, assignment, pledge, surety bond, or guarantee and include participation rights, held by a financial institution solely for legitimate commercial purposes, in making or servicing loans. The term "secured lender" includes a person who acquires indicia of ownership by assignment from another secured lender.
(24) "Municipal solid waste" means combined household, commercial, and industrial waste materials generated in a given area.
(25) "Compost" means a stable humus-like material produced by the controlled biological decomposition of organic matter through active management, but shall not mean sewage, septage, or materials derived from sewage or septage. (Added 1977, No. 106, § 1; amended 1979, No. 195 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. May 6, 1980; 1981, No. 102, § 2; 1983, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 1985, No. 70, § 3, eff. May 20, 1985; 1985, No. 231 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 1987, No. 76, § 18; 1989, No. 30, § 1, eff. April 27, 1989; 1989, No. 281 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. June 22, 1990; No. 282 (Adj. Sess.), § 9, eff. June 22, 1990; 1993, No. 29, § 2, eff. May 26, 1993; 2003, No. 115 (Adj. Sess.), § 60, eff. Jan. 31, 2005; 2005, No. 65, § 2; 2007, No. 130 (Adj. Sess.), § 9, eff. May 12, 2008; 2009, No. 41, § 1.)