Title 23
Health and Safety

Chapter 19.1
Hazardous Waste Management

R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-19.1-4

§ 23-19.1-4. Definitions.

When used in this chapter:

(1) “Department” means the department of environmental management;

(2) “Director” means the director of the department of environmental management or the director’s designee;

(3) “Disposal” means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, abandoning, or placing of any hazardous waste in, on, into or onto any land, other surface, or building, or into any water, stormwater system, or sewer system;

(4)(i) “Hazardous waste” means any waste or combination of wastes of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semisolid form 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.

(ii) These wastes include, but are not limited to, those which are toxic, corrosive, flammable, irritants, strong sensitizers, substances which are assimilated or concentrated in and are detrimental to tissue, or which generate pressure through decomposition or chemical reaction. In addition, these wastes include “industrial waste” as the term is used elsewhere, unless the context shall clearly indicate otherwise.

(5) “Hazardous waste generation” means the act or process of producing hazardous waste;

(6) “Hazardous waste management” means the systematic control of the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery, and disposal of hazardous wastes;

(7) “Hazardous waste management facility” means a facility, excluding vehicles, for collection, source separation, storage, processing, treatment, recovery, or disposal of hazardous wastes, or a transfer station for hazardous waste, and may include a facility at which such activities occur and where waste has been generated;

(8) “Landfill” means any disposal facility or part of a facility where hazardous waste is placed in or on land;

(9) “Manifest” means the form used for identifying the quantity, composition, and the origin, routing, and destination of hazardous waste during its transportation from the point of generation to the point of disposal, treatment, or storage;

(10) “Person” means an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, the federal government or any agency or subdivision thereof, a state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, or any interstate body;

(11) “Storage” means the actual or intended containment of hazardous waste, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of the hazardous waste;

(12) “Transfer station” means an intermediate point in the transport of hazardous wastes where the wastes are brought, stored, and transferred to vehicles for movement to other intermediate points or to the point of ultimate storage or disposal;

(13) “Transport” means the movement of wastes from the point of generation to any intermediate points, and finally to the point of ultimate storage or disposal;

(14) “Treatment” means any method, technique, or process, including neutralization or incineration, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste as to neutralize the waste or so as to render the waste less hazardous, nonhazardous, safer to transport, amenable to storage, or reduced in volume, except any method or technique that may be included as part of the manufacturing process at the point of generation.

History of Section.
P.L. 1978, ch. 299, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-46.2-4; P.L. 1979, ch. 39, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-19.1-4; P.L. 1981, ch. 154, § 1; P.L. 1984, ch. 330, § 1; P.L. 1986, ch. 153, § 1.