Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 44 > Chapter 56 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• 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
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• 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.
• Board: means the South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control which is charged with responsibility for implementation of the Hazardous Waste Management Act. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Boat: means a vessel. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• convicted: means adjudication at trial or civil hearing and includes the entry of a plea of guilty, or nolo contendere, or the forfeiture of bail or collateral deposited to secure a defendant's appearance in court. See South Carolina Code 50-5-15
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the Department of Health and Environmental Control, including personnel thereof authorized by the board to act on behalf of the department or board. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Department: means the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources unless otherwise stated. See South Carolina Code 50-5-15
• Director: means the director of the department or his authorized agent. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Disposal: means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that such substance or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwater. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Generation: means the act or process of producing waste materials. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• 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 waste: means any waste, or combination of wastes, of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semisolid form which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may in the judgment of the department:
  
  a. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Hazardous waste management: means the systematic control of the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery, and disposal of hazardous wastes. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• 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.
• 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}
• Manifest: means the form used for identifying the quantity, composition, or origin, routing, and destination of hazardous waste during its transportation from the point of generation to the point of disposal, treatment, or storage. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Operate: means to navigate, steer, drive, or be in control. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Operator: means the person who operates or has charge or command of the navigation or use of a vessel or watercraft. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: means a person, other than a lienholder, who claims lawful possession of a vessel or outboard motor by virtue of legal title or equitable interest in it which entitled him to possession. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Permit: means the process by which the department can ensure cognizance of, as well as control over the management of hazardous wastes. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Person: means an individual, a partnership, a firm, a corporation, an association, or other legal entity. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal watercraft: means a vessel, usually less than sixteen feet in length, that uses an inboard motor powering a water jet pump as its primary source of propulsion and that is intended to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on the vessel, rather than within the confines of the hull. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• 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.
• Response action: is a ny cleanup, containment, inspection, or closure of a site ordered by the director as necessary to remedy actual or potential damages to public health, the public welfare, or the environment. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Shoreline: means the line of mean high water along that portion of a land mass which is in direct contact with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. See South Carolina Code 50-5-15
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Storage: means the actual or intended containment of wastes, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in such manner as not to constitute disposal of such hazardous wastes. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Take: means to harass intentionally, hunt, capture, gather, harvest, remove, catch, wound, or kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, gather, harvest, remove, catch, wound, or kill. See South Carolina Code 50-5-15
• Transport: means the movement of hazardous wastes from the point of generation to any intermediate points and finally to the point of ultimate treatment, storage or disposal. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Treatment: means any method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste, so as to neutralize such waste or so as to render such waste nonhazardous, safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, reduced in volume, or suitable for final disposal. See South Carolina Code 44-56-20
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Use: means operate, navigate, or employ. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Vessel: means every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane regulated by the federal government, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Water device: means a motorboat, boat, personal watercraft or vessel, water skis, an aquaplane, surfboard, or other similar device. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10
• Watercraft: means anything used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on the water but does not include: a seaplane regulated by the federal government, water skis, aquaplanes, surfboards, windsurfers, tubes, rafts, and similar devices or anything that does not meet construction or operational requirements of the state or federal government for watercraft. See South Carolina Code 50-21-10