Terms Used In New York Laws > Environmental Conservation > Article 27 > Title 12 - Mitigation and Remediation of Certain Solid Waste Sites and Drinking Water Contamination

• 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.
• Contaminant: means emerging contaminants pursuant to § 1112 of the public health law, and, for solid waste sites, shall include parameters identified in regulations required to be tested by landfills to ensure the protection of groundwater quality. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 27-1201
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Drinking water contamination site: means any area or site that is causing or substantially contributing to the contamination of one or more public drinking water supplies. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 27-1201
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Mitigation: means the investigation, sampling, management, or treatment of a solid waste site or drinking water contamination site required to ensure the availability of safe drinking water, including public water systems and individual onsite water supply systems necessary to meet standards, criteria, and guidance values established by the department or drinking water standards, including maximum contaminant levels, notification levels, maximum residual disinfectant levels, or action levels established by the department of health that can be successfully carried out with available, implementable and cost-effective technology. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 27-1201
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Solid waste management facility: means any facility employed for solid waste collection, processing and disposal including processing systems, including resource recovery facilities or other facilities for reducing solid waste volume, sanitary landfills, regulated facilities for the disposal of construction and demolition debris, regulated plants and facilities for compacting, composting or pyrolization of solid wastes, regulated mulch facilities, landspreading and soil amending operations, and incinerators. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 27-1201
• Solid waste site: means a site where (a) the department has a reasonable basis to suspect that the illegal disposal of solid waste occurred or, (b) a court of competent jurisdiction has determined that an illegal disposal of solid waste occurred, or (c) the department knows or has a reasonable basis to suspect that an inactive solid waste management facility which does not have a current monitoring program is impacting or contaminating one or more drinking water supplies. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 27-1201
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.