§ 38 §361-A — Definitions

Unless the context otherwise indicates, the following words when used in any statute administered by the Department of Environmental Protection shall have the following meanings:
1.
Discharge.
"Discharge" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emptying, dumping, disposing or other addition of any pollutant to water of the State.
1-A.
Coastal streams.
1-B.
Agricultural activities.
"Agricultural activities" means the growing of vegetables, fruits, seeds, nursery crops, poultry, livestock, field crops, cultivated or pasture hay and farm woodlot products, including Christmas trees.
1-B.
Aquifer.
1-C.
Aquifer recharge area.
"Aquifer recharge area" means land composed of permeable porous material or rock sufficiently fractured to allow infiltration and percolation of surface water and transmit it to aquifers.
1-D.
Aquifer.
"Aquifer" means a geologic formation composed of rock or sand and gravel that stores and transmits significant quantities of recoverable water, as identified by the Division of Geology, Natural Areas and Coastal Resources, Maine Geological Survey within the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
1-E.
Commissioner.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection.
1-F.
Affordable housing.
"Affordable housing" means dwellings, apartments or other living accommodations for households making at or below 80% of the median household income as determined by the Department of Economic and Community Development.
1-G.
Board.
"Board" means the Board of Environmental Protection.
1-H.
Department.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection composed of the board and the commissioner.
1-I.
Clean Water Act.
"Clean Water Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as defined in subsection 1‑K.
1-J.
Code of Federal Regulations.
"Code of Federal Regulations" means the codification of regulations published in the Federal Register by the Federal Government, and includes those regulations effective on or before July 1, 2016.
1-K.
Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
"Federal Water Pollution Control Act" means federal Public Law 92-500 or 33 United States Code, Sections 1251 et seq., including all amendments effective on or before July 1, 2016.
1-L.
CFU.
2.
Fresh surface waters.
"Fresh surface waters" means all waters of the State other than estuarine and marine waters and ground water.
2-A.
Ground water.
"Ground water" means all the waters found beneath the surface of the earth which are contained within or under this State or any portion thereof, except such waters as are confined and retained completely upon the property of one person and do not drain into or connect with any other waters of the State.
2-B.
Handle.
"Handle" means to store, transfer, collect, separate, salvage, process, reduce, recover, incinerate, treat or dispose of.
3.
Municipality.
"Municipality" means a city, town, plantation or unorganized township.
3-A.
Nonferrous metal mining.
"Nonferrous metal mining" means hard rock mining for base and precious metals including copper, lead, tin, zinc, gold, silver, platinum, paladium and unspecified platinoid metals. "Nonferrous metal mining" does not include thorium or uranium.
3-B.
Pollution prevention.
"Pollution prevention" means the application of the toxics use reduction principles in chapter 27 to manufacturing, commercial and consumer chemical use and energy production and consumption.
3-C.
Overboard discharge.
"Overboard discharge" has the same meaning as in section 466, subsection 9‑A.
3-D.
Publicly owned treatment works.
"Publicly owned treatment works" means a device or system for the treatment of pollutants that is owned by the State or a political subdivision thereof, a municipality, a district, a quasi-municipal corporation or another public entity. "Publicly owned treatment works" includes sewers, pipes or other conveyances only if they convey wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works providing treatment.
4.
Person.
"Person" means an individual, firm, corporation, municipality, quasi-municipal corporation, state agency, federal agency or other legal entity.
4-A.
Pollutant.
"Pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid waste, junk, incinerator residue, sewage, refuse, effluent, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemicals, biological or radiological materials, oil, petroleum products or by-products, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, dirt and industrial, municipal, domestic, commercial or agricultural wastes of any kind.
4-A-1.
Snow dump.
"Snow dump" means a facility that is used for the storage of snow and incidental materials collected from public or private ways.
4-A-2.
Road salt and sand-salt storage area.
"Road salt and sand-salt storage area" means a facility that is used for the storage and handling of highway deicing materials.
4-B.
Surface waste water disposal system.
"Surface waste water disposal system" shall mean any system for disposal of waste waters on the surface of the earth, including, but not limited to, holding ponds, surface application and injection systems.
5.
Estuarine and marine waters.
"Estuarine and marine waters" means those portions of the Atlantic Ocean within the jurisdiction of the State, and all other waters of the State subject to the rise and fall of the tide except those waters listed and classified in sections 467 and 468.
6.
Transfer of ownership.
"Transfer of ownership" means a change in the legal entity that owns a property, facility or structure that is the subject of a license issued by the department.
7.
Coastal streams.
7.
Waters of the State.
"Waters of the State" means any and all surface and subsurface waters that are contained within, flow through, or under or border upon this State or any portion of the State, including the marginal and high seas, except such waters as are confined and retained completely upon the property of one person and do not drain into or connect with any other waters of the State, but not excluding waters susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, or whose use, degradation or destruction would affect interstate or foreign commerce.

Legislative History

PL 1971, c. 470, §1 (NEW). PL 1973, c. 423, §§1,2 (AMD). PL 1973, c. 450, §§2-4 (AMD). PL 1973, c. 625, §§269,270 (AMD). PL 1977, c. 271, §3 (AMD). PL 1979, c. 296, §1 (AMD). PL 1979, c. 380, §1 (AMD). PL 1979, c. 472, §§8,9 (AMD). PL 1981, c. 470, §§A163,A164 (AMD). PL 1985, c. 479, §2 (AMD). PL 1985, c. 481, §A82 (AMD). PL 1985, c. 496, §A4 (AMD). PL 1985, c. 698, §§1-3 (AMD). PL 1987, c. 402, §A196 (AMD). PL 1987, c. 787, §12 (AMD). PL 1989, c. 874, §6 (AMD). PL 1989, c. 890, §§A40,B18 (AMD). PL 1991, c. 520, §3 (AMD). PL 1995, c. 502, §E32 (AMD). PL 1995, c. 642, §4 (AMD). RR 1997, c. 2, §63 (COR). PL 1997, c. 794, §§A10,11 (AMD). PL 1999, c. 556, §30 (AMD). PL 2001, c. 232, §§5,6 (AMD). PL 2003, c. 246, §2 (AMD). PL 2005, c. 330, §§7,8 (AMD). PL 2007, c. 292, §§16,17 (AMD). PL 2009, c. 121, §§6, 7 (AMD). PL 2009, c. 579, Pt. B, §9 (AMD). PL 2009, c. 579, Pt. B, §13 (AFF). PL 2011, c. 655, Pt. KK, §24 (AMD). PL 2011, c. 655, Pt. KK, §34 (AFF). PL 2013, c. 405, Pt. C, §19 (AMD). PL 2017, c. 137, Pt. A, §§6, 7 (AMD). PL 2017, c. 319, §1 (AMD). PL 2017, c. 353, §1 (AMD). PL 2021, c. 551, §1 (AMD).