Wisconsin Statutes
Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (2026)
Definitions
✓ current as of July 2026
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281.01(4)(4) “Garbage” means discarded materials resulting from the handling, processing, storage and consumption of food.
281.01(5)(5) “Industrial wastes” includes liquid or other wastes resulting from any process of industry, manufacture, trade or business or the development of any natural resource.
281.01(6)(6) “Municipality” means any city, town, village, county, county utility district, town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district or metropolitan sewage district.
281.01(7)(7) “Other wastes” includes all other substances, except industrial wastes and sewage, which pollute any of the surface waters of the state. The term also includes unnecessary siltation resulting from operations such as the washing of vegetables or raw food products, gravel washing, stripping of lands for development of subdivisions, highways, quarries and gravel pits, mine drainage, cleaning of vehicles or barges or gross neglect of land erosion.
281.01(8)(8) “Owner” means the state, county, town, town sanitary district, city, village, metropolitan sewerage district, corporation, firm, company, institution or individual owning or operating any water supply, sewerage or water system or sewage and refuse disposal plant.
281.01(9)(9) “Person” means an individual, owner, operator, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, association, municipality, interstate agency, state agency or federal agency.
281.01(10)(10) “Pollution” includes contaminating or rendering unclean or impure the waters of the state, or making the same injurious to public health, harmful for commercial or recreational use, or deleterious to fish, bird, animal or plant life.
281.01(11)(11) “Refuse” means all matters produced from industrial or community life, subject to decomposition, not defined as sewage.
281.01(13)(13) “Sewage” means the water-carried wastes created in and to be conducted away from residences, industrial establishments, and public buildings as defined in s. 101.01 (12), with such surface water or groundwater as may be present.
281.01(14)(14) “Sewerage system” means all structures, conduits and pipe lines by which sewage is collected and disposed of, except plumbing inside and in connection with buildings served, and service pipes from building to street main.
281.01(15)(15) “Solid waste” means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded or salvageable materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solids or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under ch. 283, or source material, as defined in s. 254.31 (10), special nuclear material, as defined in s. 254.31 (11), or by-product material, as defined in s. 254.31 (1).
281.01(16)(16) “System or plant” includes water and sewerage systems and sewage and refuse disposal plants.
281.01(18)(18) “Waters of the state” includes those portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior within the boundaries of this state, and all lakes, bays, rivers, streams, springs, ponds, wells, impounding reservoirs, marshes, watercourses, drainage systems and other surface water or groundwater, natural or artificial, public or private, within this state or its jurisdiction.
281.01(19)(19) “Water supply” means the sources and their surroundings from which water is supplied for drinking or domestic purposes.
281.01(20)(20) “Waterworks” or “water system” means all structures, conduits and appurtenances by means of which water is delivered to consumers except piping and fixtures inside buildings served, and service pipes from building to street main.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 14
cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1929–2021 · leading case: Lake Beulah Mgmt. Dist. v. State, 2011 WI 54 (Wis. 2011).
Lake Beulah Mgmt. Dist. v. State, 2011 WI 54 (Wis. 2011). “" 'Waters of the state' includes those portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior within the boundaries of this state, and all lakes, bays, rivers, streams, springs, ponds, wells, impounding reservoirs, marshes, watercourses, drainage systems and other surface water or…”
Doane v. Helenville Mut. Ins. Co., 575 N.W.2d 734 (Wis. Ct. App. 1998). “2 Section 281.01(18), STATS., defines waters of the state in a manner which encompasses Lake Kegonsa.”
Lake Beulah Mgmt. Dist. v. State Dep't of Nat. Resources, 2010 WI App 85 (Wis. Ct. App. 2010). “See Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (18) (defining waters of the state).”
State v. Hydrite Chem. Co., 2002 WI App 222 (Wis. Ct. App. 2002). “This latter claim alleged that under Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (18), "groundwater" is included in the waters that the State owns, and that the contamination had spread to groundwater used as a public water supply for Cottage Grove.”
Fulton v. First Volunteer Co. of Oconto, 236 N.W. 120 (Wis. 1931). “, as follows: “The state may be made a party defendant in any action to quiet title under the provisions of section 281.01 or between other parties, when necessary to the proper determina *360 tion of their rights, and the summons be served by delivering a copy to the attorney…”
Wisconsin Legislature v. Andrea Palm, 2020 WI 42 (Wis. 2020). “See Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (3). Wisconsin Stat. § 281.”
Doherty v. Rice, 3 N.W.2d 734 (Wis. 1942). “The action was brought against Rice and his wife to' recover possession of the premises and prays judgment quia timet and for “such other and further relief as may be equitable.” It is to be noted that while quia timet actions are in equity and under general equity practice can…”
Wisconsin Legislature v. Andrea Palm, 2020 WI 42 (Wis. 2020). “See Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (3). Wisconsin Stat. § 281.”
Michael Anderson v. Town of Newbold, 2021 WI 6 (Wis. 2021). “" Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (3); § 281.31(5), (6).”
Martineau v. State Conservation Comm'n, 225 N.W.2d 613 (Wis. 1975). “Martineau be desirous of resolving the questions of title and navigability, she may proceed to do so by instituting a quiet title action pursuant to sec. 281.01, Stats. 1971, or other appropriate remedy.”
Lake Beulah Mgmt. Dist. v. Vill. of East Troy, 2010 WI App 127 (Wis. Ct. App. 2010). “Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (6). Therefore, the District "may pass ordinances which, while addressed to local issues, concomitantly regulate matters of statewide concern.”
Michael Anderson v. Town of Newbold, 2021 WI 6 (Wis. 2021). “" Wis. Stat. § 281.01 (3); § 281.31(5), (6).”
— Wis. Stat. § 281.01(18) — 1 case
Doane v. Helenville Mut. Ins. Co., 575 N.W.2d 734 (Wis. Ct. App. 1998). “2 Section 281.01(18), STATS., defines waters of the state in a manner which encompasses Lake Kegonsa.”
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