New Jersey § 58:10-23

§ 58:10-23.

Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the following terms shall have the

following meanings: “ Act of God ” means an act exclusively occasioned by an unanticipated, grave natural disaster

without the interference of any human agency; “ Administrator ” means the chief executive of the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund; “ Barrel ” means 42 United States gallons or 159.09 liters or an appropriate equivalent measure

set by the director for hazardous substances which are other than fluid or which are

not commonly measured by the barrel; “ Board ” means a board of arbitration convened by the administrator to settle disputed disbursements

from the fund; “ Cleanup and removal costs ” means all direct costs associated with a discharge, and those indirect costs that

may be imposed by the department pursuant to section 1 of P.L.2002, c. 37 associated with a discharge, incurred by the State or its political subdivisions

or their agents or any person with written approval from the department in the: (1)

removal or attempted removal of hazardous substances, or (2) taking of reasonable

measures to prevent or mitigate damage to the public health, safety, or welfare, including,

but not limited to, public and private property, shorelines, beaches, surface waters,

water columns and bottom sediments, soils and other affected property, including wildlife

and other natural resources, and shall include costs incurred by the State for the

indemnification and legal defense of contractors pursuant to sections 1 through 11

of P.L.1991, c. 373 ( C.58:10-23.11f8 et seq. ); “ Commissioner ” means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection; “ Contamination ” or “ contaminant ” means any discharged hazardous substance, hazardous waste as defined pursuant to

section 1 of P.L.1976, c. 99 ( C.13:1E-38 ), or pollutant as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1977, c. 74 ( C.58:10A-3 ); “ Department ” means the Department of Environmental Protection; “ Director ” means the Director of the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury; “ Discharge ” means any intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the releasing,

spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying or dumping of hazardous substances

into the waters or onto the lands of the State, or into waters outside the jurisdiction

of the State when damage may result to the lands, waters or natural resources within

the jurisdiction of the State; “ Emergency response action ” means those activities conducted by a local unit to clean up, remove, prevent, contain,

or mitigate a discharge that poses an immediate threat to the environment or to the

public health, safety, or welfare; “ Fair market value ” means the invoice price of the hazardous substances transferred, including transportation

charges; but where no price is so fixed, “ fair market value ” shall mean the market price as of the close of the nearest day to the transfer,

paid for similar hazardous substances, as shall be determined by the taxpayer pursuant

to rules of the director; “ Final remediation document ” means a no further action letter issued by the department pursuant to P.L.1993, c. 139 ( C.58:10B-1 et al.), or a response action outcome issued by a licensed site remediation professional

pursuant to section 14 of P.L.2009, c. 60 ( C.58:10C-14 ); “ Fund ” means the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund; “ Hazardous substances ” means the “environmental hazardous substances” on the environmental hazardous substance

list adopted by the department pursuant to section 4 of P.L.1983, c. 315 ( C.34:5A-4 ); such elements and compounds, including petroleum products, which are defined as

such by the department, after public hearing, and which shall be consistent to the

maximum extent possible with, and which shall include, the list of hazardous substances

adopted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to section 311 of

the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, Pub.L.92-500 , as amended by the Clean Water Act of 1977, Pub.L.95-217 ( 33 U.S.C. s.1251 et seq. ); the list of toxic pollutants designated by Congress or the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to section 307 of that act; and the list of hazardous substances adopted

by the federal Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to section 101 of the “Comprehensive

Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980,” Pub.L.96-510 ( 42 U.S.C. s.9601 et seq. ); provided, however, that sewage and sewage sludge shall not be considered as hazardous

substances for the purposes of P.L.1976, c. 141 ( C.58:10-23.11 et seq. ); “ Licensed site remediation professional ” means an individual who is licensed by the Site Remediation Professional Licensing

Board pursuant to section 7 of P.L.2009, c. 60 ( C.58:10C-7 ) or the department pursuant to section 12 of P.L.2009, c. 60 ( C.58:10C-12 ); “ Local unit ” means any county or municipality, or any agency or other instrumentality thereof,

or a duly incorporated volunteer fire, ambulance, first aid, emergency, or rescue

company or squad; “ Major facility ” includes, but is not limited to, any refinery, storage or transfer terminal, pipeline,

deep-water port, drilling platform or any appurtenance related to any of the preceding

that is used or is capable of being used to refine, produce, store, handle, transfer,

process or transport hazardous substances. “ Major facility ” shall include a vessel only when that vessel is engaged in a transfer of hazardous

substances between it and another vessel, and in any event shall not include a vessel

used solely for activities directly related to recovering, containing, cleaning up

or removing discharges of petroleum in the surface waters of the State, including

training, research, and other activities directly related to spill response. A facility shall not be considered a major facility for the purpose of P.L.1976, c.

141 unless it has total combined aboveground or buried storage capacity of: (1) 20,000 gallons or more for hazardous substances which are other than petroleum

or petroleum products, or (2) 200,000 gallons or more for hazardous substances of all kinds. In determining whether a facility is a major facility for the purposes of P.L.1976,

c. 141 ( C.58:10-23.11 et seq. ), any underground storage tank at the facility used solely to store heating oil for

on-site consumption shall not be considered when determining the combined storage

capacity of the facility. For the purposes of this definition, “ storage capacity ” shall mean only that total combined capacity which is dedicated to, used for or

intended to be used for storage of hazardous substances of all kinds. Where appropriate to the nature of the facility, storage capacity may be determined

by the intended or actual use of open land or unenclosed space as well as by the capacities

of tanks or other enclosed storage spaces; “ Natural resources ” means all land, fish, shellfish, wildlife, biota, air, waters and other such resources

owned, managed, held in trust or otherwise controlled by the State; “ Owner ” or “ operator ” means, with respect to a vessel, any person owning, operating or chartering by demise

such vessel; with respect to any major facility, any person owning such facility,

or operating it by lease, contract or other form of agreement; with respect to abandoned

or derelict major facilities, the person who owned or operated such facility immediately

prior to such abandonment, or the owner at the time of discharge; “ Person ” means public or private corporations, companies, associations, societies, firms,

partnerships, joint stock companies, individuals, the United States, the State of

New Jersey and any of its political subdivisions or agents; “ Person responsible for conducting the remediation ” means (1) any person who executes or is otherwise subject to an oversight document

to remediate a contaminated site, (2) the owner or operator of an industrial establishment

subject to P.L.1983, c. 330 ( C.13:1K-6 et al.), for the remediation of a discharge, (3) the owner or operator of an underground

storage tank subject to P.L.1986, c. 102 ( C.58:10A-21 et seq. ), for the remediation of a discharge, (4) any other person who discharges a hazardous

substance or is in any way responsible for a hazardous substance, pursuant to section

8 of P.L.1976, c. 141 ( C.58:10-23.11g ), that was discharged at a contaminated site, or (5) any other person who is remediating

a site; “ Petroleum ” or “ petroleum products ” means oil or petroleum of any kind and in any form, including, but not limited to,

oil, petroleum, gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, oil sludge, oil refuse, oil mixed with

other wastes, crude oils, and substances or additives to be utilized in the refining

or blending of crude petroleum or petroleum stock in this State; however, any compound

designated by specific chemical name on the list of hazardous substances adopted by

the department pursuant to this section shall not be considered petroleum or a petroleum

product for the purposes of P.L.1976, c. 141, unless such compound is to be utilized

in the refining or blending of crude petroleum or petroleum stock in this State; “ Preliminary assessment ” means the first phase in the process of identifying areas of concern and determining

whether contaminants are or were present at a site or have migrated or are migrating

from a site, and shall include the initial search for and evaluation of, existing

site specific operational and environmental information, both current and historic,

to determine if further investigation concerning the documented, alleged, suspected

or latent discharge of any contaminant is required. The evaluation of historic information shall be conducted from 1932 to the present,

except that the department may require the search for and evaluation of additional

information relating to ownership and use of the site prior to 1932 if such information

is available through diligent inquiry of the public records; “ Remedial action ” means those actions taken at a site or offsite if a contaminant has migrated or

is migrating therefrom, as may be required by the department, including the removal,

treatment, containment, transportation, securing, or other engineering or treatment

measures, whether to an unrestricted use or otherwise, designed to ensure that any

discharged contaminant at the site or that has migrated or is migrating from the site,

is remediated in compliance with the applicable health risk or environmental standards; “ Remedial investigation ” means a process to determine the nature and extent of a discharge of a contaminant

at a site or a discharge of a contaminant that has migrated or is migrating from the

site and the problems presented by a discharge, and may include data collected, site

characterization, sampling, monitoring, and the gathering of any other sufficient

and relevant information necessary to determine the necessity for remedial action

and to support the evaluation of remedial actions if necessary; “ Remediation ” or “ remediate ” means all actions to investigate , clean up , or respond to any known, suspected, or threatened discharge, including the preliminary assessment, site investigation, remedial investigation, and remedial

action, or any portion thereof, provided, however, that “remediation” or “remediate” shall not include the payment

of compensation for damage to, or loss of, natural resources; “ Response action outcome ” means a written determination by a licensed site remediation professional that the

contaminated site was remediated in accordance with all applicable statutes and regulations,

and based upon an evaluation of the historical use of the site, or of any area of

concern at that site, as applicable, and any other investigation or action the department

deems necessary, there are no contaminants present at the site, or at any area of

concern, at any other site to which a discharge originating at the site has migrated,

or that any contaminants present at the site or that have migrated from the site have

been remediated in accordance with applicable remediation regulations, and all applicable

permits and authorizations have been obtained; “ Site investigation ” means the collection and evaluation of data adequate to determine whether or not

discharged contaminants exist at a site or have migrated or are migrating from the

site at levels in excess of the applicable remediation standards. A site investigation shall be developed based upon the information collected pursuant

to the preliminary assessment; “ Taxpayer ” means the owner or operator of a major facility subject to the tax provisions of

P.L.1976, c. 141; “ Tax period ” means every calendar month on the basis of which the taxpayer is required to report

under P.L.1976, c. 141; “ Transfer ” means onloading or offloading between major facilities and vessels, or vessels and

major facilities, and from vessel to vessel or major facility to major facility, except

for fueling or refueling operations and except that with regard to the movement of

hazardous substances other than petroleum, it shall also include any onloading of

or offloading from a major facility; “ Vessel ” means every description of watercraft or other contrivance that is practically capable

of being used as a means of commercial transportation of hazardous substances upon

the water, whether or not self-propelled; “ Waters ” means the ocean and its estuaries to the seaward limit of the State's jurisdiction,

all springs, streams and bodies of surface or groundwater, whether natural or artificial,

within the boundaries of this State.