Section 2 Definitions - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 2. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, when used in this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:

“Abutting community”, a city or town contiguous to or touching upon any land of the host community.

“Chief Executive Officer”, the city manager in any city having a city manager, the mayor in any other city; the town manager in any town having a town manager, the chairman of the board of selectmen in any other town.

“Commissioner”, the commissioner of the department of environmental protection.

“Committee”, the local assessment committee.

“Council”, the hazardous waste facility site safety council.

“Compensation”, any money, thing of value or economic benefit conferred by the developer on any city, town, or person under the terms and conditions specified in the siting agreement established by sections twelve and thirteen of chapter twenty-one D.

“Department”, the department of environmental protection.

“Developer”, any person proposing to construct, maintain, or operate a hazardous waste facility in any city or town of the commonwealth.

“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.

“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 by-product material as defined by the Atomic Energy Acts of 1954.

“Hazardous waste management”, the systematic control of the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes.

“Host community”, the city or town in which a developer proposes to construct, maintain and operate a hazardous waste facility.

“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.

“Secretary”, the secretary of the executive office of environmental affairs.

“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 of environmental protection, in a manner which does not constitute 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.