Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 75 > Chapter 10 > Part 7 - Remedial Action Upon Release of Hazardous Substance

• 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.
• 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.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• 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.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Customary: means according to usage. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• 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 environmental quality provided for in 2-15-3501. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Director: means the director of the department. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Environment: means any surface water, ground water, drinking water supply, land surface or subsurface strata, or ambient air within the state of Montana or under the jurisdiction of the state of Montana. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• 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}
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Facility: means :

  (i)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

  (ii)any site or area where a hazardous or deleterious substance has been deposited, stored, disposed of, placed, or otherwise come to be located. See Montana Code 75-10-701

• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiduciary: means a trustee, executor, administrator, personal representative, custodian, conservator, guardian, or receiver acting or holding property for the exclusive benefit of another person. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• 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}
• Foreclosure: means acquisition of title to property through foreclosure, purchase at foreclosure sale, assignment or acquisition of title in lieu of foreclosure, repossession in the case of a lease financing transaction, or acquisition of a right to title or other agreement in full or partial settlement of a loan obligation. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Fund: means the environmental quality protection fund established in 75-10-704. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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 or deleterious substance: means a substance that because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may pose an imminent and substantial threat to public health, safety, or welfare or the environment and is:

  (a)a substance that is defined as a hazardous substance by section 101(14) of the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), 42 U. See Montana Code 75-10-701

• Household: means single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds, day-use recreational areas, or similar structures or areas. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Household refuse: means garbage, trash, and sanitary wastes in septic tanks that are derived from a household. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• 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}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institutional control: means a restriction on the use of real property that mitigates the risk posed to public health, safety, and welfare and the environment. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Natural resources: means land, fish, wildlife, biota, air, surface water, ground water, drinking water supplies, and any other resources within the state of Montana owned, managed, held in trust, or otherwise controlled by or appertaining to the state of Montana or a political subdivision of the state. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• 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.
• Orphan share: means the percentage share of remedial action costs for a facility that is attributable, under the procedures in 75-10-742 through 75-10-751, to identified but bankrupt or defunct persons who are not an affiliate of any viable person, unless affiliated by stock ownership. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Orphan share fund: means the fund for the orphan share account established in 75-10-743. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owns or operates: means owning, leasing, operating, managing activities at, or exercising control over the operation of a facility. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• 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 an individual, trust, firm, joint-stock company, joint venture, consortium, commercial entity, partnership, association, corporation, commission, state or state agency, political subdivision of the state, interstate body, or the federal government, including a federal agency. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: means money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Petroleum product: includes gasoline, crude oil (except for crude oil at production facilities subject to regulation under Title 82), fuel oil, diesel oil or fuel, lubricating oil, oil sludge or refuse, and any other petroleum-related product or waste or fraction of the product or waste that is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure (60 degrees F and 14. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means lands, tenements, hereditaments, and possessory title to public lands. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Reasonably anticipated future uses: means likely future land or resource uses that take into consideration:

  (a)local land and resource use regulations, ordinances, restrictions, or covenants;

  (b)historical and anticipated uses of the facility;

  (c)patterns of development in the immediate area; and

  (d)relevant indications of anticipated land use from the owner of the facility and local planning officials. See Montana Code 75-10-701

• Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of a hazardous or deleterious substance directly into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous or deleterious substance), but excludes releases confined to the indoor workplace environment, the use of pesticides as defined in 80-8-102 when they are applied in accordance with approved federal and state labels, and the use of commercial fertilizers, as defined in 80-10-101, when applied as part of accepted agricultural practice. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• 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: includes all notification, investigation, administration, monitoring, cleanup, restoration, mitigation, abatement, removal, replacement, acquisition, enforcement, legal action, health studies, feasibility studies, and other actions necessary or appropriate to respond to a release or threatened release. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Remedial action contract: means a written contract or agreement entered into by a remedial action contractor with the state, or with a potentially liable person acting pursuant to an order or request issued by the department, the United States, or any federal agency, to provide a remedial action with respect to a release or threatened release of a hazardous or deleterious substance. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• Remedial action contractor: means :

  (a)any person who enters into and is carrying out a remedial action contract; or

  (b)any person who is retained or hired by a person described in subsection (22)(a) to provide services relating to a remedial action. See Montana Code 75-10-701

• Remedial action costs: means reasonable costs that are attributable to or associated with a remedial action at a facility, including but not limited to the costs of administration, investigation, legal or enforcement activities, contracts, feasibility studies, or health studies. See Montana Code 75-10-701
• 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.
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Vessel: when used in reference to shipping, includes ships of all kinds, steamboats and steamships, canal boats, and every structure adapted to be navigated from place to place. See Montana Code 1-1-207
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203