Definitions.

When used in this chapter and except where the context prohibits, the following words and terms shall have the following meanings:

(1) COMMISSION. The Environmental Management Commission of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management as created by Section 22-22A-6.

(2) DEPARTMENT. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management as created by Section 22-22A-4.

(3) DIRECTOR. The Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

(4) DISPOSAL. The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking 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.

(5) HAZARDOUS WASTE. A solid waste, or combination of solid wastes, which, 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) HAZARDOUS WASTE GENERATION. The act or process of producing hazardous waste.

(7) HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT. The systematic control of the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes.

(8) MANIFEST. The form adopted by the department used for identifying the quantity, composition, origin, routing and destination of hazardous waste during its transportation from the point of generation to the point of disposal, treatment or storage.

(9) PERSON. Any and all persons, natural or artificial, including, but not limited to any individual, partnership, association, society, joint stock company, firm, company, corporation, institution, trust, estate, or other legal entity or other business organization or any governmental entity, and any successor, representative, agent or agency of the foregoing.

(10) RCRA. The Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. §6901 et seq., as amended.

(11) SOLID WASTE. Any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations and from community activities, including any material to be discarded by a generator, but such term does not 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, as amended (86 Stat. 880), or source, special nuclear or by-product material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (68 Stat. 923).

(12) STORAGE. The actual or intended containment of wastes, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of such wastes.

(13) TRADE SECRET. Such term includes, but is not limited to, any formula, plan, pattern, process, tool, mechanism, compound or procedure, as well as production data or compilation of information, financial and marketing data, which is not patented, which is known only to certain individuals within a commercial concern who are using it to fabricate, produce or compound an article of trade or a service having commercial value, and which gives its user an opportunity to obtain a business advantage over competitors who do not know of it.

(14) TREATMENT. Any method, technique or process including neutralization, 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 nonhazardous, safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage or reduced in volume. Such term includes any activity or processing designed to change the physical form or chemical composition of hazardous waste so as to render it nonhazardous.

(Acts 1978, 2nd Ex. Sess., No. 129, p. 1843, §3; Acts 1982, No. 82-612, p. 1111, §11(h); Acts 1984, No. 84-50, §1; Acts 1987, No. 87-807, p. 1590, §3.)