Sections
Part I Hawaii Environmental Response Law 128D-1 – 128D-23
Part II Voluntary Response Program 128D-31 – 128D-41

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes > Chapter 128D - Environmental Response Law

  • 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.
  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • 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.
  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Bequest: Property gifted by will.
  • Board: means the board of education. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 302A-101
  • Board: means the board of water supply or water board of any county. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • Bona fide prospective purchaser: means a person (or a tenant of a person) who acquires ownership of a facility after October 1, 2009, and establishes each of the following by a preponderance of the evidence:

         (1)  All disposal of hazardous substances at the facility occurred before the person acquired the facility;

         (2)  The person carried out all appropriate inquiries when, on or before the date on which the person acquired the facility:

              (A)  The person made all appropriate inquiries into the previous ownership and uses of the facility in accordance with generally accepted good commercial and customary standards and practices in accordance with subparagraphs (B) and (C);

              (B)  The standards and practices referred to in 42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1

  • Capital: means :

         (1)  The aggregate par value or other amount received and allocated to the issued and outstanding capital stock of a financial institution; or

         (2)  The total amount of a credit union's outstanding and unimpaired membership shares or share accounts. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 412:1-109

  • Capital access loan: means a loan that is entitled to be secured by the fund. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • Capital improvements: means the acquisition of real property, improvements to expand capacity and serviceability of existing public facilities, and the development of new public facilities. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • CERCLA: means the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, P. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Clean Water Act: means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, P. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of financial institutions of this State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 412:1-109
  • 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.
  • Community of identity: means a group of people who may not live in the same geographic area but who are bound together through a common ethnicity or other personal characteristic such as age or social status. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210D-2
  • Community of interest: means a group of people who may not live in the same geographic area but who are bound together through a common economic interest such as coffee growers or an aquaculture cooperative. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210D-2
  • Community-based economic development: means a community institution-building process that results in community-based enterprises and other economic development activities which are designed and implemented by a community; consistent with a community's values, culture, and vision; and intended to increase community control over local resources and decision-making processes. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210D-2
  • Community-based organization: means a nonprofit corporation incorporated in the State of Hawaii that is organized and controlled by either a geographic community, a community of identity, or a community of interest and that is directly involved in community-based economic development activities. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210D-2
  • Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Contractual relationship: means relationships involving land contracts, deeds or other instruments transferring title or possession. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Control: means , unless the context clearly requires otherwise, directly or indirectly, solely or through another person or transaction, or in concert with another:

         (1)  Owning or having the power to vote twenty-five per cent or more of any class of voting securities;

         (2)  Owning or having the power to exercise twenty-five per cent or more of the votes of a mutual association, credit union, or other entity whose voting rights are not determined by voting securities;

         (3)  Owning or having the power to vote ten per cent or more of any class of voting securities if:  (A) the issuer of that class of securities has issued any class of securities under § 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended; or (B) immediately after the acquisition, no other person will own a greater percentage of that class of voting securities;

         (4)  Having the power to elect by any means a majority of the directors; or

         (5)  Having the power to exercise a dominant influence over management, if so determined by the commissioner after notice and a hearing. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 412:1-109

  • Council: means the community-based economic development advisory council. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210D-2
  • Credits: means the present value of past or future payments or contributions, including, but not limited to, the dedication of land or construction of a public facility made by a developer toward the cost of existing or future public facility capital improvements, except for contributions or payments made under a development agreement pursuant to § 46-123. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • 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.
  • Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Department: means the department of business, economic development, and tourism. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210-1
  • Department: means the department of business, economic development, and tourism. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210D-2
  • Department: means the department of business, economic development, and tourism. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
  • deposits: means money or its equivalent received or held by a person in the usual course of business and for which it has given or is obligated to give credit, either conditionally or unconditionally, to a demand, checking, savings, time, passbook, negotiable order of withdrawal, thrift, or share account, or which is evidenced by its passbook, certificate of deposit, thrift certificate, investment certificate, certificate of indebtedness, or other similar instrument, or a check, draft, or share draft drawn against a deposit account and certified by a person, on which the person is primarily liable. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 412:1-109
  • Developer: means a person, corporation, organization, partnership, association, or other legal entity constructing, erecting, enlarging, altering, or engaging in any development activity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • Development: means any artificial change to real property that requires a grading or building permit as appropriate, including, but not limited to, construction, expansion, enlargement, alteration, or erection of buildings or structures. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • Director: means the director of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Director: means the director of business, economic development, and tourism. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210-1
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Environment: means any waters, including surface water, ground water, or drinking water supply, any land surface or any subsurface strata, or any ambient air within the State of Hawaii or under the jurisdiction of the State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. Source: OCC
  • Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
  • 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.
  • Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
  • Facility: means any building, structure, installation, equipment, pipe or pipeline (including any pipe into a sewer or publicly owned treatment works), well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch, landfill, storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, or aircraft, or any site or area where a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant has been deposited, stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise comes to be located; but does not include any consumer product in consumer use. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Federal: means belonging to, part of, or related to the government of the United States of America. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 412:1-109
  • Financial institution: includes a bank, trust company, banking association, savings and loan association, mortgage company, investment bank, credit union, or nontraditional financial institution. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • Financing: means furnishing risk capital to persons for use in the development or exploitation of specific inventions or products. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211E-1
  • 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.
  • Fund: means the environmental response revolving fund. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Fund: means the Hawaii capital loan revolving fund established in § 210-3. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. Source: OCC
  • Hazardous substance: includes any substance designated pursuant to § 311(b)(2)(A) of the Clean Water Act; any element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance designated pursuant to § 102 of CERCLA; any hazardous waste having the characteristics identified under or listed pursuant to § 3001 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act; any toxic pollutant listed under § 307(a) of the Clean Water Act; any hazardous air pollutant listed under § 112 of the Clean Air Act, as amended (42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Impact fees: means the charges imposed upon a developer by a county or board to fund all or a portion of the public facility capital improvement costs required by the development from which it is collected, or to recoup the cost of existing public facility capital improvements made in anticipation of the needs of a development. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. Source: FDIC
  • Innovation: means any new product or invention. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211E-1
  • Invention: means any new process or technique for which a patent has been granted; or which in the opinion of the advisory committee, the chance of obtaining a patent thereon is favorable. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211E-1
  • 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.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Loan: includes a line of credit. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • Medium-sized business: means a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or other legal entity that:

         (1)  Is domiciled in this State;

         (2)  Is formed to make a profit; and

         (3)  Employs one hundred or more but fewer than five hundred full-time employees. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1

  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • National contingency plan: means the national contingency plan published under § 311(d) of the Clean Water Act or revised pursuant to § 105 of CERCLA. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Natural resources: means land, fish, wildlife, biota, air, water, ground water, drinking water supplies, and other such resources belonging to, managed by, held in trust by, appertaining to, or otherwise controlled by the State of Hawaii, any county, or by the United States to the extent that the latter are subject to state law. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Needs assessment study: means a study required under an impact fee ordinance that determines the need for a public facility, the cost of development, and the level of service standards, and that projects future public facility capital improvement needs; provided that the study shall take into consideration and incorporate any relevant county general plan, development plan, or community plan. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • Nonprofit organization: means a private, nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation, association, or organization listed in § 501(c)(3), Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, that is domiciled in this State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • 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 or in any form, including, but not limited to, petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil refuse, oil mixed with wastes, crude oil or any fraction or residue. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • operator: means :

         (1)  In the case of a vessel, any person owning, operating, or chartering by demise the vessel;

         (2)  In the case of an onshore facility or an offshore facility, any person owning or operating the facility; and

         (3)  In the case of any facility, title or control of which was conveyed due to bankruptcy, foreclosure, tax delinquency, abandonment, or similar means to a unit of a state or local government, any person who owned, operated, or otherwise controlled activities at the facility immediately beforehand. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1

  • Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
  • Participating financial institution: means a financial institution participating in the program. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • 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, firm, corporation, association, partnership, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, state, county, commission, political subdivision of the State, or, to the extent they are subject to this chapter, the United States or any interstate body. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Person: means a natural person, entity or organization, including without limitation an individual, corporation, joint venture, partnership, sole proprietorship, association, cooperative, estate, trust, or governmental unit. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 412:1-109
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • Pollutant or contaminant: means any element, substance, compound, or mixture, which after release into the environment and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into any organism either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will or may reasonably be anticipated to cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutation, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction) or physical deformations, in such organisms or their offspring. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • 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.
  • Product: means any product, device, technique, or process, which is or may be exploitable commercially. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211E-1
  • Program: means the capital access program. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • Proportionate share: means the portion of total public facility capital improvement costs that is reasonably attributable to a development, less:

         (1)  Any credits for past or future payments, adjusted to present value, for public facility capital improvement costs made or reasonably anticipated to be contributed by a developer in the form of user fees, debt service payments, taxes, or other payments; or

         (2)  Offsets for non-site related public facility capital improvements provided by a developer pursuant to county land use provisions. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141

  • Prospective purchaser: means a prospective owner, operator, tenant, developer, lender, or any other party who would not otherwise be liable under § 128D-6, prior to a voluntary response action being conducted. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-32
  • Public facility capital improvement costs: means costs of land acquisition, construction, planning and engineering, administration, and legal and financial consulting fees associated with construction, expansion, or improvement of a public facility. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
  • Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Reasonable benefit: means a benefit received by a development from a public facility capital improvement that is greater than the benefit afforded the general public in the jurisdiction imposing the impact fees. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-141
  • Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant); but excludes:

         (1)  Any release which results in exposure of persons solely within a workplace, with respect to a claim which such exposed persons may assert against their employer;

         (2)  Emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine;

         (3)  Release of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1

  • 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.
  • remedial action: means those actions consistent with permanent correction taken instead of or in addition to removal actions in the event of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, to prevent or minimize the release of hazardous substances so that they do not migrate to cause substantial danger to present or future public health or welfare or the environment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • removal action: means the cleanup of released hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants from the environment, such actions as may be necessary to take in the event of the threat of release of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants into the environment, such actions as may be necessary to monitor, assess, and evaluate the release or threat of release of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants, the disposal of removed material, or the taking of such other actions as may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage to the public health or welfare or to the environment, which may otherwise result from a release or threat of release. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Requesting party: means the person or persons submitting an application to conduct a voluntary response action. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-32
  • Reserve account: means an account established in a participating financial institution on approval of the department in which money is deposited to serve as a source of additional revenue to reimburse the financial institution for losses on loans enrolled in the program. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211D-1
  • response: means remove, removal, remedy, or remedial action; and all such terms include government enforcement activities related thereto. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • SBA: means the Small Business Administration of the United States Government. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210-1
  • SBIA: means the Federal Small Business Investment Act of 1958, as amended. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210-1
  • 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.
  • Small business concern: means the business concerns that are defined in the Small Business Act, as amended (P. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 210-1
  • State on-scene coordinator: means the state official designated by the department of health to coordinate and direct responses under this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • this State: means the State of Hawaii, its political subdivisions, agencies, and departments. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 412:1-109
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • university: refers to the University of Hawaii, unless otherwise required by the context. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 304A-101
  • Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
  • User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
  • Variable Rate: Having a "variable" rate means that the APR changes from time to time based on fluctuations in an external rate, normally the Prime Rate. This external rate is known as the "index." If the index changes, the variable rate normally changes. Also see Fixed Rate.
  • Venture: means , without limitation, any contractual arrangement with any person whereby the investor with risk capital obtain rights from or in an invention or product or proceeds therefrom in exchange for financing such persons. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 211E-1
  • Vessel: means every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Voluntary response action: means a response conducted voluntarily by a requesting party. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-32