The words and phrases defined in this section shall have the meanings indicated when used in this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Dangerous wastes" means any discarded, useless, unwanted, or abandoned substances, including but not limited to certain pesticides, or any residues or containers of such substances which are disposed of in such quantity or concentration as to pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, wildlife, or the environment because such wastes or constituents or combinations of such wastes:
(a) Have short-lived, toxic properties that may cause death, injury, or illness or have mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic properties; or
(b) Are corrosive, explosive, flammable, or may generate pressure through decomposition or other means.
(2) "Department" means the department of ecology.
(3) "Designated zone facility" means any facility that requires an interim or final status permit under rules adopted under this chapter and that is not a preempted facility as defined in this section.
(4) "Director" means the director of the department of ecology or the director's designee.
(5) "Disposal site" means a geographical site in or upon which hazardous wastes are disposed of in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(6) "Dispose or disposal" means the discarding or abandoning of hazardous wastes or the treatment, decontamination, or recycling of such wastes once they have been discarded or abandoned.
(7) "Extremely hazardous waste" means any dangerous waste which:
(a) Will persist in a hazardous form for several years or more at a disposal site and which in its persistent form
(i) Presents a significant environmental hazard and may be concentrated by living organisms through a food chain or may affect the genetic makeup of human beings or wildlife, and
(ii) Is highly toxic to human beings or wildlife
(b) If disposed of at a disposal site in such quantities as would present an extreme hazard to human beings or the environment.
(8) "Facility" means all contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land used for recycling, storing, treating, incinerating, or disposing of hazardous waste.
(9) "Hazardous household substances" means those substances identified by the department as hazardous household substances in the guidelines developed under RCW 70A.300.350.
(10) "Hazardous substances" means any liquid, solid, gas, or sludge, including any material, substance, product, commodity, or waste, regardless of quantity, that exhibits any of the characteristics or criteria of hazardous waste as described in rules adopted under this chapter.
(11) "Hazardous waste" means and includes all dangerous and extremely hazardous waste, including substances composed of both radioactive and hazardous components.
(12) "Local government" means a city, town, or county.
(13) "Moderate-risk waste" means (a) any waste that exhibits any of the properties of hazardous waste but is exempt from regulation under this chapter solely because the waste is generated in quantities below the threshold for regulation, and (b) any household wastes which are generated from the disposal of substances identified by the department as hazardous household substances.
(14) "Person" means any person, firm, association, county, public or municipal or private corporation, agency, or other entity whatsoever.
(15) "Pesticide" shall have the meaning of the term as defined in RCW 15.58.030 as now or hereafter amended.
(16) "Preempted facility" means any facility that includes as a significant part of its activities any of the following operations: (a) Landfill, (b) incineration, (c) land treatment, (d) surface impoundment to be closed as a landfill, or (e) waste pile to be closed as a landfill.
(17) "Service charge" means an assessment imposed under RCW 70A.300.460 against those facilities that store, treat, incinerate, or dispose of dangerous or extremely hazardous waste that contains both a nonradioactive hazardous component and a radioactive component. Service charges shall also apply to facilities undergoing closure under this chapter in those instances where closure entails the physical characterization of remaining wastes which contain both a nonradioactive hazardous component and a radioactive component or the management of such wastes through treatment or removal, except any commercial low-level radioactive waste facility.
[ 2020 c 20 § 1278; 2010 1st sp.s. c 7 § 88; 2009 c 549 § 1027; 1989 c 376 § 1; 1987 c 488 § 1; 1985 c 448 § 1; 1975-'76 2nd ex.s. c 101 § 1. Formerly RCW 70.105.010.]
NOTES:
Effective date—2010 1st sp.s. c 26; 2010 1st sp.s. c 7: See note following RCW 43.03.027.
Severability—1989 c 376: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [ 1989 c 376 § 4.]
Severability—1985 c 448: See note following RCW 70A.300.005.