2023 Texas Statutes › Health and Safety Code › Title 5 - Sanitation and Environmental Quality › Subtitle B - Solid Waste, Toxic Chemicals, Sewage, Litter, and Water › Chapter 361 - Solid Waste Disposal Act › Subchapter M. Removal and Remedial Action Agreements › Section 361.401. Definitions

Sec. 361.401.  DEFINITIONS.  In this subchapter:
(1)  "Disposal facility" means a site or area at which a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant has been deposited, stored, disposed of, or placed or otherwise come to be located that no longer receives hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants.
(2)  "Fund" means the hazardous waste disposal fee fund.
(3)  "Petroleum" means crude oil or any fraction of crude oil that is not otherwise listed or designated as a hazardous substance under Section 361.003.
(4)  "Pollutant" or "contaminant" means any element, substance, compound, or mixture, including disease-causing agents, that after release into the environment and on 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 organism or its offspring.  The term does not include petroleum, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, synthetic gas of pipeline quality, or mixtures of natural gas and synthetic gas.
(5)  "Removal" means:
(A)  cleaning up or removing released hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants from the environment;
(B)  taking necessary action in the event of the threat of release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants into the environment;
(C)  taking necessary action to monitor, assess, and evaluate the release or threat of release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants;
(D)  disposing of removed material;
(E)  erecting security fencing or taking other measures to limit access;
(F)  providing alternate water supplies;
(G)  temporarily evacuating and housing threatened individuals not otherwise provided for;
(H)  taking action under Section 104(b) of the environmental response law;
(I)  providing any emergency assistance under the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. Section 5121 et seq.);  and
(J)  taking other action as may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage to the public health and safety or to the environment that may otherwise result from a release or threat of release.
(6)  "Remedial action" means an action 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, pollutant, or contaminant into the environment to prevent or minimize the release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants so that they do not migrate to cause substantial danger to present or future public health and safety or the environment.  The term:
(A)  includes:
(i)  actions at the location of the release, including storage, confinement, perimeter protection using dikes, trenches, or ditches, clay cover, neutralization, cleanup of released hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, or contaminated materials, recycling or reuse, diversion, destruction, segregation of reactive wastes, dredging or excavations, repair or replacement of leaking containers, collections of leachate and runoff, on-site treatment or incineration, provision of alternate water supplies, and any monitoring reasonably required to assure that those reactions protect the public health and safety or the environment;  and
(ii)  the costs of permanent relocation of residents and businesses and community facilities where the president of the United States determines that alone or in combination with other measures this relocation is more cost-effective than and environmentally preferable to the transportation, storage, treatment, destruction, or secure disposition off site of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants or may otherwise be necessary to protect the public health or safety;  but
(B)  does not include off-site transport of hazardous substances or the storage, treatment, destruction, or secure disposition off site of the hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, or contaminated materials unless the president of the United States determines that those actions:
(i)  are more cost-effective than other remedial actions;
(ii)  will create new capacity to manage, in compliance with Subtitle C of the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. Section 6921 et seq.), hazardous substances in addition to those located at the affected facility;  or
(iii)  are necessary to protect the public health and safety or the environment from a present or potential risk that may be created by further exposure to the continued presence of those substances, pollutants, contaminants, or materials.
(7)  "Response" means removal and remedial action.
Added by Acts 1990, 71st Leg., 6th C.S., ch. 10, art. 2, Sec. 30, eff. Sept. 6, 1990.  Amended by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 296, Sec. 1.21, eff. June 7, 1991.