(a)  Any person who shall violate the provisions of this chapter through the transportation, storage, or disposal of hazardous wastes in a manner or location not authorized by this chapter or the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter, or who shall have caused the unauthorized transportation, storage, or disposal of hazardous wastes shall be absolutely liable for the cost of containment, cleanup, restoration, and removal of the hazardous wastes, and for all damages, losses, or injuries, including environmental, which result directly or indirectly from the discharge.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-19.1-22

  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Department: means the department of environmental management;

    (2)  "Director" means the director of the department of environmental management or the director's designee;

    (3)  "Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, abandoning, or placing of any hazardous waste in, on, into or onto any land, other surface, or building, or into any water, stormwater system, or sewer system;

    (4)(i)  "Hazardous waste" means any waste or combination of wastes of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semisolid form which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may:

    (A)  Cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness; or

    (B)  Pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-19.1-4

  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.

(b)  Proceedings brought pursuant to this section shall be instituted by filing a complaint in the superior court.

(c)  The state, by and through the department of environmental management, is the trustee of the air, water, fish, and wildlife of the state. An action brought pursuant to the provisions of this chapter with respect to environmental damage may be brought by the attorney general or the director of the department of environmental management in the name of the state as trustee for those natural resources.

(d)  The court may award treble the amount of the costs, damages, losses, or injuries whenever it finds that a person has stored, disposed, or transported hazardous wastes in violation of this chapter or the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter in a willful and knowing manner.

History of Section.
P.L. 1979, ch. 265, § 2; P.L. 1984, ch. 403, § 1.