(1) There is hereby created the Petroleum Release Remedial Action Cash Fund to be administered by the department. Revenue from the following sources shall be remitted to the State Treasurer for credit to the fund:

Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes 66-1519

  • Action: shall include any proceeding in any court of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Department: shall mean the Department of Environment and Energy. See Nebraska Statutes 66-1504
  • 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.
  • Fund: shall mean the Petroleum Release Remedial Action Cash Fund created in section 66-1519. See Nebraska Statutes 66-1506
  • Person: shall include bodies politic and corporate, societies, communities, the public generally, individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and associations. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Release: shall mean any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, leaching, or disposing of petroleum from a tank or any overfilling of a tank into ground water, surface water, surface soils, or subsurface soils whether occurring before, on, or after May 27, 1989. See Nebraska Statutes 66-1512
  • Remedial action: shall mean any immediate or long-term response to a release or suspected release in accordance with rules and regulations adopted and promulgated by the department or the State Fire Marshal, including tank testing only in conjunction with a release or suspected release, site investigation, site assessment, cleanup, restoration, mitigation, and any other action ordered by the department or the State Fire Marshal which is reasonable and necessary. See Nebraska Statutes 66-1513
  • Responsible person: shall mean a person who is an owner or operator of a tank. See Nebraska Statutes 66-1514
  • 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 different states of the United States shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories organized by Congress. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
  • Third-party claim: shall mean a final judgment against a responsible person obtained by a third party for compensation for bodily injury and property damage caused by a release first reported after January 1, 1990. See Nebraska Statutes 66-1515.01

(a) The fees imposed by sections 66-1520 and 66-1521 ;

(b) Money paid under an agreement, stipulation, cost-recovery award under section 66-1529.02, or settlement; and

(c) Money received by the department in the form of gifts, grants, reimbursements, property liquidations, or appropriations from any source intended to be used for the purposes of the fund.

(2) Money in the fund may be spent for: (a) Reimbursement for the costs of remedial action by a responsible person or his or her designated representative and costs of remedial action undertaken by the department in response to a release first reported after July 17, 1983, and on or before June 30, 2024, including reimbursement for damages caused by the department or a person acting at the department’s direction while investigating or inspecting or during remedial action on property other than property on which a release or suspected release has occurred; (b) payment of any amount due from a third-party claim; (c) fee collection expenses incurred by the State Fire Marshal; (d) direct expenses incurred by the department in carrying out the Petroleum Release Remedial Action Act; (e) other costs related to fixtures and tangible personal property as provided in section 66-1529.01 ; (f) interest payments as allowed by section 66-1524 ; (g) claims approved by the State Claims Board authorized under section 66-1531 ; (h) the direct and indirect costs incurred by the department in responding to spills and other environmental emergencies related to petroleum or petroleum products; and (i) up to one million five hundred thousand dollars each fiscal year of the department’s cost-share obligations and operation and maintenance obligations under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq.

(3) Transfers may be made from the Petroleum Release Remedial Action Cash Fund to the General Fund at the direction of the Legislature.

(4) Transfers may be made from the Petroleum Release Remedial Action Cash Fund to the Superfund Cost Share Cash Fund at the direction of the Legislature.

(5) Any money in the Petroleum Release Remedial Action Cash Fund available for investment shall be invested by the state investment officer pursuant to the Nebraska Capital Expansion Act and the Nebraska State Funds Investment Act.

  Previous section
Next section  
 Petroleum Release Remedial Action Act Contents