(i) Until February 1, 2009, decreasing the flow of a river or stream by part of the index flow such that the river's or stream's ability to support characteristic fish populations is functionally impaired. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Air: means ambient or indoor air at the point of exposure. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.

Assessment tool: means the water withdrawal assessment tool provided for in section 32706a. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

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.

Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.

Capillary fringe: means the portion of the aquifer above an unconfined saturated zone in which groundwater is drawn upward by capillary force and can include the presence of LNAPL. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

Characteristic fish curve: means a fish functional response curve that describes the abundance of characteristic fish populations in response to reductions in index flow as published in the document entitled "Report to the Michigan Legislature in response to 2006 Public Act 34" by the former groundwater conservation advisory council dated July 2007, which is incorporated by reference. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Code: means the Michigan vehicle code, 1949 PA 300, MCL 257. See Michigan Laws 324.81101

Cold river system: means a stream or small river that has the appropriate summer water temperature that, based on statewide averages, sustains a fish community composed predominantly of cold-water fish species, and where small increases in water temperature will not cause a decline in these populations, as determined by a scientific methodology adopted by order of the commission. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Cold-transitional river system: means a stream or river that has the appropriate summer water temperature that, based on statewide averages, sustains a fish community composed predominantly of cold-water fish species, and where small increases in water temperature will cause a decline in the proportion of cold-water species, as determined by a scientific methodology adopted by order of the commission. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Commission: means the commission of natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.301

Community supply: means that term as it is defined in section 2 of the safe drinking water act, 1976 PA 399, MCL 325. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Compact: means the Great Lakes-St. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.

Consumptive use: means that portion of water withdrawn or withheld from the Great Lakes basin and assumed to be lost or otherwise not returned to the Great Lakes basin due to evaporation, incorporation into products or agricultural products, use as part of the packaging of products or agricultural products, or other processes. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

contaminated: means the presence of a regulated substance in soil, surface water, or groundwater or air that has been released from an underground storage tank system at a concentration exceeding the level set forth in the RCBA tier I screening levels established under section 20120a(1)(a) and (b). See Michigan Laws 324.21302

Cool river system: means a stream or river that has the appropriate summer water temperature that, based on statewide averages, sustains a fish community composed mostly of warm-water fish species, but also contains some cool-water species or cold-water species, or both, as determined by a scientific methodology adopted by order of the commission. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Corrective action: means the investigation, assessment, cleanup, removal, containment, isolation, treatment, or monitoring of regulated substances released into the environment from an underground storage tank system that is necessary under this part to prevent, minimize, or mitigate injury to the public health, safety, or welfare, the environment, or natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

Council: means the Great Lakes-St. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.

Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.

Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.

Department: means the department of environmental quality. See Michigan Laws 324.32601

Department: means the department of environmental quality. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Department: means the director of the department of natural resources or his or her designee to whom the director delegates a power or duty by written instrument. See Michigan Laws 324.301

Department of natural resources: means the principal state department created in section 501. See Michigan Laws 324.301

Director: means the director of the department of natural resources. See Michigan Laws 324.301

Diversion: means a transfer of water from the Great Lakes basin into another watershed, or from the watershed of 1 of the Great Lakes into that of another by any means of transfer, including, but not limited to, a pipeline, canal, tunnel, aqueduct, channel, modification of the direction of a water course, tanker ship, tanker truck, or rail tanker but does not apply to water that is used in the Great Lakes basin or a Great Lake watershed to manufacture or produce a product that is then transferred out of the Great Lakes basin or watershed. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

DNAPL: means a dense nonaqueous-phase liquid with a specific gravity greater than 1 and composed of 1 or more organic compounds that are immiscible or sparingly soluble in water. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}

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.

Farm: means that term as it is defined in section 2 of the Michigan right to farm act, 1981 PA 93, MCL 286. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Fund: means the submerged log recovery fund created in section 32610. See Michigan Laws 324.32601

Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.

Great Lakes: means Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron, Erie, and Ontario and their connecting waterways including the St. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Great Lakes basin: means the watershed of the Great Lakes and the St. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Great Lakes charter: means the document establishing the principles for the cooperative management of the Great Lakes water resources, signed by the governors and premiers of the Great Lakes region on February 11, 1985. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Great Lakes region: means the geographic region composed of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, Canada. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Groundwater: means water below the land surface in the zone of saturation and capillary fringe. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

Heating oil: means petroleum that is no. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

in writing: shall be construed to include printing, engraving, and lithographing; except that if the written signature of a person is required by law, the signature shall be the proper handwriting of the person or, if the person is unable to write, the person's proper mark, which may be, unless otherwise expressly prohibited by law, a clear and classifiable fingerprint of the person made with ink or another substance. See Michigan Laws 8.3q

Index flow: means the 50% exceedance flow for the lowest summer flow month of the flow regime, for the applicable stream reach, as determined over the period of record or extrapolated from analyses of the United States geological survey flow gauges in Michigan. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.

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.

Juror: A person who is on the jury.

Large river: means a river with a drainage area of 300 or more square miles. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.

LNAPL: means a light nonaqueous-phase liquid having a specific gravity less than 1 and composed of 1 or more organic compounds that are immiscible or sparingly soluble in water, and the term encompasses all potential occurrences of LNAPL. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

local unit: means a municipality or county. See Michigan Laws 324.301

Local unit of government: means a city, village, township, county, fire department, or local health department as defined in section 1105 of the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL 333. See Michigan Laws 324.21302

Manufacturer: means a person, partnership, corporation, or association engaged in the production and manufacture of ORVs as a regular business. See Michigan Laws 324.81101

month: means a calendar month; the word "year" a calendar year; and the word "year" alone shall be equivalent to the words "year of our Lord". See Michigan Laws 8.3j

NAPL: means a nonaqueous-phase liquid or a nonaqueous-phase liquid solution composed of 1 or more organic compounds that are immiscible or sparingly soluble in water. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

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.

Online registration process: means the online registration process provided for in section 32706. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Operator: means a person who is presently, or was at the time of a release, in control of, or responsible for, the operation of an underground storage tank system. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Owner: means a person who holds, or at the time of a release who held, a legal, equitable, or possessory interest of any kind in an underground storage tank system or in the property on which an underground storage tank system is or was located including, but not limited to, a trust, vendor, vendee, lessor, or lessee. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Owner: means any of the following:

  (i) A vendee or lessee of an ORV that is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease of the ORV, with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement, and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee. See Michigan Laws 324.81101

Person: means an individual, organization, group, association, partnership, corporation, trust, professional fund-raiser, or any combination of those entities. See Michigan Laws 14.302

Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental entity, or other legal entity. See Michigan Laws 324.301

Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.

Probate: Proving a will

Property: means real estate that is contaminated by a release from an underground storage tank system. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.

Public highway: means a road or highway under the jurisdiction of the state transportation department, a county road commission, or a local unit of government. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.

RBCA: means the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) document entitled standard guide for risk-based corrective action applied at petroleum release sites, designation E 1739-95 (reapproved 2010) E1; standard guide for risk-based corrective action designation E 2081-00 (reapproved 2010) E1; and standard guide for development of conceptual site models and remediation strategies for light nonaqueous-phase liquids released to the subsurface designation E 2531-06 E1, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

RBSL: means the unrestricted residential and nonresidential generic cleanup criteria developed by the department pursuant to part 201. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.

Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.

Regulated substance: means any of the following:

  (i) A substance defined in section 101(14) of title I of the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act of 1980, Public Law 96-510, 42 USC 9601, but not including a substance regulated as a hazardous waste under subtitle C of the solid waste disposal act, title II of Public Law 89-272, 42 USC 6921 to 6939e. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Release: means any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, or leaching from an underground storage tank system into groundwater, surface water, or subsurface soils. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

River: means a flowing body of water with a drainage area of 80 or more square miles. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Site: means a location where a release has occurred or a threat of release exists from an underground storage tank system, excluding any location where corrective action was completed which satisfies the applicable RBSL or SSTL. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Small river: means a river with a drainage area of less than 300 square miles. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Source watershed: means the watershed from which a withdrawal originates. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

SSTL: means an RBCA risk-based remedial action target level for contamination developed for a site under RBCA tier II and tier III evaluations. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o

Stream: means a flowing body of water with a drainage area of less than 80 square miles. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Stream reach: means a segment of a stream or river. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.

Surface water: means all of the following, but does not include groundwater or an enclosed sewer, other utility line, storm water retention basin, or drainage ditch:

  (i) The Great Lakes and their connecting waters. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.

threatened release: means any circumstance that may reasonably be anticipated to cause a release. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Thriving fish curve: means a fish functional response curve that describes the initial decline in density of thriving fish populations in response to reductions in index flow as published in the document entitled "Report to the Michigan Legislature in response to 2006 Public Act 34" by the former groundwater conservation advisory council dated July 2007, which is incorporated by reference. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.

Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.

Underground storage tank system: means a tank or combination of tanks, including underground pipes connected to the tank or tanks, which is, was, or may have been used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances, and the volume of which, including the volume of the underground pipes connected to the tank or tanks, is 10% or more beneath the surface of the ground. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}

United States: shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o

Vadose zone: means the soil between the land surface and the top of the capillary fringe. See Michigan Laws 324.21303

vehicle: means a motor-driven off-road recreation vehicle capable of cross-country travel without benefit of a road or trail, on or immediately over land, snow, ice, marsh, swampland, or other natural terrain. See Michigan Laws 324.81101

Warm river system: means a stream or river that has the appropriate summer water temperature that, based on statewide averages, sustains a fish community composed predominantly of warm-water fish species, as determined by a scientific methodology adopted by order of the commission. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Waters of the state: means groundwater, lakes, rivers, and streams and all other watercourses and waters, including the Great Lakes, within the territorial boundaries of the state. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Withdrawal: means the removal of water from surface water or groundwater. See Michigan Laws 324.32701

Zone D withdrawal: means , beginning February 1, 2009, a withdrawal that is likely to cause an adverse resource impact. See Michigan Laws 324.32701