Fla. Stat. § 376.301 — Florida Code / Title XXVIII / Chapter 376 / Section 376.301
376.301 Definitions of terms used in ss. 376.30-376.317, 376.70, and 376.75.
Status: in_force

When used in ss. 376.30-376.317, 376.70, and 376.75, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the term:

(1) “Aboveground hazardous substance tank” means any stationary aboveground storage tank and onsite integral piping that contains hazardous substances which are liquid at standard temperature and pressure and has an individual storage capacity greater than 110 gallons.

(2) “Additive effects” means a scientific principle that the toxicity that occurs as a result of exposure is the sum of the toxicities of the individual chemicals to which the individual is exposed.

(3) “Antagonistic effects” means a scientific principle that the toxicity that occurs as a result of exposure is less than the sum of the toxicities of the individual chemicals to which the individual is exposed.

(4) “Background concentration” means the concentration of contaminants naturally occurring or resulting from anthropogenic impacts unrelated to the discharge of pollutants or hazardous substances at a contaminated site undergoing site rehabilitation.

(5) “Barrel” means 42 U.S. gallons at 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

(6) “Bulk product facility” means a waterfront location with at least one aboveground tank with a capacity greater than 30,000 gallons which is used for the storage of pollutants.

(7) “Cattle-dipping vat” means any structure, excavation, or other facility constructed by any person, or the site where such structure, excavation, or other facility once existed, for the purpose of treating cattle or other livestock with a chemical solution pursuant to or in compliance with any local, state, or federal governmental program for the prevention, suppression, control, or eradication of any dangerous, contagious, or infectious diseases.

(8) “Cleanup target level” means the concentration for each contaminant identified by an applicable analytical test method, in the medium of concern, at which a site rehabilitation program is deemed complete.

(9) “Compression vessel” means any stationary container, tank, or onsite integral piping system, or combination thereof, which has a capacity of greater than 110 gallons, that is primarily used to store pollutants or hazardous substances above atmospheric pressure or at a reduced temperature in order to lower the vapor pressure of the contents. Manifold compression vessels that function as a single vessel shall be considered as one vessel.

(10) “Contaminant” means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance present in any medium which may result in adverse effects to human health or the environment or which creates an adverse nuisance, organoleptic, or aesthetic condition in groundwater.

(11) “Contaminated site” means any contiguous land, sediment, surface water, or groundwater areas that contain contaminants that may be harmful to human health or the environment.

(12) “Department” means the Department of Environmental Protection.

(13) “Discharge” includes, but is not limited to, any spilling, leaking, seeping, pouring, misapplying, emitting, emptying, releasing, or dumping of any pollutant or hazardous substance which occurs and which affects lands and the surface and ground waters of the state not regulated by ss. 376.011-376.21.

(14) “Dry drop-off facility” means any commercial retail store that receives from customers clothing and other fabrics for drycleaning or laundering at an offsite drycleaning facility and that does not clean the clothing or fabrics at the store utilizing drycleaning solvents.

(15) “Drycleaning facility” means a commercial establishment that operates or has at some time in the past operated for the primary purpose of drycleaning clothing and other fabrics utilizing a process that involves any use of drycleaning solvents. The term “drycleaning facility” includes laundry facilities that use drycleaning solvents as part of their cleaning process. The term does not include a facility that operates or has at some time in the past operated as a uniform rental company or a linen supply company regardless of whether the facility operates as or was previously operated as a drycleaning facility.

(16) “Drycleaning solvents” means any and all nonaqueous solvents used in the cleaning of clothing and other fabrics and includes perchloroethylene (also known as tetrachloroethylene) and petroleum-based solvents, and their breakdown products. For purposes of this definition, “drycleaning solvents” only includes those drycleaning solvents originating from use at a drycleaning facility or by a wholesale supply facility.

(17) “Engineering controls” means modifications to a site to reduce or eliminate the potential for exposure to petroleum products’ chemicals of concern, drycleaning solvents, or other contaminants. Such modifications may include, but are not limited to, physical or hydraulic control measures, capping, point of use treatments, or slurry walls.

(18) “Facility” means a nonresidential location containing, or which contained, any underground stationary tank or tanks which contain hazardous substances or pollutants and have individual storage capacities greater than 110 gallons, or any aboveground stationary tank or tanks which contain pollutants which are liquids at standard ambient temperature and pressure and have individual storage capacities greater than 550 gallons. This subsection shall not apply to facilities covered by chapter 377, or containers storing solid or gaseous pollutants, and agricultural tanks having storage capacities of less than 550 gallons.

(19) “Flow-through process tank” means an aboveground tank that contains hazardous substances or specified mineral acids as defined in s. 376.321 and that forms an integral part of a production process through which there is a steady, variable, recurring, or intermittent flow of materials during the operation of the process. Flow-through process tanks include, but are not limited to, seal tanks, vapor recovery units, surge tanks, blend tanks, feed tanks, check and delay tanks, batch tanks, oil-water separators, or tanks in which mechanical, physical, or chemical change of a material is accomplished.

(20) “Hazardous substances” means those substances defined as hazardous substances in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, Pub. L. No. 96-510, 94 Stat. 2767, as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986.

(21) “Institutional controls” means the restriction on use or access to a site to eliminate or minimize exposure to petroleum products’ chemicals of concern, drycleaning solvents, or other contaminants. Such restrictions may include, but are not limited to, deed restrictions, restrictive covenants, or conservation easements.

(22) “Laundering on a wash, dry, and fold basis” means the service provided by the owner or operator of a coin-operated laundry to its customers whereby an employee of the laundry washes, dries, and folds laundry for its customers.

(23) “Long-term natural attenuation” means natural attenuation approved by the department as a site rehabilitation program task for a period of more than 5 years.

(24) “Marine fueling facility” means a commercial or recreational coastal facility, excluding a bulk product facility, providing fuel to vessels.

(25) “Natural attenuation” means a verifiable approach to site rehabilitation that allows natural processes to contain the spread of contamination and reduce the concentrations of contaminants in contaminated groundwater and soil. Natural attenuation processes may include the following: sorption, biodegradation, chemical reactions with subsurface materials, diffusion, dispersion, and volatilization.

(26) “Nearby real property owner” means the individual or entity that is vested with ownership, dominion, or legal or rightful title to real property, or that has a ground lease in real property, onto which drycleaning solvent has migrated through soil or groundwater from a drycleaning facility or wholesale supply facility eligible for site rehabilitation under s. 376.3078(3) or from a drycleaning facility or wholesale supply facility that is approved by the department for voluntary cleanup under s. 376.3078(11).

(27) “Operator” means any person operating a facility, whether by lease, contract, or other form of agreement.

(28) “Owner” means any person owning a facility.

(29) “Person” means any individual, partner, joint venture, or corporation; any group of the foregoing, organized or united for a business purpose; or any governmental entity.

(30) “Person in charge” means the person on the scene who is in direct, responsible charge of a facility from which pollutants are discharged, when the discharge occurs.

(31) “Person responsible for site rehabilitation” means the person performing site rehabilitation pursuant to s. 376.3071(5), s. 376.3078(4), s. 376.81, or s. 376.30701. Such person may include, but is not limited to, any person who has legal responsibility for site rehabilitation pursuant to this chapter or chapter 403, the department when it conducts site rehabilitation, a real property owner, a facility owner or operator, any person responsible for brownfield site rehabilitation, or any person who voluntarily rehabilitates a site and seeks acknowledgment from the department for approval of site rehabilitation program tasks.

(32) “Petroleum” includes: (a) Oil, including crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the reservoir; and (b) All natural gas, including casinghead gas, and all other hydrocarbons not defined as oil in paragraph (a).

(33) “Petroleum product” means any liquid fuel commodity made from petroleum, including, but not limited to, all forms of fuel known or sold as diesel fuel, kerosene, all forms of fuel known or sold as gasoline, and fuels containing a mixture of gasoline and other products, excluding liquefied petroleum gas and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) grades no. 5 and no. 6 residual oils, bunker C residual oils, intermediate fuel oils (IFO) used for marine bunkering with a viscosity of 30 and higher, asphalt oils, and petrochemical feedstocks.

(34) “Petroleum products’ chemicals of concern” means the constituents of petroleum products, including, but not limited to, xylene, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, naphthalene, and similar chemicals, and constituents in petroleum products, including, but not limited to, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), lead, and similar chemicals found in additives, provided the chemicals of concern are present as a result of a discharge of petroleum products.

(35) “Petroleum storage system” means a stationary tank not covered under the provisions of chapter 377, together with any onsite integral piping or dispensing system associated therewith, which is used, or intended to be used, for the storage or supply of any petroleum product. Petroleum storage systems may also include oil/water separators, and other pollution control devices installed at petroleum product terminals as defined in this chapter and bulk product facilities pursuant to, or required by, permits or best management practices in an effort to control surface discharge of pollutants. Nothing herein shall be construed to allow a continuing discharge in violation of department rules.

(36) “Pollutants” includes any “product” as defined in s. 377.19, pesticides, ammonia, chlorine, and derivatives thereof, excluding liquefied petroleum gas.

(37) “Pollution” means the presence on the land or in the waters of the state of 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.

(38) “Real property owner” means the individual or entity that is vested with ownership, dominion, or legal or rightful title to the real property, or which has a ground lease interest in the real property, on which a drycleaning facility or wholesale supply facility is or has ever been located.

(39) “Response action” means any activity, including evaluation, planning, design, engineering, construction, and ancillary services, which is carried out in response to any discharge, release, or threatened release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or other contaminant from a facility or site identified by the department under the provisions of ss. 376.30-376.317.

(40) “Response action contractor” means a person who is carrying out any response action, including a person retained or hired by such person to provide services relating to a response action.

(41) “Risk reduction” means the lowering or elimination of the level of risk posed to human health or the environment through interim remedial actions, remedial action, or institutional and, if appropriate, engineering controls.

(42) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Environmental Protection.

(43) “Site rehabilitation” means the assessment of site contamination and the remediation activities that reduce the levels of contaminants at a site through accepted treatment methods to meet the cleanup target levels established for that site. For purposes of sites subject to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended, the term includes removal, decontamination, and corrective action of releases of hazardous substances.

(44) “Source removal” means the removal of free product, or the removal of contaminants from soil or sediment that has been contaminated to the extent that leaching to groundwater or surface water has occurred or is occurring.

(45) “Storage system” means a stationary tank not covered under the provisions of chapter 377, together with any onsite integral piping or dispensing system associated therewith, which is or has been used for the storage or supply of any petroleum product, pollutant, or hazardous substance as defined herein, and which is registered with the Department of Environmental Protection under this chapter or any rule adopted pursuant hereto.

(46) “Synergistic effects” means a scientific principle that the toxicity that occurs as a result of exposure is more than the sum of the toxicities of the individual chemicals to which the individual is exposed.

(47) “Temporary point of compliance” means the boundary represented by one or more designated monitoring wells at which groundwater cleanup target levels may not be exceeded while site rehabilitation is proceeding.

(48) “Terminal facility” means any structure, group of structures, motor vehicle, rolling stock, pipeline, equipment, or related appurtenances which are used or capable of being used for one or more of the following purposes: pumping, refining, drilling for, producing, storing, handling, transferring, or processing pollutants, provided such pollutants are transferred over, under, or across any water, estuaries, tidal flats, beaches, or waterfront lands, 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. In the event of a ship-to-ship transfer of pollutants, the vessel going to or coming from the place of transfer and a terminal facility shall also be considered a terminal facility. For the purposes of ss. 376.30-376.317, the term “terminal facility” shall not be construed to include spill response vessels engaged in response activities related to removal of pollutants, or temporary storage facilities created to temporarily store recovered pollutants and matter, or waterfront facilities owned and operated by governmental entities acting as agents of public convenience for persons engaged in the drilling for or pumping, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or refining of pollutants. However, each person engaged in the drilling for or pumping, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or refining of pollutants through a waterfront facility owned and operated by such a governmental entity shall be construed as a terminal facility.

(49) “Transfer” or “transferred” includes onloading, offloading, fueling, bunkering, lightering, removal of waste pollutants, or other similar transfers, between terminal facility and vessel or vessel and vessel.

(50) “Wholesale supply facility” means a commercial establishment that supplies drycleaning solvents to drycleaning facilities.

History: s. 84, ch. 83-310; s. 6, ch. 84-338; s. 11, ch. 86-159; s. 2, ch. 89-188; s. 22, ch. 90-54; s. 9, ch. 90-98; s. 12, ch. 91-305; s. 3, ch. 92-30; s. 3, ch. 94-355; s. 297, ch. 94-356; s. 1, ch. 95-239; s. 1, ch. 95-349; s. 15, ch. 96-263; s. 2, ch. 96-277; s. 8, ch. 98-189; s. 7, ch. 2000-317; s. 1, ch. 2003-276; s. 1, ch. 2005-50; s. 58, ch. 2007-5; s. 4, ch. 2013-205; s. 5, ch. 2014-151; s. 1, ch. 2016-184; s. 76, ch. 2020-2.