TITLE 12 CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Section 8. Waste Management, 12-8-1 through 12-8-210.

ARTICLE 3 HAZARDOUS WASTE

12-8-92. Definitions.

Unless otherwise defined in this part, the definition of all terms included in Code Section 12-8-62 shall be applicable to this part. As used in this part, the term:

1. "Corrective action contractor" means any person contracting with the division to perform any activities authorized to be paid from the hazardous waste trust fund.
2. "Environment" means:
   1. The navigable waters, the waters of the contiguous zone, and the ocean waters of which the natural resources are under the exclusive management authority of the United States under the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act; and
   2. Any other surface water, ground water, drinking water supply, land surface or subsurface strata, or ambient air within the United States or under the jurisdiction of the United States.
3. "Facility" means:
   1. Any building, structure, installation, equipment, pipe or pipeline, pipe into a sewer or publicly owned treatment works, well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch, landfill, storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, or aircraft; or
   2. Any site or area where a hazardous waste, hazardous constituent, or hazardous substance has been deposited, stored, disposed of, placed, or has otherwise come to be located.

      This term does not include any consumer product in consumer use but does include any vessel.

4. "Hazardous substance" means any substance listed on the List of Hazardous Substances and Reportable Quantities, codified as 40 C.F.R., Part 302, Table 302.4, in force and effect on February 1, 2010, or any substance listed on the List of Extremely Hazardous Substances and Their Threshold Planning Quantities, codified as 40 C.F.R., Part 355, Appendix A, in force and effect on February 1, 2010.
5. "Inventory" means the hazardous site inventory compiled and updated by the division pursuant to Code Section 12-8-97.
6. "Onshore facility" means any facility of any kind including, but not limited to, motor vehicles and rolling stock located in, on, or under any land or nonnavigable waters within the United States.
7. "Owner" or "operator" means:
   1. In the case of a vessel, any person owning, operating, or chartering by demise such vessel;
   2. In the case of an onshore facility or an offshore facility, any person owning or operating such facility; and
   3. In the case of any facility, title or control of which was conveyed due to bankruptcy, foreclosure, tax delinquency, abandonment, or similar means to a unit of state or local government, any person who owned, operated, or otherwise controlled activities at such facility immediately beforehand.

      Such term does not include a person who holds indicia of ownership primarily to protect said person's security interest in the facility or who acts in good faith solely in a fiduciary capacity and who did not actively participate in the management, disposal, or release of hazardous wastes, hazardous constituents, or hazardous substances from the facility. Such term does not include a unit of state or local government which acquired ownership or control involuntarily through bankruptcy, tax delinquency, abandonment, or other circumstances in which the government involuntarily acquires title by virtue of its function as sovereign; provided, however, that this exclusion shall not apply to any state or local government which has caused or contributed to the release of a hazardous waste, hazardous constituent, or hazardous substance from the facility.

8. "Person" means an individual, trust, firm, joint-stock company, corporation, partnership, association, authority, county, municipality, commission, political subdivision of this state, or any agency, board, department, or bureau of any other state or of the federal government.
9. "Person who has contributed or who is contributing to a release" means:
   1. The owner or operator of a facility;
   2. Any person who at the time of disposal of any hazardous waste, hazardous constituent, or hazardous substance owned or operated any facility at which such hazardous waste, hazardous constituent, or hazardous substance was disposed of;
   3. Any person who by contract, agreement, or otherwise arranged for disposal or treatment of or arranged with a transporter for transport for disposal or treatment of hazardous wastes, hazardous constituents, or hazardous substances owned or possessed by such person or by any other party or entity at any facility owned or operated by another party or entity and containing such hazardous wastes, hazardous constituents, or hazardous substances. A person who arranged for the recycling of recovered materials consisting solely of scrap paper, scrap plastic, scrap glass, scrap textiles, scrap rubber other than whole tires, scrap metal or spent lead-acid, nickel-acid, nickel-cadmium, and other batteries, and not consisting of any residue from a pollution control device, shall not be deemed to have arranged for treatment or disposal under this subparagraph; and
   4. Any person who accepts or accepted any hazardous wastes, hazardous constituents, or hazardous substances for transport to disposal or treatment facilities or sites selected by such person, from or at which facility or site there is a release of a hazardous waste, a hazardous constituent, or a hazardous substance.
10. "Pollution prevention" means:
    1. The elimination at the source of the use, generation, or release of hazardous constituents, hazardous substances, or hazardous wastes; or
    2. Reduction at the source in the quantity and toxicity of such substances.
11. "Release" means any intentional or unintentional act or omission resulting in the spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment, including without limitation the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles, of any hazardous waste, hazardous constituent, or hazardous substance; provided, however, that such term shall not include 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; emissions from the engine exhaust of any motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station; or the normal application of fertilizer.
12. "Site" means that portion of the owner's contiguous property and any other owner's property affected by a release exceeding a reportable quantity.
13. "Small quantity generator" means a hazardous waste generator who generates greater than 220 pounds but less than 2,200 pounds of hazardous waste in one month, as provided by rules promulgated by the board in accordance with this article.

(Code 1981, §12-8-92, enacted by Ga. L. 1992, p. 2234, § 5; Ga. L. 1993, p. 500, § 3; Ga. L. 1994, p. 483, § 3; Ga. L. 1996, p. 319, § 3; Ga. L. 1996, p. 993, § 1; Ga. L. 2006, p. 275, § 3-4/HB 1320; Ga. L. 2010, p. 531, § 5/SB 78; Ga. L. 2010, p. 828, § 2/SB 490.)

The 2010 amendments. The first 2010 amendment, effective May 27, 2010, in paragraph (4), substituted "February 1, 2010" for "February 1, 1996" near the middle and substituted "February 1, 2010" for "January 1, 2006" at the end. The second 2010 amendment, effective June 3, 2010, made identical changes.