Terms Used In Texas Water Code Chapter 26 - Water Quality Control

• Account: means the Texas spill response account. See Texas Water Code 26.263
• Agricultural waste: means waterborne liquid, gaseous, or solid substances that arise from the agricultural industry and agricultural activities, including without limitation agricultural animal feeding pens and lots, structures for housing and feeding agricultural animals, and processing facilities for agricultural products. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board: means the Texas Water Development Board. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Commission: means the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Comptroller: means the state comptroller of public accounts. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discharge or spill: means an act or omission by which hazardous substances in harmful quantities are spilled, leaked, pumped, poured, emitted, entered, or dumped onto or into waters in this state or by which those substances are deposited where, unless controlled or removed, they may drain, seep, run, or otherwise enter water in this state. See Texas Water Code 26.263
• Disposal system: means any system for disposing of waste, including sewer systems and treatment facilities. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Effects: includes all personal property and all interest in that property. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Executive administrator: means the executive administrator of the Texas Water Development Board. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Executive director: means the executive director of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Hazardous substance: means any substance designated as such by the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (42 U. See Texas Water Code 26.263
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Industrial waste: means waterborne liquid, gaseous, or solid substances that result from any process of industry, manufacturing, trade, or business. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Justice: when applied to a magistrate, means justice of the peace. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Local government: means an incorporated city, a county, a river authority, or a water district or authority acting under Article III, § 52, or Article XVI, § 59 of the Texas Constitution. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Month: means a calendar month. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Municipal waste: means waterborne liquid, gaseous, or solid substances that result from any discharge from a publicly owned sewer system, treatment facility, or disposal system. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. ^{Source: OCC}
• NPDES: means the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System under which the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency can delegate permitting authority to the State of Texas in accordance with Section 402(b) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Other waste: means garbage, refuse, decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark, sand, lime, cinders, ashes, offal, oil, tar, dyestuffs, acids, chemicals, salt water, or any other substance, other than sewage, industrial waste, municipal waste, recreational waste, or agricultural waste. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Permit: means an order issued by the commission in accordance with the procedures prescribed in this chapter establishing the treatment which shall be given to wastes being discharged into or adjacent to any water in the state to preserve and enhance the quality of the water and specifying the conditions under which the discharge may be made. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Person: includes an individual, firm, corporation, association, and partnership. See Texas Water Code 26.263
• Person: means an individual, association, partnership, corporation, municipality, state or federal agency, or an agent or employee thereof. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Point source: means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants or wastes are or may be discharged into or adjacent to any water in the state. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Pollutant: means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, filter backwash, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into any water in the state. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Pollution: means the alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any water in the state that renders the water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation, or property or to public health, safety, or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recreational waste: means waterborne liquid, gaseous, or solid substances that emanate from any public or private park, beach, or recreational area. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• responsible person: means :
  (A) the owner, operator, or demise charterer of a vessel from which a spill emanates;
  (B) the owner or operator of a facility from which a spill emanates;
  (C) any other person who causes, suffers, allows, or permits a spill or discharge. See Texas Water Code 26.263
• Rule: includes regulation. See Texas Government Code 311.005
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Sewage: means waterborne human waste and waste from domestic activities, such as washing, bathing, and food preparation. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Sewer system: means pipelines, conduits, storm sewers, canals, pumping stations, force mains, and all other constructions, devices, and appurtenant appliances used to transport waste. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Signed: includes any symbol executed or adopted by a person with present intention to authenticate a writing. See Texas Government Code 311.005
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Succeeding: means immediately following. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• To discharge: includes to deposit, conduct, drain, emit, throw, run, allow to seep, or otherwise release or dispose of, or to allow, permit, or suffer any of these acts or omissions. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Treatment facility: means any plant, disposal field, lagoon, incinerator, area devoted to sanitary landfills, or other facility installed for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, or stabilizing waste. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Treatment works: means any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of waste to implement this chapter or necessary to recycle or reuse water at the most economical cost over the estimated life of the works, including:
  (A) intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, pumping, power, and other equipment and their appurtenances;
  (B) extensions, improvements, remodeling, additions, and alterations of the items in Paragraph (A) of this subdivision;
  (C) elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear-well facilities;
  (D) any works, including sites and acquisition of the land that will be a part of or used in connection with the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment;
  (E) any plant, disposal field, lagoon, canal, incinerator, area devoted to sanitary landfills, or other facilities installed for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, or stabilizing waste; and
  (F) facilities to provide for the collection, control, and disposal of waste heat. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes a department, bureau, or other agency of the United States of America. See Texas Government Code 311.005
• water in the state: means groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico, inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state. See Texas Water Code 26.001
• Week: means seven consecutive days. See Texas Government Code 311.005