2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 75. Environmental Protection › Chapter 10. Waste and Litter Control › Part 6. State Participation in CERCLA › 75-10-602. Definitions

75-10-602. Definitions.
As used in this part, the following definitions apply:
(1) "CERCLA" means the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, Public Law 96-510.
(2) (a) "Contaminant" includes but is not limited to any element, substance, compound, or mixture, including disease-causing agents, that after release into the environment and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into any organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will or may reasonably be anticipated to cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutation, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction), or physical deformations in the organisms or their offspring.
(b) The term does not include petroleum (including crude oil or any fraction of crude oil that is not specifically listed or designated as a hazardous substance as provided in subsection (4)(a)) or natural gas, liquefied natural gas, synthetic gas of pipeline quality, or mixtures of natural gas and synthetic gas.
(3) "Department" means the department of environmental quality provided for in 2-15-3501.
(4) (a) "Hazardous substance" means:
(i) any substance designated pursuant to section 311(b)(2)(A) of the federal Water Pollution Control Act;
(ii) any element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance designated a hazardous substance by regulations promulgated by the administrator of the federal environmental protection agency pursuant to section 102 of CERCLA;
(iii) any hazardous waste having the characteristics identified under or listed pursuant to section 3001 of the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act (but not including any waste the regulation of which under the Solid Waste Disposal Act has been suspended by act of congress);
(iv) any toxic pollutant listed under section 307(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act;
(v) any hazardous air pollutant listed under section 112 of the federal Clean Air Act; and
(vi) any imminently hazardous chemical substance or mixture with respect to which the administrator of the environmental protection agency has taken action pursuant to section 7 of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.
(b) The term does not include petroleum (including crude oil or any fraction of crude oil that is not specifically listed or designated as a hazardous substance as provided in subsection (4)(a)) or natural gas, natural gas liquids, liquefied natural gas, synthetic gas usable for fuel, or mixtures of natural gas and synthetic gas.
(5) "Hazardous waste" means a solid waste or combination of solid wastes that because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may:
(a) cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness; or
(b) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of or otherwise managed.
(6) "President" means the president of the United States.
(7) "Release" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment but excludes:
(a) any release that results in exposure to persons solely within a workplace, with respect to a claim that persons may assert against their employer;
(b) emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine;
(c) (i) the release of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined in the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, if the release is subject to requirements with respect to financial protection established by the nuclear regulatory commission under section 170 of that act; or
(ii) for the purposes of section 104 of CERCLA or any other response action, any release of source byproduct or special nuclear material from any processing site designated under section 102(a)(1) or 302(a) of the federal Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978; and
(d) the normal application of fertilizer.
(8) (a) "Remedial action" means those actions consistent with a permanent remedy taken instead of or in addition to removal actions in the event of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance into the environment that prevent or minimize the release of hazardous substances so that they do not migrate to cause substantial danger to the present or future public health or welfare or the environment. The term includes but is not limited to those actions at the location of the release as storage; confinement; perimeter protection using dikes, trenches, or ditches; clay cover; neutralization; cleanup of released hazardous substances or contaminated materials; recycling or reuse; diversion; destruction; segregation of reactive wastes; dredging or excavations; repair or replacement of leaking containers; collection of leachate and runoff; onsite treatment or incineration; provision of alternative water supplies; and any monitoring reasonably required to ensure that the actions protect the public health and welfare and the environment. The term includes the costs of permanent relocation of residents and businesses and community facilities if the president determines that, alone or in combination with other measures, the relocation is more cost-effective than and environmentally preferable to the transportation, storage, treatment, destruction, or secure disposition offsite of hazardous substances or is otherwise necessary to protect the public health or welfare.
(b) The term does not include offsite transport of hazardous substances or the storage, treatment, destruction, or secure disposition offsite of the hazardous substances or contaminated materials unless the president determines that the actions:
(i) are more cost-effective than other remedial actions;
(ii) will create a new capacity to manage, in compliance with subtitle C of the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, hazardous substances in addition to those located at the affected facility; or
(iii) are necessary to protect public health or welfare or the environment from a present or potential risk that may be created by further exposure to the continued presence of the substances or materials.
History: En. Sec. 2, Ch. 241, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 199, Ch. 418, L. 1995.