As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

“Complaint” means any written charge filed with or by the department that a person is violating any provision of this chapter or any rule or order adopted pursuant to this chapter.

“Department” means the department of health.

“Director” means the director of health.

“Disposal” means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid waste onto any land or water so that such solid waste, or any constituent thereof, may enter the environment, be emitted into the air, or discharged into any water, including ground waters.

“Incineration” means the treatment of solid waste by burning in a furnace designed for the purpose wherein solid waste is essentially reduced to ash, carbon dioxide, and water vapor.

“Inert fill material” means earth, soil, rocks, rock-like material such as cured asphalt, brick, and clean concrete less than eight inches in diameter, except as specified by a licensed soils engineer with no exposed steel reinforcing rod. The fill material shall not contain vegetation or organic material, or other solid waste.

“Open dump” means a disposal site that is operating in nonconformance with applicable standards, relevant permit conditions, rules, or this chapter.

“Party” means each person or agency named as party or properly entitled to be a party in any court or agency proceeding.

“Permit” means written authorization from the director to construct, modify, and operate any solid waste management system or any component of any solid waste management system. A permit authorizes the grantee to construct, modify, and operate any solid waste management system in a manner or amount, not forbidden by this chapter, or by rules adopted pursuant to this chapter but requiring review by the department.

“Person” means any individual, partnership, firm, association, public or private corporation, federal agency, the State or any of its political subdivisions, trust, estate, or any other legal entity.

“Petroleum” means any petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof, that is liquid at standard temperature and pressure (60 degrees Fahrenheit and 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute).

“Petroleum-contaminated soil” means soil that has been contaminated by a release of petroleum to a degree that exceeds levels determined to be acceptable by the director.

“Pollution” means solid waste pollution.

“Recycling” means the collection, separation, recovery, and sale or reuse of secondary resources that would otherwise be disposed of as municipal solid waste, and is an integral part of a manufacturing process aimed at producing a marketable product made of postconsumer material.

“Sanitary landfill” means a land site on which engineering principles are utilized to bury deposits of solid waste without creating a nuisance or hazard to public health or safety.

“Secondary resources” means postconsumer material collected and processed for feedstock in a manufacturing process.

“Solid waste” means garbage, refuse, and other discarded materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, sludge from waste treatment plants and water supply treatment plants, and residues from air pollution control facilities and community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage or other substances in water sources such as silt, dissolved or suspended solids in industrial waste water effluents, dissolved materials in irrigation return flows, or other common water pollutants, or source, special nuclear, or by-product material as defined by the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (68 Stat. 923).

“Solid waste management system” means a system for the storage, processing, treatment, transfer, or disposal of solid waste.

“Variance” means special written authorization from the director to do an act that deviates from applicable standards or from the requirements of rules adopted under this chapter.

“Waste” means sewage, industrial and agricultural matter, and all other liquid, gaseous, or solid substance, including radioactive substance, whether treated or not, which may pollute or tend to pollute the atmosphere, lands or waters of this State.