(a) The commissioner may assess the liability of any polluter or violator for damages to the state resulting from any person‘s pollution or violation, failure, or neglect in complying with any rules, regulations, or standards of water quality promulgated by the board or permits, including failure by an in-lieu fee sponsor to timely complete land acquisition and initial physical and biological improvements, or orders issued pursuant to this part.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 69-3-116

  • 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.
  • Board: means the board of water quality, oil and gas, created in §. See Tennessee Code 69-3-103
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of environment and conservation or the commissioner's duly authorized representative and, in the event of the commissioner's absence or a vacancy in the office of commissioner, the deputy commissioner. See Tennessee Code 69-3-103
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Person: means any and all persons, including individuals, firms, partnerships, associations, public or private institutions, state and federal agencies, municipalities or political subdivisions, or officers thereof, departments, agencies, or instrumentalities, or public or private corporations or officers thereof, organized or existing under the laws of this or any other state or country. See Tennessee Code 69-3-103
  • Pollution: means such alteration of the physical, chemical, biological, bacteriological, or radiological properties of the waters of this state, including, but not limited to, changes in temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of the waters that will:
    (A) Result or will likely result in harm, potential harm or detriment to the public health, safety, or welfare. See Tennessee Code 69-3-103
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) If an appeal from such assessment is not made to the board by the polluter or violator within thirty (30) days of notification of such assessment, the polluter or violator shall be deemed to have consented to such assessment and it shall become final.
(c) Damages may include any expenses incurred in investigating and enforcing this part, in removing, correcting, and terminating any pollution, and also compensation for any loss or destruction of wildlife, fish, or aquatic life and any other actual damages caused by the pollution or violation.
(d) Whenever any assessment has become final because of a person’s failure to appeal within the time provided, the commissioner may apply to the appropriate court for a judgment, and seek execution on such judgment. The court, in such proceedings, shall treat the failure to appeal such assessment as a confession of judgment in the amount of the assessment.
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