Hawaii Administrative Rules › Title 11 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH › Subtitle 1 - GENERAL DEPARTMENTAL PROVISIONS › Chapter 451 - STATE CONTINGENCY PLAN › Subchapter 1 - INTRODUCTION › Section 11-451-3 - Definitions

Current through June, 2024
(a) As used in this chapter, unless the
				  context otherwise requires:
"Alternative water supplies" includes, but is not limited
					 to, drinking water and household water supplies.
"Applicable requirements" means those federal, state, and
					 local requirements that are legally applicable to a hazardous substance or
					 pollutant or contaminant, response action, location, or other circumstance
					 found at a facility, vessel, or site. However, pursuant to section
					 128D-23,
					 HRS, no state or county permit shall be required for the portion of any removal
					 or remedial action conducted entirely on site where such response action is
					 carried out in compliance with chapter 128D, HRS.
"CERCLA" means the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
					 Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , P.L. 96-510 (
					 42
					 U.S.C. §§9601 -
					 9675
					 ), as amended.
"Clean Water Act" means the Federal Water Pollution
					 Control Act of 1972 , P.L. 92-500 (
					 33 U.S.C.
					 §§1251 -
					 1387
					 ), as amended.
"Consent agreement" means an agreement which the
					 department and a potentially responsible party enter into pursuant to this
					 chapter.
"Consumer product" shall have the meaning stated in
					 15
					 U.S.C. §2052.
"Department" means the department of health.
"Director" means the director of health.
"Drinking water supply" means any raw or finished water
					 source that is or may be used by a public water system (as defined in the Safe
					 Drinking Water Act) or as drinking water by one or more individuals.
"Environment" means any waters, including surface water,
					 groundwater, or drinking water supply, any land surface or any subsurface
					 strata, or any ambient air within the State of Hawaii or under the jurisdiction
					 of the State.
"EPA" means the U.S. Environmental Protection
					 Agency.
"Facility" means any building, structure, installation,
					 equipment, pipe or pipeline (including any pipe into a sewer or publicly owned
					 treatment works plant), well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch, landfill,
					 storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, or aircraft, or any site or
					 area where a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant has been deposited,
					 stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise comes to be located; but does not
					 include any consumer product in consumer use.
"Fund" means the environmental response revolving fund
					 established pursuant to section
					 128D-2,
					 HRS.
"Ground water" means water in a saturated zone or stratum
					 beneath the surface of land or water.
"Hazardous substance" means hazardous substance as defined
					 in section
					 128D-1, HRS, and
					 designated in section 11-451-5.
"Interim remedial action" means a discrete remedial action
					 or series of remedial actions that comprises an incremental step toward
					 comprehensively addressing a release or threat of release of a hazardous
					 substance or pollutant or contaminant. This discrete portion of a remedial
					 action manages migration, or eliminates or mitigates a release, threat of a
					 release, or pathway of exposure. The cleanup of a facility or vessel can be
					 divided into a number of interim remedial actions, depending on the complexity
					 of the problems associated with the facility or vessel. Interim remedial
					 actions may address geographical portions of a site, specific facility or
					 vessel problems, or initial phases of a remedial action, or may consist of any
					 set of actions performed over time or any actions that are concurrent but
					 located in different parts of a site. Interim remedial actions should not
					 conflict with, be inconsistent with nor preclude implementation of the expected
					 final remedial action.
"Natural resources" means land, fish, wildlife, biota,
					 air, water, ground water, drinking water supplies, and other such resources
					 belonging to, managed by, held in trust by, appertaining to, or otherwise
					 controlled by the State of Hawaii, any county, or by the United States to the
					 extent that the latter is subject to state law.
"Navigable water" means the waters of the United States
					 including the territorial seas.
The term includes:
(1) All waters that are currently used, were used in the
					 past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including
					 all waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide;
(2) interstate waters, including interstate
					 wetlands;
(3) All other waters such as intrastate lakes, rivers,
					 streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, and wetlands,
					 the use, degradation or destruction of which would affect or could affect
					 interstate or foreign commerce including any such waters:
(A) That are or could be used by interstate or foreign
					 travelers for recreational or other purposes;
(B) From which fish or shellfish are or could be taken and
					 sold in interstate or foreign commerce;
(C) That are used or could be used for industrial purposes
					 by industries in interstate commerce;
(4) All impoundments of waters otherwise defined as
					 navigable waters under this section;
(5) Tributaries of waters identified in paragraphs (1)
					 through (4) of this definition, including adjacent wetlands; and
(6) Wetlands adjacent to waters identified in paragraphs
					 (1) through (5) of this definition: Provided, that waste treatment systems
					 (other than cooling ponds meeting the criteria of this paragraph) are not
					 waters of the United States.
"Oil" means crude oil and any fraction or residue thereof,
					 in any form, including, but not limited to, petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil
					 refuse, and oil mixed with wastes.
"On-Scene-Coordinator" means the state official designated
					 by the department to coordinate and direct state response actions under this
					 chapter.
"Order" means administrative, compliance, director's, or
					 any other orders as may be issued by the department pursuant to chapter 128D,
					 HRS, these rules, or judicial proceedings.
"Owner or operator" means
(1) in the case of a vessel, any person owning, operating,
					 bareboat chartering, or chartering by demise the vessel,
(2) in the case of an onshore facility or an offshore
					 facility, any person owning or operating the facility, and
(3) in the case of any facility, title or control of which
					 was conveyed due to bankruptcy, foreclosure, tax delinquency, abandonment, or
					 similar means to a unit of a state or local government, any person who owned,
					 operated, or otherwise controlled activities at the facility immediately
					 beforehand. "Owner" or "operator" does not include a person or financial
					 institution that holds or held a lien, encumbrance, security interest, or loan
					 agreement that attaches or is attached to the facility, vessel, or real
					 property; provided that the person or financial institution makes or made no
					 decision or takes or took no action that causes or caused or contributes or
					 contributed to a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance,
					 pollutant, or contaminant from or at a facility, vessel, or real
					 property.
"Person" means any individual, firm, corporation,
					 association, partnership, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, state,
					 county, commission, political subdivision of the State, and to the extent they
					 are subject to this chapter, the United States or any interstate body.
"Petroleum" means any petroleum, including crude oil and
					 any fraction thereof that is liquid at standard temperature and pressure (60
					 degrees fahrenheit and 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute),
"Pollutant or contaminant" means any element, substance,
					 compound, or mixture, which 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 such organisms or
					 their offspring.
"Potentially responsible party" means persons potentially
					 liable under Chapter
					 128D, HRS.
"Release" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring,
					 emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or
					 disposing of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant into the
					 environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers,
					 and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or
					 contaminant), but excludes:
(1) Any release which results in exposure to persons solely
					 within a workplace, with respect to a claim which such persons may assert
					 against their employer;
(2) Emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle,
					 rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine;
(3) Release of source, byproduct, or special nuclear
					 material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined in the Atomic
					 Energy Act of 1954 (
					 42 U.S.C.
					 §2011 ), if such release is subject to
					 requirements with respect to financial protection established by the Nuclear
					 Regulatory Commission under section
					 42 U.S.C.
					 §2210;
(4) Any release resulting from the normal application of
					 fertilizer;
(5) Any release resulting from the legal application of a
					 pesticide product registered under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and
					 Rodenticide Act;
(6) Releases from sewerage systems collecting and
					 conducting primarily domestic wastewater; or
(7) Any release permitted by any federal, state, or county
					 permit or other legal authority, if such release is specifically addressed by
					 the permit and is in compliance with the permit.
"Remedy" or "remedial action" means those actions
					 consistent with permanent correction 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 or welfare, the environment, or natural resources.
(1) The term includes, but is not limited to, actions at
					 the location of a release such as storage, confinement, perimeter protection
					 using dikes, trenches, or ditches, clay cover, neutralization, cleanup of
					 released hazardous substances, pollutants, contaminants, or associated
					 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 assure that such actions protect the public health or
					 welfare, the environment, or natural resources.
(2) The term includes the costs of permanent relocation of
					 residents and businesses and community facilities where the department
					 determines that, alone or in combination with other measures, such relocation
					 is more cost-effective than and environmentally preferable to the
					 transportation, storage, treatment, destruction, or secure disposition offsite
					 of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants, or may otherwise be
					 necessary to protect the public health or welfare.
(3) The term does not include the off site transport of
					 hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants, or the storage, treatment,
					 destruction, or secure disposition offsite of such hazardous substances,
					 pollutants, or contaminants or contaminated materials unless the department
					 determines that such actions:
(A) Are more cost-effective than other remedial
					 actions;
(B) Win create new capacity to manage hazardous substances,
					 in addition to those located at the affected facility or vessel; or
(C) Are necessary to protect public health or welfare, the
					 environment, or natural resources from a present or potential risk which may be
					 created by further exposure to the continued presence of such hazardous
					 substances, pollutants or contaminants.
"Remove" or "removal action" means:
1) action taken when a release constitutes an emergency and
					 the director or an on-scene coordinator has determined that actions are
					 immediately required to prevent, limit, or mitigate an emergency; or
2) the cleanup of released hazardous substances,
					 pollutants, or contaminants from the environment, such actions as may be
					 necessary to take in the event of the threat of release of hazardous
					 substances, pollutants, or contaminants into the environment, such actions as
					 may be necessary to monitor, assess, and evaluate the release or threat of
					 release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants, the disposal of
					 removed material, or the taking of such other actions as may be necessary to
					 prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage to the public health or welfare or to the
					 environment, which may otherwise result from a release or threat of release.
					 The term includes, in addition, without being limited to, security fencing or
					 other measures to limit access, provision of alternative water supplies,
					 temporary evacuation and housing of threatened individuals not otherwise
					 provided for, and any emergency assistance. Removal actions may include any of
					 those types of actions contained in the definition of "remedy" or "remedial
					 action".
"Reportable quantity" means reportable quantity as defined
					 in section 11-451-6.
"Respond" or "response action" means remove, removal,
					 remedy, or remedial action; and all such terms including government enforcement
					 activities related thereto.
"Site" means the areal extent of contamination and all
					 suitable areas in very close proximity to the contamination necessary for
					 implementation of the response action.
"Sheen" means an iridescent appearance of any petroleum on
					 the surface of any surface water, ground water, or any navigable water of the
					 State which is caused by the release of such petroleum.
"Source control action" means the construction or
					 installation and start-up of those actions necessary to prevent the continued
					 release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants (primarily from a
					 source on top of or within the ground, or in buildings or other structures)
					 into the environment.
"State Contingency Plan" means Hawaii Administrative Rules
					 title 11, Hawaii state department of health, chapter 451.
"State Priority List" means the list compiled by the
					 department pursuant to section
					 128D-7,
					 HRS.
"Surface water" means both contained surface water - that
					 is, water upon the surface of the earth in bounds created naturally or
					 artificially including, but not limited to, streams, other watercourses, lakes,
					 reservoirs, and coastal waters subject to state jurisdiction - and diffused
					 surface water - that is, water upon the surface of the ground other than in
					 contained waterbodies. Water from natural springs is surface water when it
					 exits from the spring onto the earth's surface.
"Vessel" means every description of watercraft or other
					 artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of
					 transportation on water.