Terms Used In North Carolina General Statutes > Chapter 143 > Article 21 - Water and Air Resources

• air contaminant: means particulate matter, dust, fumes, gas, mist, smoke, or vapor or any combination thereof. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• air contamination: means the presence in the outdoor atmosphere of one or more air contaminants which contribute to a condition of air pollution. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• air pollution: shall mean the presence in the outdoor atmosphere of one or more air contaminants in such quantities and duration as is or tends to be injurious to human health or welfare, to animal or plant life or to property or that interferes with the enjoyment of life or property. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Clean Air Act: refers to the federal Clean Air Act, as amended, codified generally at 42 U. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• 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.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• disposal system: means a system for disposing of waste, and including sewer systems and treatment works. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• effluent standards or limitations: means any restrictions established pursuant to this Article on quantities, rates, characteristics and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological and other constituents of wastes which are discharged from any pretreatment facility or from any outlet or point source to the waters of the State. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• emission: means a release into the outdoor atmosphere of air contaminants. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• 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.
• farm digester system: means a system, including all animal waste management equipment and lagoon covers, by which gases are collected and processed from an animal waste management system for the digestion of animal biomass for use as a renewable energy resource. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• following: when used by way of reference to any section of a statute, shall be construed to mean the section next preceding or next following that in which such reference is made; unless when some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
• 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.
• in writing: may be construed to include printing, engraving, lithographing, and any other mode of representing words and letters: Provided, that in all cases where a written signature is required by law, the same shall be in a proper handwriting, or in a proper mark. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
• Industrial waste: shall mean any liquid, solid, gaseous, or other waste substance or a combination thereof resulting from any process of industry, manufacture, trade or business, or from the development of any natural resource. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• lagoon: includes a lagoon as defined in N. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• month: shall be construed to mean a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed; and the word "year" a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed; and the word "year" alone shall be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Other waste: means sawdust, shavings, lime, refuse, offal, oil, tar chemicals, dissolved and suspended solids, sediment, and all other substances, except industrial waste, sewage, and toxic chemicals which may be discharged into or placed in such proximity to the water that drainage therefrom may reach the water. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Outlays: Outlays are payments made (generally through the issuance of checks or disbursement of cash) to liquidate obligations. Outlays during a fiscal year may be for payment of obligations incurred in prior years or in the same year.
• outlet: means the terminus of a sewer system, or the point of emergence of any waste or the effluent therefrom, into the waters of the State. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• point source: means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including, but specifically not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, or concentrated animal-feeding operation from which wastes are or may be discharged to the waters of the State. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• pretreatment facility: means any treatment works installed for the purpose of treating, equalizing, neutralizing or stabilizing waste from any source prior to discharge to any disposal system subject to effluent standards or limitations. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• pretreatment standards: means effluent standards or limitations applicable to waste discharged from a pretreatment facility. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• property: shall include all property, both real and personal. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• seal: shall be construed to include an impression of such official seal, made upon the paper alone, as well as an impression made by means of a wafer or of wax affixed thereto. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
• 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.
• sewer system: means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, and force mains, and all other construction, devices, and appliances appurtenant thereto, used for conducting wastes to a point of ultimate disposal. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• standards: means such measure or measures of the quality of water and air as are established by the Commission pursuant to N. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories, so called; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the said district and territories and all dependencies. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Stormwater: means the flow of water which results from precipitation and which occurs immediately following rainfall or a snowmelt. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Title II: means Title II of the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act and the National Emission Standards Act (Pub. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Title III: means Title III of the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act (Pub. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Title IV: means Title IV of the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act (Pub. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Title V: means Title V of the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act (Pub. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Title V Account: means the Account established in N. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• treatment works: means any plant, septic tank disposal field, lagoon, pumping station, constructed drainage ditch or surface water intercepting ditch, incinerator, area devoted to sanitary landfill, or other works not specifically mentioned herein, installed for the purpose of treating, equalizing, neutralizing, stabilizing or disposing of waste. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• United States: shall be construed to include the said district and territories and all dependencies. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
• Waste: shall mean and include the following:

  a. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213

• water pollution: means the man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, or radiological integrity of the waters of the State, including, but specifically not limited to, alterations resulting from the concentration or increase of natural pollutants caused by man-related activities. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• watershed: means a natural area of drainage, including all tributaries contributing to the supply of at least one major waterway within the State, the specific limits of each separate watershed to be designated by the Commission. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213
• Wood heater: means a fireplace, wood stove, pellet stove, wood-fired hydronic heater, wood-burning forced-air furnace, or masonry wood heater or other similar appliance designed for heating a residence or business or for heating water for use by a residence through the combustion of wood or products substantially composed of wood. See North Carolina General Statutes 143-213