SECTION 327.2. Definitions

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

(1) Agency on-scene coordinator--The official designated by the executive director to coordinate and direct agency responses, or to oversee private responses to discharges or spills.

(2) Coastal waters--The definition of Coastal waters as it appears in Title 31, Texas Administrative Code, §19.2 (Definitions) of the Texas General Land Office rules.

(3) Discharge or spill--An act or omission by which oil, hazardous substances, waste, or other substances are spilled, leaked, pumped, poured, emitted, entered, or dumped onto or into waters in the State of Texas or by which those substances are deposited where, unless controlled or removed, they may drain, seep, run, or otherwise enter water in the State of Texas.

(4) Emergency response team--A unit of the agency that is responsible for the coordination of response to spills and discharges under the agency's jurisdiction.

(5) Environment--Waters in the state, land surface or subsurface strata, for purposes of this chapter only.

(6) Facility--Any structure or building, including contiguous land, or equipment, pipe or pipeline, well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch, landfill, storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, or any site or area where a discharge or spill has occurred or may occur.

(7) Hazardous substance--Any substance designated as such by the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, 42 USC 9601-9675, regulated under the Clean Water Act, §311, 33 USC 1321, or designated by the commission.

(8) Industrial solid waste--Solid waste, as defined in §335.1 of this title (relating to Definitions), resulting from or incidental to any process of industry or manufacturing, or mining, or agricultural operations, which may include hazardous waste as defined in §335.1 of this title.

(9) Oil--Oil of any kind or in any form including but not limited to petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with wastes other than dredged spoil. Oil does not include used oil, petroleum product, or oil designated as a hazardous substance in 40 CFR §302.4.

(10) Other substances--Substances that may be useful or valuable and therefore are not ordinarily considered to be waste, but that will cause pollution if discharged into water in the state.

(11) Petroleum product--A petroleum substance obtained from distilling and processing crude oil that is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure, and that is capable of being used as a fuel for the propulsion of a motor vehicle or aircraft, including but not necessarily limited to motor gasoline, gasohol, other alcohol blended fuels, aviation gasoline, kerosene, distillate fuel oil, and #1 and #2 diesel. The term does not include naphtha-type jet fuel, kerosene-type jet fuel, or a petroleum product destined for use in chemical manufacturing or feedstock of that manufacturing.

(12) Petroleum storage tank (PST) exempted facilities--Electric service facilities including generation, transmission, distribution equipment and transformers; petrochemical plants; petroleum refineries; bulk loading facilities; and pipelines that are exempted from the Aboveground Storage Tank (AST) program under §334.123(a)(9) and (b) of this title (relating to Statutory Exemptions for ASTs), and §334.124(a)(4) of this title (relating to Commission Exclusions for ASTs).

(13) Pipeline--A pipeline is:

(A) an interstate pipeline facility, including gathering lines and any aboveground storage tank connected to such facility, if the pipeline facility is regulated under:

(i) the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 (49 United States Code §§1671, et seq); or

(ii) the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979 (49 United States Code §§2001, et seq).

(B) an intrastate pipeline facility or any aboveground storage tank connected to such a facility, if the pipeline facility is regulated under one of the following state laws:

(i) the Natural Resources Code, Chapter 111;

(ii) the Natural Resources Code, Chapter 117; or

(iii) Texas Civil Statutes, Article 6053-1 and Article 6053-2.

(14) Pollution--The alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any water in the state that renders the water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation, or property or to public health, safety, or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose.

(15) Responsible person--A person who is:

(A) the owner, operator, or demise charterer of a vessel from which a discharge or spill emanates; or

(B) the owner or operator of a facility from which a discharge or spill emanates; or

(C) any other person who causes, suffers, allows, or permits a discharge or spill.

(16) Used oil--Oil that has been refined from crude oil, or synthetic oil, that as a result of use has been contaminated by physical or chemical impurities.

(17) Vessel--Every description of watercraft, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on the water.

(18) Water or water in the state--Groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico, inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface waters, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.

Source Note: The provisions of this §327.2 adopted to be effective May 23, 1996, 21 TexReg 4228.