§ 6602. Definitions

As used in this chapter:

(1) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Natural Resources or his or her duly authorized representative.

(2) “Solid waste” means any discarded garbage; refuse; septage; sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply plant, or pollution control facility; and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, or agricultural operations and from community activities but does not include animal manure and absorbent bedding used for soil enrichment; high carbon bulking agents used in composting; or solid or dissolved materials in industrial discharges that are point sources subject to permits under the Water Pollution Control Act, chapter 47 of this title.

(3) “Generator” means any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste or whose act first causes a hazardous waste to become subject to regulation.

(4) “Hazardous waste” means any waste or combination of wastes of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semi-solid form, including those that are toxic, corrosive, ignitable, reactive, strong sensitizers, or that generate pressure through decomposition, heat, or other means, that in the judgment of the Secretary may cause or contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness, taking into account the toxicity of such waste, its persistence and degradability in nature, and its potential for assimilation, or concentration in tissue, and other factors that may otherwise cause or contribute to adverse acute or chronic effects on the health of persons or other living organisms, or any matter that may have an unusually destructive effect on water quality if discharged to ground or surface waters of the State. All special nuclear, source, or by-product material, as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as subsequently amended and codified in 42 U.S.C. § 2014, is specifically excluded from this definition.

(5) “Hazardous waste management” means the systematic and comprehensive management of the generation; storage; transport; treatment, including recycling and recovery; or disposal of hazardous waste materials.

(6) “Person” means any individual; partnership; company; corporation; association; unincorporated association; joint venture; trust; municipality; the State of Vermont or any agency, department, or subdivision of the State; federal agency; or any other legal or commercial entity.

(7) “Storage” means the actual or intended containment of wastes, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of such wastes.

(8) “Transport” or “transportation” means the movement of wastes by air, rail, highway, or water.

(9) “Treatment” means any method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any hazardous or solid waste, so as to neutralize such waste, or so as to recover energy or material resources from the waste, or so as to render such waste safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, or reduced in volume, or for hazardous wastes, so as to render such waste nonhazardous.

(10) “Facility” means all contiguous land, structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land, used for treating, storing, or disposing of waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposal operational units.

(11) “Sanitary landfill” means a land disposal site employing an engineered method of disposing of solid waste on land in a manner that minimizes environmental hazards by spreading the solid waste in thin layers, compacting the solid waste to the smallest practical volume, and applying and compacting cover material at the end of each operating day.

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

(13) “Waste” means a material that is discarded or is being accumulated, stored, or physically, chemically, or biologically treated prior to being discarded or has served its original intended use and is normally discarded or is a manufacturing or mining by-product and is normally discarded.

(14) “Economic poison” means:

(A) any substance produced, distributed, or used as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant; and

(B) any substance produced, distributed, or used for preventing, destroying, or repelling any insects, rodents, nematodes, fungi, weeds, or other forms of plant or animal life or viruses, except viruses on or in living human or other animals, which the Commissioner shall declare to be a pest.

(15) [Repealed.]

(16)(A) “Hazardous material” means all petroleum and toxic, corrosive, or other chemicals and related sludge included in any of the following:

(i) any substance defined in section 101(14) of the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980;

(ii) petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof;

(iii) hazardous wastes, as determined under subdivision (4) of this section; or

(iv) a chemical or substance that, when released, poses a risk to human health or other living organisms and that is listed by the Secretary by rule.

(B) “Hazardous material” does not include herbicides and pesticides when applied consistent with good practice conducted in conformity with federal, State, and local laws, rules, and regulations and according to manufacturer’s instructions. Nothing in this subdivision shall affect the authority granted and the limitations imposed by section 6608a of this title.

(17) “Release” means any intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, dumping, or disposing of hazardous materials into the surface or groundwaters, or onto the lands in the State, or into waters outside the jurisdiction of the State when damage may result to the public health, lands, waters, or natural resources within the jurisdiction of the State. “Release” also means the intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the spilling, leaking, emission, or disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from building materials in public schools and approved and recognized independent schools, as those terms are defined in 16 V.S.A. § 11, that were constructed or renovated before 1980.

(18) “Administrative costs” mean those additional costs incurred by an applicant to directly manage the specific planning or implementation project approved in the assistance application.

(19) “Implementation plan” means that plan that is adopted to be consistent with the State solid waste management plan. This plan must include all the elements required for consistency with the State plan and an applicable regional plan and shall be approved by the Secretary. This implementation plan is the basis for State certification of facilities under subsection 6605(c) of this title.

(20) “Regional plan” means that plan that is prepared and adopted in accordance with the provisions of 24 V.S.A. § 4348.

(21) “Municipal plan” means that plan that is prepared and adopted in accordance with the provisions of 24 V.S.A. § 4385.

(22) [Repealed.]

(23) “Secured lender” means a person who holds indicia of ownership in a facility, furnished by the owner or person in lawful possession, primarily to ensure the repayment of a financial obligation. Such indicia include interests in real or personal property that are held as security or collateral for repayment of a financial obligation, such as a mortgage, lien, security interest, assignment, pledge, surety bond, or guarantee, and include participation rights, held by a financial institution solely for legitimate commercial purposes, in making or servicing loans. The term “secured lender” includes a person who acquires indicia of ownership by assignment from another secured lender.

(24) “Municipal solid waste” means combined household, commercial, and industrial waste materials generated in a given area.

(25) “Compost” means a stable humus-like material produced by the controlled biological decomposition of organic matter through active management but shall not mean sewage, septage, or materials derived from sewage or septage.

(26) “Household hazardous waste” means any waste from households that would be subject to regulation as hazardous wastes if it were not from households.

(27) “Closed-loop recycling” means a system in which a product made from one type of material is reclaimed and reused in the production process or the manufacturing of a new or separate product.

(28) “Commercial hauler” means any person that transports:

(A) regulated quantities of hazardous waste; or

(B) solid waste for compensation in a motor vehicle.

(29) “Mandated recyclable” means the following source-separated materials: aluminum and steel cans, aluminum foil and aluminum pie plates, glass bottles and jars from foods and beverages, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles or jugs, high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bottles and jugs, corrugated cardboard, white and colored paper, newspaper, magazines, catalogues, paper mail and envelopes, boxboard, and paper bags.

(30) “Leaf and yard residual” means source-separated, compostable untreated vegetative matter, including grass clippings, leaves, kraft paper bags, and brush, that is free from noncompostable materials. It does not include such materials as pre- and postconsumer food residuals, food processing residuals, or soiled paper.

(31) “Food residual” means source-separated and uncontaminated material that is derived from processing or discarding of food and that is recyclable, in a manner consistent with section 6605k of this title. Food residual may include preconsumer and postconsumer food scraps. “Food residual” does not mean meat and meat-related products when the food residuals are composted by a resident on site.

(32) “Source-separated” or “source separation” means the separation of compostable and recyclable materials from noncompostable, nonrecyclable materials at the point of generation.

(33) “Wood waste” means trees, untreated wood, and other natural woody debris, including tree stumps, brush and limbs, root mats, and logs.

(34) “Participation in management” means, for the purpose of subsection 6615(g) of this title, a secured lender’s or fiduciary‘s actual participation in the management or operational affairs of a facility. It does not mean a secured lender’s or fiduciary’s mere capacity to influence, or unexercised right to control, facility operations. A secured lender or fiduciary shall be considered to have participated in management if the secured lender or fiduciary:

(A) exercises decision-making control over environmental compliance related to the facility, such that the secured lender or fiduciary has undertaken responsibility for hazardous materials handling or disposal practices related to the facility; or

(B) exercises control at a level comparable to that of a manager of the facility, such that the secured lender or fiduciary has assumed or manifested responsibility:

(i) for the overall management of the facility encompassing day-to-day decision making with respect to environmental compliance; or

(ii) over all or substantially all of the operational functions, as distinguished from financial or administrative functions, of the facility other than the function of environmental compliance.

(35) “Regional development corporation” means a nonprofit corporation organized in this State whose principal purpose is to promote, organize, or accomplish economic development, including providing planning and resource development services to local communities, supporting existing industry, assisting the growth and development of new and existing small businesses, and attracting industry or commerce to a particular economic region of the State.

(36) “Regional planning commission” means a planning commission created for a region established under 24 Vt. Stat. Ann. chapter 117, subchapter 3.

(37) “Background concentration level” means the concentration level of PAHs, arsenic, or lead in soils, expressed in units of mass per mass, that is attributable to site contamination caused by atmospheric deposition or is naturally occurring and determined to be representative of statewide or regional concentrations through a scientifically valid means as determined by the Secretary.

(38) “Commencement of construction” means the construction of the first improvement on the land or to any structure or facility located on the land. “Commencement of construction” shall not mean soil testing or other work necessary for assessment of the environmental conditions of the land and subsurface of the land.

(39) “Development soils” means unconsolidated mineral and organic matter overlying bedrock that contains PAHs, arsenic, or lead in concentrations that:

(A) exceed the relevant soil screening level for residential soil;

(B) when managed in compliance with section 6604c, 6605, or 6605c of this title:

(i) pose no greater risk than the Agency-established soil screening value for the intended reuse of the property; and

(ii) pose no unreasonable risk to human health through a dermal, inhalation, or ingestion exposure pathway;

(C) do not leach compounds at concentrations that exceed groundwater enforcement standards; and

(D) do not result in an exceedance of Vermont groundwater enforcement standards.

(40) “Development soils concentration level” means those levels of PAHs, arsenic, or lead expressed in units of mass per mass, contained in the development soils.

(41) “Downtown development district” shall have the meaning stated in 24 V.S.A. § 2791(4).

(42) “Growth center” shall have the meaning stated in 24 V.S.A. § 2793c.

(43) “Neighborhood development area” shall have the meaning stated in 24 V.S.A. § 2793e.

(44) “Origin site” means a location where development soils originate.

(45) “PAHs” means polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

(46) “Receiving site” means a location where development soils are deposited.

(47) “Receiving site concentration level” means those levels of PAHs, arsenic, or lead, expressed in units of mass per mass, that exist in soils at a receiving site.

(48) “TIF district” means a Tax Increment Financing District created by a municipality pursuant to 24 V.S.A. § 1892.

(49) “Village center” shall have the meaning stated in 24 V.S.A. § 2791(10). (Added 1977, No. 106, § 1; amended 1979, No. 195 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. May 6, 1980; 1981, No. 102, § 2; 1983, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 1985, No. 70, § 3, eff. May 20, 1985; 1985, No. 231 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 1987, No. 76, § 18; 1989, No. 30, § 1, eff. April 27, 1989; 1989, No. 281 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. June 22, 1990; 1989, No. 282 (Adj. Sess.), § 9, eff. June 22, 1990; 1993, No. 29, § 2, eff. May 26, 1993; 2003, No. 115 (Adj. Sess.), § 60, eff. Jan. 31, 2005; 2005, No. 65, § 2; 2007, No. 130 (Adj. Sess.), § 9, eff. May 12, 2008; 2009, No. 41, § 1; 2009, No. 146 (Adj. Sess.), § F10; 2011, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2013, No. 55, § 11; 2015, No. 52, § 2, eff. June 5, 2015; 2017, No. 55, §§ 3, 4, eff. June 2, 2017; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 46; 2019, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 24; 2021, No. 74, § E.709.3; 2021, No. 185 (Adj. Sess.), § E.709.1, eff. July 1, 2021; 2021, No. 170 (Adj. Sess.), § 6, eff. July 1, 2022; 2023, No. 6, § 81, eff. July 1, 2023.)