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Alaska Statutes.

Title 46. Water, Air, Energy, and Environmental Conservation

Chapter 3. Environmental Conservation

Section 900. Definitions.

previous: Section 890. Enforcement Authority.
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AS 46.03.900. Definitions.

In this chapter

(1) "air contaminant" means dust, fumes, mist, smoke, other particulate matter, vapor, gas, odorous substances or a combination of these;

(2) "air pollution" means the presence in the outdoor atmosphere of one or more air contaminants in quantities and duration that tend to be injurious to human health or welfare, animal or plant life or property or would unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property;

(3) "broadcast chemicals" means chemical substances which are released into the air or onto land or water for the purpose of preventing, destroying, repelling, stimulating, or retarding plant or animal life, or chemical substances released for meteorological control, oil spill control, or fire control;

(4) "commissioner" means the commissioner of environmental conservation;

(5) "compliance agreement" means a mutual understanding and voluntary, enforceable agreement on a course of action for a specific set of circumstances entered into by the department and a person to control, prevent, or abate air, water, land, or subsurface land pollution;

(6) "department" means the Department of Environmental Conservation;

(7) "dispose" has the meaning given "disposal" in 42 U.S.C. 6903(3);

(8) "facility" means any offshore or onshore structure, improvement, vessel, vehicle, land, enterprise, or endeavor;

(9) "hazardous waste" means a waste or combination of wastes that because of 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 when improperly managed, treated, stored, transported, or disposed of;

(10) "hazardous waste reduction" means decreasing, avoiding, or eliminating wastes that are hazardous to human health or the environment through source reduction or recycling; the term does not include hazardous waste treatment or hazardous waste disposal;

(11) "industrial waste" means a liquid, gaseous, solid, or other waste substance or a combination of them resulting from process of industry, manufacturing trade or business, or from the development of natural resources; however, gravel, sand, mud, or earth taken from its original situs and put through sluice boxes, dredges, or other devices for the washing and recovery of the precious metal contained in them and redeposited in the same watershed from which it came is not industrial waste;

(12) "low level radioactive materials" means a radioactive waste other than

(A) used nuclear reactor fuel;

(B) waste produced during the reprocessing of used nuclear reactor fuel; and

(C) elements having an atomic number greater than 92 and containing 10 or more nanocuries per gram;

(13) "manifest" means the form used for identifying the quantity, composition, origin, routing, and destination of a hazardous waste when the hazardous waste is transported;

(14) "mining waste" means solid waste from the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals, including coal, and including phosphate rock and overburden from the mining of uranium ore;

(15) "motor vehicle" has the meaning given in AS 28.90.990;

(16) "municipal solid waste" means waste material

(A) generated by a household, including a single-family or multi-family residence, and collected and disposed of as part of municipal solid waste collection services; or

(B) generated by a commercial, industrial, or institutional entity, to the extent that the waste material

(i) is essentially the same as waste normally generated by a household;

(ii) is collected and disposed of with other municipal solid waste as part of normal municipal solid waste collection services; and

(iii) contains a relative quantity of hazardous substances not greater than the relative quantity of hazardous substances contained in waste material generated by a typical single-family household;

(17) "other wastes" means garbage, refuse, decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark, trimmings from logging operations, sand, lime cinders, ashes, offal, oil, tar, dyestuffs, acids, chemicals, heat from cooling or other operations, and other substances not sewage or industrial waste which may cause or tend to cause pollution of the waters of the state;

(18) "person" means any individual, public or private corporation, political subdivision, government agency, municipality, industry, copartnership, association, firm, trust, estate, or any other entity whatsoever;

(19) "pesticide" means any chemical or biological agent intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating plant or animal life and any substance intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant, including but not limited to insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, herbicides, nematocides, and biocides;

(20) "pollution" means the contamination or altering of waters, land, or subsurface land of the state in a manner which creates a nuisance or makes waters, land, or subsurface land unclean, or noxious, or impure, or unfit so that they are actually or potentially harmful or detrimental or injurious to public health, safety, or welfare, to domestic, commercial, industrial, or recreational use, or to livestock, wild animals, bird, fish, or other aquatic life;

(21) "resource recovery" means the recovery of materials or energy from solid wastes for industrial use, agriculture, heat production, power production, or other processes or purposes and includes the reuse of materials or products to conserve natural resources;

(22) "restricted-use pesticides" means pesticides that are classified for restricted use under 7 U.S.C. 136a(d)(1)(C) (sec. 3(d)(1)(C), Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act), as amended;

(23) "service" means a function performed or service provided by the state or by a municipality under a duty or power authorized by AS 29 or other provision of law authorizing a municipality to perform functions or provide services, or a comparable function performed or service provided by a village; "service" includes functions not previously performed and services not previously provided;

(24) "sewage" means the water-carried human or animal wastes from residences, buildings, industrial establishments, or other places, together with ground water infiltration and surface water as may be present; the admixture with sewage of industrial wastes or other wastes is "sewage";

(25) "sewer system" or "sewerage system" means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, and force mains, and all other appurtenant constructions, devices, and appliances used for conducting sewage, industrial waste, or other wastes to a point of ultimate disposal;

(26) "solid waste" means garbage, refuse, abandoned, or other discarded solid or semi-solid material, regardless of whether subject to decomposition, originating from any source;

(27) "solid waste disposal facility" means a facility for the discharge, deposit, injection, consolidation, or placement of solid waste into or onto the land and includes transfer stations and sanitary landfills;

(28) "solid waste processing facility" means a facility for the extraction of materials from solid waste, volume reduction, conversion to energy, or other separation and preparation of solid waste for reuse or disposal and includes incinerators, shredders, balers, and transfer stations;

(29) "standard" means the measure of purity or quality for air, water, and land in relation to their reasonable and necessary use as established by the department;

(30) "storage" means the containment of hazardous waste, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in a manner that does not constitute disposal of the hazardous waste;

(31) "subdivision" has the meaning given in AS 40.15.900 ;

(32) "treat" has the meaning given "treatment" in 42 U.S.C. 6903(34);

(33) "treatment works" means a plant, disposal field, lagoon, pumping station, constructed drainage ditch or surface water intercepting ditch, incinerator, area devoted to sanitary land fills, or other works installed for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, stabilizing, or disposing of sewage, industrial waste, or other wastes;

(34) "village" means a place within the unorganized borough or within a borough as to a power, function, or service that is not exercised or provided by the borough on an areawide or nonareawide basis that

(A) has irrevocably waived, in a form approved by the Department of Law, any claim of sovereign immunity that might arise under this chapter; and

(B) has

(i) a council organized under 25 U.S.C. 476 (sec. 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act);

(ii) a traditional village council recognized by the United States as eligible for federal aid to Indians; or

(iii) a council recognized by the commissioner of commerce, community, and economic development under regulations adopted by the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development to determine and give official recognition of village entities under AS 44.33.755(b);

(35) "waste associated with the exploration, development, or production of crude oil, natural gas, or geothermal energy" means (A) waste, including drilling muds, cuttings, hydrocarbons, brine, acid, sand, and emulsions or mixtures of fluids produced from and unique to the operation or maintenance of a well, whether naturally occurring or added for the operation or productivity of the well; and (B) waste that is derived intrinsically from primary field operations; "waste associated with the exploration, development, or production of crude oil, natural gas, or geothermal energy" does not include spent solvents and oils from equipment maintenance activities, discarded chemical products, or fuels;

(36) "waste derived intrinsically from primary field operations" means waste produced from a well, and removed

(A) at the drill site; or

(B) at crude oil production facilities by crude oil or wastewater treatment process before custody transfer of the crude oil;

(37) "waters" includes lakes, bays, sounds, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, wells, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, straits, passages, canals, the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean, in the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface or underground water, natural or artificial, public or private, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, which are wholly or partially in or bordering the state or under the jurisdiction of the state.