2006 Alabama Code - Section 22-27-2 — Definitions.

For the purpose of this article, the following terms shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:

(1) AGENCY. Any controlling agency, public or private, elected, appointed, or volunteer utilizing methods approved by the health department for the purpose of controlling and supervising the collection or disposal, or both, of solid wastes.

(2) ASHES. The solid residue from burning of wood, coal, coke, or other combustible material used for heating or from incineration of solid wastes, but excepting solid residue, the storage or disposition of which is controlled by other agencies.

(3) COMPOSTING OR COMPOST PLANT. An officially controlled method or operation whereby putrescible solid wastes are broken down through microbic action to a material offering no hazard or nuisance factors to public health or well-being.

(4) DEPARTMENT. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

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

(6) FINANCIAL ASSURANCE. A financial arrangement by the owner or operator of a municipal solid waste landfill which guarantees the availability of funds which may be used to close, provide post-closure care, or conduct corrective action at that facility if the owner or operator fails to properly execute his or her responsibilities under this article and any regulations promulgated by the department for closure, post-closure care, or corrective action and the terms of any permit issued for operation of that facility.

(7) GARBAGE. Putrescible animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and consumption of food, including wastes from markets, storage facilities, handling and sale of produce and other food products and excepting such materials that may be serviced by garbage grinders and handled as household sewage.

(8) HAZARDOUS WASTES. Those wastes defined in the Hazardous Waste Management Act of 1978, as amended (Section 22-30-21 et seq.).

(9) HEALTH DEPARTMENT. An approved county or district health department, including the Alabama State Department of Public Health and the affected state and county boards of health.

(10) HEALTH OFFICER. The state or affected county health officer or his or her designee.

(11) INCINERATOR. A device designed to burn that portion of garbage and rubbish which will be consumed at temperatures generally ranging 1600 degrees Fahrenheit or over. The unburned residue from an incinerator, including metal, glass, and the like shall be called ashes.

(12) LANDFILL. A method of compaction and earth cover of solid wastes other than those containing garbage or other putrescible wastes, including, but not limited to, tree limbs and stumps, demolition materials, incinerator residues, and like materials not constituting a health or nuisance hazard, where cover need not be applied on a per day used basis.

(13) MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL. A discrete area of land or an excavation that receives household waste and that is not a land application unit, surface impoundment, injection well, or waste pile. A municipal solid waste landfill may also receive other types of solid wastes, such as commercial solid waste, nonhazardous sludge, conditionally exempt small quantity generator waste, industrial solid waste, construction/demolition waste, and rubbish. A municipal solid waste landfill is a sanitary landfill.

(14) OPEN DUMP. Any officially recognized place, land, or building which serves as a final depository for solid wastes, whether or not burned or buried, which does not meet the minimum requirements for a sanitary landfill, except approved incinerators, compost plants, and salvage yards.

(15) PERSON. An individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, agent, agency, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, an interstate body, or other private or public legal entity.

(16) RUBBISH. Nonputrescible solid wastes, excluding ashes, consisting of both combustible and noncombustible wastes. Combustible rubbish includes paper, rags, cartons, wood, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves, and similar materials. Noncombustible rubbish includes glass, crockery, metal cans, metal furniture, and like materials which will not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures, not less than 1600 degrees Fahrenheit.

(17) SANITARY LANDFILL. A controlled area of land upon which solid waste is deposited and is compacted and covered with compacted earth each day as deposited, with no on-site burning of wastes, and so located, contoured, and drained that it will not constitute a source of water pollution as determined by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

(18) SOLID WASTES. All putrescible and nonputrescible discarded materials, except household sewage and livestock and poultry wastes, including, but not limited to, garbage, rubbish, ashes, street and highway cleanings, dead animals, including offal, abandoned automobiles, and such industrial wastes as are not controlled by other agencies.

(19) UNAUTHORIZED DUMP. Any collection of solid wastes either dumped or caused to be dumped or placed on any property either public or private, whether or not regularly used, and not under the control and supervision of any person or agency. An abandoned automobile, large appliance, or similar large item of solid waste shall be considered as forming an unauthorized dump within the meaning of this article, but not the careless littering of smaller individual items as tires, bottles, cans, and the like. An unauthorized dump shall also mean any solid waste disposal site which does not meet the regulatory provisions of this article.

(Acts 1969, No. 771, p. 1373, §1; Acts 1982, No. 82-612, p. 1111, §11(f); Act 2005-302, 1st Sp. Sess., §1.)