Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 42 > Chapter 103 - Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability

• act of God: means an unanticipated grave natural disaster or other natural phenomenon of an exceptional, inevitable, and irresistible character, the effects of which could not have been prevented or avoided by the exercise of due care or foresight. See 42 USC 9601
• Administrator: means the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. See 42 USC 9601
• affiliate: has the meaning of that term provided in the definition of "small business concern" in regulations promulgated by the Small Business Administration in accordance with the Small Business Act (15 U. See 42 USC 9607
• alternative water supplies: includes , but is not limited to, drinking water and household water supplies. See 42 USC 9601
• association: when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words "successors and assigns of such company or association" in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed. See 1 USC 5
• bona fide prospective purchaser: means , with respect to a facility&mdash. See 42 USC 9601
• brownfield site: includes a site that&mdash. See 42 USC 9601
• Chairman: means the Chairman of the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies. See 22 USC 262p-4o
• claim: means a demand in writing for a sum certain. See 42 USC 9601
• claimant: means any person who presents a claim for compensation under this chapter. See 42 USC 9601
• county: includes a parish, or any other equivalent subdivision of a State or Territory of the United States. See 1 USC 2
• damages: means damages for injury or loss of natural resources as set forth in section 9607(a) or 9611(b) of this title. See 42 USC 9601
• drinking water supply: means any raw or finished water source that is or may be used by a public water system (as defined in the Safe Drinking Water Act [42 U. See 42 USC 9601
• eligible response site: includes &mdash. See 42 USC 9601
• environment: means (A) the navigable waters, the waters of the contiguous zone, and the ocean waters of which the natural resources are under the exclusive management authority of the United States under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act [16 U. See 42 USC 9601
• extension of credit: includes a lease finance transaction&mdash. See 42 USC 9601
• facility: means (A) 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 (B) any site or area where a hazardous substance has been deposited, stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise come to be located. See 42 USC 9601
• federally permitted release: means (A) discharges in compliance with a permit under section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act [33 U. See 42 USC 9601
• fiduciary capacity: means the capacity of a person in holding title to a vessel or facility, or otherwise having control of or an interest in the vessel or facility, pursuant to the exercise of the responsibilities of the person as a fiduciary. See 42 USC 9607
• ground water: means water in a saturated zone or stratum beneath the surface of land or water. See 42 USC 9601
• guarantor: means any person, other than the owner or operator, who provides evidence of financial responsibility for an owner or operator under this chapter. See 42 USC 9601
• hazardous substance: means (A) any substance designated pursuant to section 311(b)(2)(A) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act [33 U. See 42 USC 9601
• incineration vessel: means any vessel which carries hazardous substances for the purpose of incineration of such substances, so long as such substances or residues of such substances are on board. See 42 USC 9601
• Indian tribe: means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community, including any Alaska Native village but not including any Alaska Native regional or village corporation, which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians. See 42 USC 9601
• individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
• insurance: means primary insurance, excess insurance, reinsurance, surplus lines insurance, and any other arrangement for shifting and distributing risk which is determined to be insurance under applicable State or Federal law. See 42 USC 9671
• lender: means &mdash. See 42 USC 9601
• municipal solid waste: means waste material&mdash. See 42 USC 9607
• national contingency plan: means the national contingency plan published under section 311(c) ⁴ of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act or revised pursuant to section 9605 of this title. See 42 USC 9601
• 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 United States (including the resources of the fishery conservation zone established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act [16 U. See 42 USC 9601
• navigable waters of the United States: means the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas. See 42 USC 9601
• officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
• offshore facility: means any facility of any kind located in, on, or under, any of the navigable waters of the United States, and any facility of any kind which is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and is located in, on, or under any other waters, other than a vessel or a public vessel. See 42 USC 9601
• onshore facility: means any facility (including, but not limited to, motor vehicles and rolling stock) of any kind located in, on, or under, any land or nonnavigable waters within the United States. See 42 USC 9601
• otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of the United States: means subject to the jurisdiction of the United States by virtue of United States citizenship, United States vessel documentation or numbering, or as provided by international agreement to which the United States is a party. See 42 USC 9601
• owner or operator: means (i) in the case of a vessel, any person owning, operating, or chartering by demise, such vessel, (ii) in the case of an onshore facility or an offshore facility, any person owning or operating such facility, and (iii) 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 State or local government, any person who owned, operated, or otherwise controlled activities at such facility immediately beforehand. See 42 USC 9601
• person: means an individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, United States Government, State, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a State, or any interstate body. See 42 USC 9601
• pollutant or contaminant: shall include , but not be limited to, any element, substance, compound, or mixture, including disease-causing agents, 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 42 USC 9601
• pollution liability: means liability for injuries arising from the release of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants. See 42 USC 9671
• purchasing group: means any group of persons which has as one of its purposes the purchase of pollution liability insurance on a group basis. See 42 USC 9671
• release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing 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 (A) any release which results in exposure to persons solely within a workplace, with respect to a claim which such persons may assert against the employer of such persons, (B) emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine, (C) 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 42 USC 9601
• remedial action: means ² those actions consistent with permanent remedy taken instead of or in addition to removal actions in the event of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance 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 42 USC 9601
• removal: means ² the cleanup or removal of released hazardous substances from the environment, such actions as may be necessary taken in the event of the threat of release of hazardous substances into the environment, such actions as may be necessary to monitor, assess, and evaluate the release or threat of release of hazardous substances, 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 42 USC 9601
• response: means ² remove, removal, remedy, and remedial action. See 42 USC 9601
• risk retention group: means any corporation or other limited liability association taxable as a corporation, or as an insurance company, formed under the laws of any State&mdash. See 42 USC 9671
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. See 42 USC 1396r-1b
• security interest: includes a right under a mortgage, deed of trust, assignment, judgment lien, pledge, security agreement, factoring agreement, or lease and any other right accruing to a person to secure the repayment of money, the performance of a duty, or any other obligation by a nonaffiliated person. See 42 USC 9601
• service station dealer: means any person&mdash. See 42 USC 9601
• State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
• State: includes the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories and possessions of the United States, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. See 42 USC 1396r-1b
• State: include the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and any other territory or possession over which the United States has jurisdiction. See 42 USC 9601
• State: means any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and any other territory or possession over which the United States has jurisdiction. See 42 USC 9671
• transportation: means ² the movement of a hazardous substance by any mode, including a hazardous liquid pipeline facility (as defined in section 60101(a) of title 49), and in the case of a hazardous substance which has been accepted for transportation by a common or contract carrier, the term "transport" or "transportation" shall include any stoppage in transit which is temporary, incidental to the transportation movement, and at the ordinary operating convenience of a common or contract carrier, and any such stoppage shall be considered as a continuity of movement and not as the storage of a hazardous substance. See 42 USC 9601
• Trust Fund: means the Hazardous Substance Superfund established by section 9507 of title 26. See 42 USC 9601
• vehicle: includes every description of carriage or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on land. See 1 USC 4
• vessel: means every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water. See 42 USC 9601
• writing: includes printing and typewriting and reproductions of visual symbols by photographing, multigraphing, mimeographing, manifolding, or otherwise. See 1 USC 1