V.I. Code tit. 29, § 495 (2019)
2019 US Virgin Islands Code|Title 29 - Public Planning and Development|Chapter 8 - Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority|Subchapter I - Waste Management Authority—establishment|§ 495. Definitions

 As used in this chapter, unless it is otherwise provided, or a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context: (a) The term “area of operation” means the total geographical area comprising the Virgin Islands. (b) The term “Authority” or “Waste Management Authority” means the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority established by section 496 of this chapter. (c) The term “Board” means the Board of Directors of the Authority. (d) The term “bonds” means all bonds, including refunding bonds, notes, debentures, and any other types or forms of instruments of indebtedness. (e) The term “carrier” means the entity that conducts the actual physical transport of goods into the Territory. (f) The term “costs of issuance” means any amounts payable or reimbursable directly or indirectly by the Authority and related to the sale and issuance of bonds and the investment of the proceeds thereof and of revenues securing the same, including, but not limited to, printing costs, filing and recording fees, trustees fees and charges, depositories, authenticating agents and paying agents, legal and auditing fees and charges, financial consultant fees, costs of credit ratings, premiums for insurance of the payment of bonds and fees payable for letters or lines of credit or other credit facilities securing bonds, underwriting or placement costs, fees and charges for execution, transportation and safekeeping of bonds, costs and expenses of refunding and other costs, fees and charges in connection with the foregoing. (g) The term “current expenses” means the Authority's current expenses, whether or not annually recurring, for maintaining, repairing and operating the wastewater and solid waste management systems and engaging in other activities authorized by this chapter, including, but not limited to, administrative expenses including salaries and benefits, cost of insurance, payments for engineering, financial, accounting, legal and other services rendered to the Authority, taxes upon the Authority or its income, operations or property and payments in lieu of such taxes, costs incurred or payable by the Authority with respect to real property, costs of issuance not financed in the cost of a project, and other current expenses required or permitted by law to be paid by the Authority, including the funding of reasonable reserves for upgrading, maintenance, repair, replacements, insurance, emergency contingencies or operations, and other purposes. (h) The term “Environmental user fee” means a charge paid to the Authority and imposed on goods as they are produced within or imported into the Territory to cover the cost of their management as waste once their useful life is completed, or a charge assessed to owners of commercial aircraft or cruise ships that discharge waste in the Territory for disposal in the Territory. (i) The term “facility” means any one or a combination of the following for providing wastewater or solid waste management system services in the Virgin Islands: wastewater collection, transportation, treatment and disposal systems, including pumping stations, transportation lines, meters, valves and treatment plants and other structures and equipment and any other wastewater system works, together with all parts thereof and appurtenances thereto, and all facilities for the collection, treatment, transportation and disposal of solid waste and/or landfill closure, together with all parts thereof and appurtenances thereto and lands, rights in lands, and rights in connection therewith, which the Authority shall deem to be necessary, proper, incidental or convenient in connection with its activities, and which are customarily used and employed in the implementation of wastewater and solid waste management system services, or other activities in which the Authority shall engage or desire to engage pursuant to its purposes. The term “facilities” shall refer collectively to the facilities of the wastewater and solid waste management systems. (j) The term “Federal Government” means the Government of the United States of America or any department, agency, or instrumentality, corporate or otherwise, of such Government. (k) The term “goods” means all commodities, articles, wares, merchandise, and other things of value imported into or produced within the Territory, including any associated material for purposes of packaging and handling. (l) The term “Government of the Virgin Islands” means the Government of the Vrgin Islands body politic established by the Revised Organic Act of 1954, as amended. (m) The term “Governor” means the Governor of the Virgin Islands. (n) The term “hazardous waste” means a solid waste, or combination of solid wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may— (1) cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness; or (2) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed. (o) The term “holder of bonds” or “bondholder” or any similar term means any person who is the bearer of any outstanding bond or bonds whether registered to the bearer or not registered to the bearer, or the registered owner of any outstanding bond or bonds which at the time shall be registered other than to bearer. (p) The term “Legislature” means the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. (q) The term “locality” or “community” means any cohesive population area within the Virgin Islands that would be commonly described as a city, town or village, including, but not limited to, Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas, Christiansted and Frederiksted in St. Croix, and Cruz Bay in St. John. (r) The term “municipal waste” means any organic matter, including sewage, sewage sludge, and industrial or commercial waste, and mixtures of such matter and inorganic refuse— (1) from any publicly or privately operated municipal waste collection or similar disposal system, or (2) from similar waste flows (other than such flows, which constitute agricultural wastes or residues, or wood wastes or residues, or wood wastes or residues from wood harvesting activities or production of forest products). Such term does not include any hazardous waste, as determined by the Secretary of Energy, for purposes of this chapter. (s) The term “person” means the Government of the Virgin Islands, or any agency or political subdivision thereof, and any individual, partnership, corporation, joint venture, association, joint stock company, trust or non-incorporated organization. (t) The term “project” means, but is not limited to, any undertaking or other activity by or on behalf of the Authority to maintain or improve its solid waste management or wastewater systems, equipment, and/or facilities including any extension, expansion or addition thereto, any acquisition, demolition, construction, reconstruction or alteration of any part thereof and any other investment therein, whether undertaken independently or in cooperation with any other agency, or person. (u) The term “public agency” or “agency” means any department, bureau, instrumentality, authority, or official body, corporate or otherwise, or any public official of the Federal Government, or of the Government of the Virgin Islands, or of any state, commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States. (v) The term “recycling” means the collection, separation, recovery and sale or reuse of metals, glass, paper, plastics and other materials from the solid waste stream. (w) The term “residual waste” means garbage, refuse, or other discarded material or waste, including solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial and agricultural operations, and sludge from an industrial or agricultural water supply treatment facility, wastewater treatment facility or air pollution control facility. (x) The term “revenues” means all charges and other receipts derived by the Authority from the operation of the wastewater or solid waste management systems and from all other activities or properties of the Authority, including, but not limited to, proceeds of bonds, grants, gifts or appropriations to the Authority, investment earnings and proceeds of insurance or condemnation, and the sale or disposition of real or personal property; provided, however, that amounts paid to or for the account of the Authority shall be included in revenues unless the Authority shall elect that such amount or any portion thereof shall be segregated from other funds of the Authority and applied directly by the Authority or the trustee for the Authority's bonds to the payment of the debt service thereof, in which event, such amount or portions shall not be included in revenues of the Authority for the purposes of this chapter. (y) The term “septic system” means all septic tanks and/or any other individual, residential, commercial or industrial on-site wastewater treatment systems or apparatus, regardless of the principles of wastewater treatment involved. (z) The term “sludge” or “bio-solids” means solids that have been removed from wastewater, and associated wastewater liquids that remain with the solids after separation of the solids from the wastewater. (aa) The term “solid waste” means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under (Section 402 of the Federal Water and Pollution Control Act, as amended), or source, special nuclear, or byproduct material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (68 Stat. 923). (bb) The term “solid waste management system” means that part of the resources, systems, and solid waste facilities, as herein defined, which the Authority shall deem to be necessary, proper, incidental or convenient in connection with the collection and disposal of solid waste including the operation and closure of the Territory's landfills, together with that part of the resources, systems, and solid waste facilities for use in connection with the development and which the Authority shall deem to be fairly allocable to its solid waste system. The solid waste system shall include, but is not limited to, franchises, privileges, equipment, resources, and facilities used for the collection and disposal of solid waste including real and personal property and rights and interests of any kind related thereto. (cc) The term “Territory” means the Virgin Islands, including St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, Water Island, and associated smaller islands and cays. (dd) The term “Utilities and Solid Waste Departments of the Department of Public Works” means the solid waste and wastewater management systems and programs including pumping stations, treatment plants, collection systems, landfills, equipment and all other facilities and other property, rights, franchises, contracts, leases, records and accounts receivable, properly attributable to the solid waste management and wastewater services operations of said Department. (ee) The term “waste” means a material whose original purpose has been completed at its source and which is directed to a disposal or processing facility or is otherwise disposed of or discarded, whether solid or liquid. The word does not include source-separated recyclable materials, materials approved by the Authority for beneficial use, or material that is beneficially used in accordance with requirements established by the Authority. (ff) The term “wastewater” means liquids that may or may not contain solids but that are primarily water and whose discharge into the environment, if untreated, would create a public nuisance or health hazard, as determined by the Authority, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, or the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or any successors thereof. (gg) The term “wastewater and solid waste management systems” means all the facilities, as herein defined, for providing wastewater and solid waste management services. (hh) The term “wastewater system” means that part of the resources, systems, and facilities, as herein defined, which the Authority shall deem to be necessary, proper, incidental, or convenient in connection with the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of wastewater, together with that part of the facilities for use in connection with other activities which the Authority shall deem to be fairly allocable to its wastewater system. The wastewater system shall include, but is not limited to, sewers, pipes, conduits, pump stations, force mains, interceptors, treatment works, septic systems, and other structures, devices, appurtenances and facilities utilized for wastewater collection, disposal and treatment and franchises, privileges, plants, equipment and real and personal property and rights and interests of any kind related thereto.