Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-18

• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• 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}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Hazardous substance: includes any substance designated pursuant to section 311(b)(2)(A) of the Clean Water Act; any element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance designated pursuant to section 102 of CERCLA; any hazardous waste having the characteristics identified under or listed pursuant to section 3001 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act; any toxic pollutant listed under section 307(a) of the Clean Water Act; any hazardous air pollutant listed under section 112 of the Clean Air Act, as amended (42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
• operator: means :

  (1) In the case of a vessel, any person owning, operating, or chartering by demise the vessel;

  (2) In the case of an onshore facility or an offshore facility, any person owning or operating the 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 a state or local government, any person who owned, operated, or otherwise controlled activities at the facility immediately beforehand. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1

• Person: means any individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, state, county, commission, political subdivision of the State, or, to the extent they are subject to this chapter, the United States or any interstate body. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
• Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant); but excludes:

  (1) Any release which results in exposure of persons solely within a workplace, with respect to a claim which such exposed persons may assert against their employer;

  (2) Emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine;

  (3) Release of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1

• remedial action: means those actions consistent with permanent correction taken instead of or in addition to removal actions in the event of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, to prevent or minimize the release of hazardous substances so that they do not migrate to cause substantial danger to present or future public health or welfare or the environment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
• response: means remove, removal, remedy, or remedial action; and all such terms include government enforcement activities related thereto. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1