2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWELVE - Conservation (§§ 1-16 — 8162) › Subtitle 8 - Environment II (§§ 8001 — 8162) › Chapter 501 - Environmental Public Policy (§§ 8001 — 8007f) › Subchapter IV - Environmental Emergencies (§§ 8004 — 8004o) › § 8004a - Definitions

For purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning stated below:
(1) Environmental emergencies.— Means any discharge or threat of discharge, accidental or unauthorized intentional leakage, seepage, pumping, injection, dumping, emission or disposal, or any situation caused by spilling or leaving a pollutant or a hazardous or low-level radioactive substance or waste or hydrocarbons or their byproducts in or on any piece of land or any superficial or underground body of water or out or dispersed into the air or so as to gain access to any paved area or any area covered in asphalt, concrete, tar, or any kind of man-made material that poses a risk or a threat of risk for public health and safety, the general welfare or the environment.
(2) Hazardous substances.— Means any element, substance, compound or mixture that may harm living organisms or the environment.
(3) Hazardous waste.— Means any element, substance, compound or mixture used in any production process that is reused, destroyed, stored or disposed of and which may harm living organisms or the environment. Also includes any element, substance, compound or mixture that exhibits the characteristics of hazardous waste as established and defined in the regulations adopted by the Quality Board which apply to such waste, which exhibits the characteristics of hazardous waste as defined in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 42 U.S.C. § 6903, which is (listed) or has the characteristics identified under 42 U.S.C. § 6921.
(4) Responsible person.— Means any natural or juridical person or group of private or public persons, including agencies, government instrumentalities, municipalities, and quasi-public corporations, that exercises dominion or supervision or ownership, or holds, or exercises partial or total control over establishments, transfer or final disposal stations, facilities or services that generate, store or transport, distribute or otherwise handle hazardous or radioactive substances, pollutants or waste or hydrocarbons or their by-products, and which person, through his/her action or omission, has caused an environmental emergency.
(5) Responsive Action (RA).— All such technical, administrative, and legal actions directed to responding, controlling, investigating, and mitigating the direct and indirect impact ensuing from an environmental emergency. These actions comprise the following phases: Immediate Response Action (IRA) or Corrective Action (CA).
(6) Immediate Response Action.— Refers to all initial and immediate intervention measures directed to controlling the events or factors causing an environmental emergency in order to prevent, avoid, minimize or mitigate the negative or harmful impact that such events or factors may have on public health and safety or on the environment. If the measures taken as part of the immediate response fail to correct the environmental emergency in a permanent and final manner, then the activities corresponding to the corrective action shall be implemented.
(7) Corrective Actions (AC [Spanish acropnym]).— Refers to all such activities involving investigation, evaluation, analysis and planning, directed to establishing a final or permanent correction of any adverse impact ensuing from the emergency. This phase includes, but shall not be limited to, the following stages:
(a) Stage I— Developing a Work Plan for the Corrective Action. This Work Plan shall include at the least:
(A) The characterization of the impacts identified in the emergency;
(B) the investigative studies to be conducted;
(C) the technical evaluation and analysis, and
(D) the remediation plans.
(b) Stage II— Consists of the evaluation of the effectiveness in the implementation of the Work Plan.
(c) Stage III— Implementation of the Work Plan.
History —Sept. 22, 2004, No. 416, § 32, eff. 6 months after Sept. 22, 2004; Mar. 30, 2012, No. 62, § 1.