When used in this article unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

(1) "Department" means the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(2) "Director" means the director of the department.

(3) "Barrel" means 42 U. S. gallons at 60° Fahrenheit.

(4) "Other measurements" means measurements set by the department for products transferred at terminals which are other than fluid or which are not commonly measured by the barrel.

(5) "Discharge" shall include, but not be limited to, any spilling, leaking, seeping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping which occurs within the territorial limits of the State or outside of the territorial limits of the State and affects lands and waters within the territorial limits of the State.

(6) "Pollutants" shall include oil of any kind and in any form, gasoline, pesticides, ammonia, chlorine, and derivatives thereof.

(7) "Pollution" means the presence in the outdoor atmosphere or waters of the States of any one or more substances or pollutants, in quantities which are or may be potentially harmful or injurious to human health or welfare, animal or plant life, or property or which may unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property, including outdoor recreation.

(8) "Terminal facility" means any waterfront or offshore facility of any kind, other than vessels not owned or operated by such facility, and directly associated waterfront or offshore appurtenances including pipelines located on land, including submerged lands, or on or under the surface of any kind of water, which facility and related appurtenances are used or capable of being used for the purpose of drilling for, pumping, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or refining pollutants, including, but not limited to, any such facility and related appurtenances owned or operated by a public utility or a governmental or quasi-governmental body. A vessel shall be considered a terminal facility only in the event of a ship-to-ship transfer of pollutants, and only that vessel going to or coming from the place of transfer and the terminal facility. For the purposes of this article "terminal facility' shall not be construed to include waterfront facilities owned and operated by governmental entities acting as agents of public convenience for operators engaged in the drilling for or pumping, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or refining of, pollutants; however, each operator engaged in the drilling for or pumping, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or refining of pollutants through a waterfront facility owned and operated by such governmental entity shall be construed as a terminal facility.

(9) "Owner" means any person owning a terminal facility; "operator" means any person operating a terminal facility, whether by lease, contract, or other form of agreement.

(10) "Transfer" or "transferred" includes onloading or offloading between terminal facility and vessel, vessel and vessel, or terminal facility and terminal facility.

(11) "Vessel" includes every description of watercraft or other contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water, whether self-propelled or otherwise, and includes barges and tugs.

(12) "Discharge cleanup organization" means any group, incorporated or unincorporated, of owners or operators of waterfront terminal facilities in any port or harbor of the State, and any other person who may elect to join, organized for the purpose of containing and cleaning up discharges of pollutants through cooperative efforts and shared equipment and facilities.

(13) "Board" means the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(14) "Person" means any individual, partnership, joint venture, corporation; any group of the foregoing, organized or united for a business purpose; or any governmental entity.

(15) "Registrant" is a terminal facility required to possess a valid registration certificate to operate as a terminal facility.

HISTORY: 1977 Act No. 179, Part 2, Section 23; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1236.