Ark. Code Ann. § 8-7-503 (2020)

As used in this subchapter:

1. “Commission” means the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission;
2. [Repealed.]
3. [Repealed.]
4. “Federal act” means the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, Pub. L. No. 96-510;
5. “Fund” means the Hazardous Substance Remedial Action Trust Fund created by this subchapter;
6. “Hazardous substance” means:
   1. As of March 21, 1985, any:
      1. Substance designated pursuant to § 311(b)(2)(A) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1321(b)(2)(A);
      2. Element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance designated pursuant to § 102 of Title I of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. § 9602;
      3. Hazardous waste, including polychlorinated biphenyls, as defined by the Arkansas Hazardous Waste Management Act of 1979, § 8-7-201 et seq., and the rules promulgated thereunder;
      4. Toxic pollutant listed under § 307(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1317(a);
      5. Hazardous air pollutant listed under § 112 of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7412; and
      6. Hazardous chemical substance or mixture regulated under § 7 of the Toxic Substances Control Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2606; and
   2. Any other substance or pollutant designated by rules of the commission promulgated under this subchapter;
7. “Hazardous substance sites” means any sites or facilities where hazardous substances have been disposed of or from which there is a release or threatened release of hazardous substances;
8. “Person” means any individual, corporation, company, firm, partnership, association, trust, joint-stock company or trust, venture, state or federal government or agency, quasi-governmental agency, county government, school district, and planning and development district, or any other legal entity, however organized;
9. “Releases of hazardous substances” means any spilling, leaking, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of hazardous substances into the environment;
10. “Remedial action” means action necessary to effect permanent control, abatement, prevention, treatment, or containment of releases and threatened releases, including the removal of hazardous substances from the environment when removal is necessary to protect public health and the environment. Such actions are intended to include investigations designed to determine the need for and scope of remedial action and such planning, legal, fiscal, economic, engineering, geological, technical, or architectural studies as necessary to plan and direct remedial actions, to recover the cost thereof, and to enforce the provisions of this subchapter;
11. “Removal action” means:
    1. The necessary cleanup or removal of a released hazardous substance from the environment;
    2. Necessary actions taken in the event of a threatened release of a hazardous substance into the environment;
    3. Actions necessary to monitor, test, analyze, and evaluate a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance;
    4. Disposal or processing of removed material; or
    5. Other actions necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage to the public health or welfare or the environment that may otherwise result from a release or threatened release;
12. “Threatened release” means, for the purpose of this subchapter, any situation in which a sudden or nonsudden release of hazardous substances can be reasonably expected unless prevented by change of operation or installation or construction of containment or treatment devices or by removal action or other remedial action; and
13. “Treatment”, “storage”, “disposal”, “generation”, and “hazardous waste” mean the same as provided in § 8-7-203 and the rules promulgated pursuant to the Arkansas Hazardous Waste Management Act of 1979, § 8-7-201 et seq.

History. Acts 1985, No. 479, § 3; A.S.A. 1947, § 82-4714; Acts 1995, No. 125, § 2; 1997, No. 1042, § 12(a); 1999, No. 1164, §§ 98, 99; 2005, No. 1824, § 8; 2017, No. 1073, § 2; 2019, No. 315, §§ 628-630; 2019, No. 910, § 2751.

A.C.R.C. Notes. Acts 1995, No. 125, § 1, provided:

“The General Assembly finds and declares as follow:

“(1) The redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites should be encouraged as a sound land use management policy to prevent the needless development of prime farmland, open space and natural and recreation areas and to prevent urban sprawl;

“(2) The redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites should be encouraged so that these sites can be returned to useful, tax producing properties to protect existing jobs and provide new job opportunities;

“(3) Persons interested in redeveloping abandoned industrial sites should have a method of determining what their legal liabilities and cleanup responsibilities will be as they plan the reuse of abandoned sites;

“(4) Incentives should be put in place to encourage prospective purchasers to voluntarily develop and implement cleanup plans of abandoned industrial sites without the use of taxpayer funds or the need for adversarial enforcement actions by the Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology;

“(5) The Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology now routinely, through its permitting policies, determines when contamination will and will not pose unacceptable risks to public health or the environment and similar concepts are used in establishing cleanup policies for abandoned industrial sites;

“(6) Parties and persons responsible under law for pollution at industrial sites should perform remedial responses which are fully consistent with existing requirements; and

“(7) As an incentive to promote the redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites, persons not responsible for preexisting pollution at or contamination on industrial sites should meet alternative cleanup requirements if they acquire title after fully disclosing the nature of conditions at the site and declaring and committing to a specified future land use of the site.”

Amendments. The 2017 amendment inserted “quasi-governmental agency, county government, school district, and planning and development district” in (8).

The 2019 amendment by No. 315 substituted “rules” for “regulations” in (6)(A)(iii), (6)(B), and (13).

The 2019 amendment by No. 910 repealed (2) and (3).

U.S. Code. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, Pub. L. No. 96-510, is codified primarily as 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq.