292.01 Definitions. In this chapter:

(1) “Approved facility" has the meaning given in s. 289.01 (3).

(1m) “Approved mining facility" has the meaning given in s. 289.01 (4) and includes a mining waste site, as defined in s. 295.41 (31).

(1s) “Contaminated sediment" means sediment that contains a hazardous substance.

(2) “Department" means the department of natural resources.

(3) “Discharge" means, but is not limited to, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying or dumping.

(3m) “Engineering control" means an object or action designed and implemented to contain contamination or to minimize the spread of contamination, including a cap, soil cover, or in-place stabilization, but not including a sediment cover.

(4) “Environmental pollution" means the contaminating or rendering unclean or impure the air, land or waters of the state, or making the same injurious to public health, harmful for commercial or recreational use, or deleterious to fish, bird, animal or plant life.

(5) “Hazardous substance" means any substance or combination of substances including any waste of a solid, semisolid, liquid or gaseous form which may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness or which may pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics. This term includes, but is not limited to, substances which are toxic, corrosive, flammable, irritants, strong sensitizers or explosives as determined by the department.

(6) “Hazardous waste" means any solid waste identified by the department as hazardous under s. 291.05.

(7) “Landfill" means a solid waste facility for solid waste disposal.

(8) “Lender" means a bank, credit union, savings bank, savings and loan association, mortgage banker or similar financial institution, the primary business of which is to engage in lending activities or an insurance company, pension fund or government agency engaged in secured lending.

(9) “Lending activities" means advancing funds or credit to and collecting funds from another person; entering into security agreements, including executing mortgages, liens, factoring agreements, accounts receivable financing arrangements, conditional sales, sale and leaseback arrangements and installment sales contracts; conducting inspections of or monitoring a borrower's business and collateral; providing financial assistance; restructuring or renegotiating the terms of a loan obligation; requiring payment of additional interest; extending the payment period of a loan obligation; initiating foreclosure or other proceedings to enforce a security interest in property before obtaining title; requesting and obtaining the appointment of a receiver; and making decisions related to extending or refusing to extend credit.

(10) “Long-term care" means the routine care, maintenance and monitoring of a solid or hazardous waste facility following closing of the facility.

(11) “Municipality" means any city, town, village, county, county utility district, town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district or metropolitan sewage district.

(12) “Nonapproved facility" has the meaning given in s. 289.01 (24).

(13) “Person" means an individual, owner, operator, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, association, municipality, interstate agency, state agency or federal agency.

(15) “Preventive measures" mean the installation or testing of equipment or devices, a designated way of performing a specified operation or the preparation of an emergency response plan.

(16) “Representative" means any person acting in the capacity of a conservator, guardian, court-appointed receiver, personal representative, testamentary trustee of a deceased person, trustee of a living trust, or fiduciary of real or personal property.

(17) “Secretary" means the secretary of natural resources.

(17g) “Sediment" means particles in the bed of a navigable water up to the ordinary high-water mark that are derived from the erosion of rock, minerals, soil, and biological materials and from chemical precipitation from the water column and that are transported or deposited by water.

(17m) “Sediment cover" means a layer of uncontaminated sand or similar material that is deposited on top of contaminated sediment.

(18) “Site or facility" means, except in s. 292.35, an approved facility, an approved mining facility, a nonapproved facility or a waste site.

(19) “Solid waste" has the meaning given under s. 289.01 (33).

(21) “Waste site" means any site, other than an approved facility, an approved mining facility or a nonapproved facility, where waste is disposed of regardless of when disposal occurred or where a hazardous substance is discharged before May 21, 1978.

History: 1995 a. 227 s. 599, 600, 702, 993; 1997 a. 27; 2001 a. 102; 2013 a. 1; 2015 a. 204 ss. 2 to 4, 6.