2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title II - Executive and Administrative Officers of the Commonwealth › Chapter 21c - Massachusetts Hazardous Waste Management Act › Section 2 - Definitions

Section 2. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, when used in this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:
''Collect'', to gather at a place or places away from the premises of a licensee.
''Commissioner'', the commissioner of the department.
''Department'', the department of environmental protection.
''Disposal'', the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, incineration or placing of any hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that such hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including ground waters.
''Division'', the division of hazardous waste within the department of environmental protection.
''Facility'', a site or works for the storage, treatment, dewatering, refining, incinerating, reclamation, stabilization, solidification, disposal or other processes where hazardous wastes can be stored, treated or disposed of; however, not including a municipal or industrial waste water treatment facility if permitted under section forty-three of chapter twenty-one.
''Generator'', a person who produces hazardous waste.
''Hazardous waste'', a waste, or combination of wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, safety or welfare or to the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, used or disposed of, or otherwise managed, however not to 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 Pollution Control Act of 1967 as amended, or source, special nuclear, or byproduct material as defined by the Atomic Energy Acts of 1954.
''Hazardous waste advisory committee'', the committee established by section three of this chapter.
''Hazardous waste licensee'', a person licensed under this chapter to undertake the collection, transportation, storage, treatment, use or disposal of hazardous wastes.
''Hazardous waste management'', the systematic control of the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes.
''Manifest'', the department approved form used for identifying the quantity, composition, and the origin, routing and destination of hazardous waste from the point of generation to the point of disposal, treatment or storage.
''Person'', any agency or political subdivision of the federal government or the commonwealth, any state, public or private corporation or authority, individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, partnership, association, or other entity, and any officer, employee or agent of said person, and any group of said persons.
''Storage'', the actual or intended containment of hazardous waste on a temporary basis or for a period not exceeding nine months or another period set by regulation or the department, in a manner which does not constitute disposal.
''Transfer station'', the intermediate point in the transport of hazardous wastes where such wastes are brought, stored and transferred to vehicles for movement to other intermediate points or to the point of ultimate storage, treatment or disposal.
''Transport'', the movement of hazardous wastes from the point of generation to any intermediate points or to the point of ultimate storage, treatment, recovery or disposal.
''Treatment'', any method, technique or process, including neutralization, incineration, stabilization or solidification, designed to change the physical, chemical or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste or so as to render such waste less hazardous, non-hazardous, safer to transport, amenable to storage, or reduced in volume, except such method or technique as may be included as an integral part of a manufacturing process at the point of generation.
''Underground drinking water source'', an aquifer supplying drinking water for human consumption, an aquifer in which groundwater contains less than ten thousand parts per liter total dissolved solids, or an aquifer designated as such by the department or the municipality.
''RCRA'', the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, Public Law 94–580.