Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 10 > Chapter 47 > Subchapter 1 - Water Pollution Control

• 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.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bailee: means a person that by a warehouse receipt, bill of lading, or other document of title acknowledges possession of goods and contracts to deliver them. See
• Basin plan: means a plan prepared by the Secretary for each of Vermont's 17 basins in conjunction with the basin planning process required by section 303(e) of the federal Clean Water Act and 40 C. See
• Board: means the Secretary of Natural Resources. See
• Carrier: means a person that issues a bill of lading. See
• 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.
• Consignee: means a person named in a bill of lading to which or to whose order the bill promises delivery. See
• Consignor: means a person named in a bill of lading as the person from which the goods have been received for shipment. See
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Delivery order: means a record that contains an order to deliver goods directed to a warehouse, carrier, or other person that in the ordinary course of business issues warehouse receipts or bills of lading. See
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Conservation. See
• Discharge: means the placing, depositing, or emission of any wastes, directly or indirectly, into an injection well or into the waters of the State. See
• Domestic: when applied to a corporation, company, association, or copartnership shall mean organized under the laws of this State; "foreign" when so applied, shall mean organized under the laws of another state, government, or country. See
• Effluent limitation: means any restrictions or prohibitions established in accordance with the provisions of this chapter or under federal law including effluent limitations, standards of performance for new sources, and toxic effluent standards, on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents that are discharged to waters of the State, including schedules of compliance. See
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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.
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• 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 a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Goods: means all things that are treated as movable for the purposes of a contract for storage or transportation. See
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Hazardous materials: means any material determined by the Secretary to have an unusually harmful effect on water quality if discharged to the waters of the State. See
• Indirect discharge: means any discharge to groundwater, whether subsurface, land-based, or otherwise. See
• Injection well: means any opening in the ground used as a means of discharging waste except for a dry hole not exceeding seven feet in depth that is constructed as, and used solely for the disposal of domestic wastes. See
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Issuer: means a bailee that issues a document of title, or, in the case of an unaccepted delivery order, the person that orders the possessor of goods to deliver. See
• 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.
• 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}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Mixing zone: means a length or area within the waters of the State required for the dispersion and dilution of waste discharges adequately treated to meet federal and State treatment requirements and within which it is recognized that specific water uses or water quality criteria associated with the assigned classification for such waters may not be realized. See
• Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
• 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.
• Oil: means oil of any kind, including petroleum, fuel oils, oily sludge, waste oil, gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, tar, asphalt, crude oils, lube oil, insoluble or partially soluble derivatives of mineral, animal, or vegetable oils, or any product or mixture thereof. See
• 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.
• Person: means any individual; partnership; company; corporation; association; joint venture; trust; municipality; the State of Vermont or any agency, department, or subdivision of the State; any federal agency; or any other legal or commercial entity. See
• Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• Public interest: means that which is for the greatest benefit to the people of the State as determined by the standards set forth in subsection 1253(e) of this title. See
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• road: shall include bridges thereon and their approaches. See
• Schedule of compliance: means a schedule of remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with an effluent limitation or any other limitation, prohibition, or standard, including any water quality standard. See
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Natural Resources or his or her authorized representative. See
• 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.
• sewage: as used in this chapter shall not include the rinse or process water from a cheese manufacturing process. See
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Town: shall include city and wards or precincts therein; "selectboard members" and "board of civil authority" shall extend to and include the mayor and aldermen of cities; "trustees" shall extend to and include bailiffs of incorporated villages; and the laws applicable to the inhabitants and officers of towns shall be applicable to the inhabitants and similar officers of all municipal corporations. See
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Village: shall mean an incorporated village. See
• Warehouse: means a person engaged in the business of storing goods for hire. See
• Waste: means effluent, sewage, or any substance or material, liquid, gaseous, solid, or radioactive, including heated liquids, whether or not harmful or deleterious to waters; provided, however, the term "sewage" as used in this chapter shall not include the rinse or process water from a cheese manufacturing process. See
• Waste management zone: means a specific reach of Class B waters designated by a permit to accept the discharge of properly treated wastes that prior to treatment contained organisms pathogenic to human beings. See
• Waters: includes all rivers, streams, creeks, brooks, reservoirs, ponds, lakes, springs, and all bodies of surface waters, artificial or natural, that are contained within, flow through, or border upon the State or any portion of it. See