Iowa Code
Chapter 455B - JURISDICTION OF DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Section 455B.381 - Definitions.

455B.381 Definitions.
As used in this part 4 of subchapter IV, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. “Cleanup” means actions necessary to contain, collect, control, identify, analyze, clean up, treat, disperse, remove, or dispose of a hazardous substance.
2. “Cleanup costs” means costs incurred by the state or its political subdivisions or the agents of the state or a political subdivision in the prevention or mitigation of damages from a hazardous condition or the cleanup of a hazardous substance involved in a hazardous condition.
3. “Corrosive” means causing or producing visible destruction or irreversible alterations in human skin tissue at the site of contact, or in the case of leakage of a hazardous substance from its packaging, causing or producing a severe destruction or erosion of other materials through chemical processes.
4. “Hazardous condition” means any situation involving the actual, imminent, or probable spillage, leakage, or release of a hazardous substance onto the land, into a water of the state, or into the atmosphere, which creates an immediate or potential danger to the public health or safety or to the environment. For purposes of this subchapter, a site which is a hazardous waste or hazardous substance disposal site as defined in section 455B.411, subsection 4, is a hazardous condition.
5. “Hazardous substance” means any substance or mixture of substances that presents a danger to the public health or safety and includes but is not limited to a substance that is toxic, corrosive, or flammable, or that is an irritant or that generates pressure through decomposition, heat, or other means. “Hazardous substance” may include any hazardous waste identified or listed by the administrator of the United States environmental protection agency under the Solid Waste Disposal Act as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, or any toxic pollutant listed under section 307 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended to January 1, 1977, or any hazardous substance designated under section 311 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended to January 1, 1977, or any hazardous material designated by the secretary of transportation under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act.
6. “Irritant” means a substance causing or producing dangerous or intensely irritating fumes upon contact with fire or when exposed to air.
7. a. “Person having control over a hazardous substance” means a person who at any time produces, handles, stores, uses, transports, refines, or disposes of a hazardous substance the release of which creates a hazardous condition, including bailees, carriers, and any other person in control of a hazardous substance when a hazardous condition occurs, whether the person owns the hazardous substance or is operating under a lease, contract, or other agreement with the legal owner of the hazardous substance.
b. “Person having control over a hazardous substance” does not include a person who holds indicia of ownership in a hazardous condition site, if the person satisfies all of the following:
(1) Holds indicia of ownership primarily to protect that person’s security interest in the hazardous condition site, where the indicia of ownership was acquired either for the purpose of securing payment of a loan or other indebtedness, or in the course of protecting the security interest. The term “primarily to protect that person’s security interest” includes but is not limited to ownership interests acquired as a consequence of that person exercising rights as a security interest holder in the hazardous condition site, where the exercise is necessary or appropriate to protect the security interest, to preserve the value of the collateral, or to recover a loan or indebtedness secured by the interest. The person holding indicia of ownership in a hazardous condition site and who acquires title or a right to title to the site upon default under the security arrangement, or at, or in lieu of, foreclosure, shall continue to hold the indicia of ownership primarily to protect that person’s security interest so long as the subsequent actions of the person with respect to the site are intended to protect the collateral secured by the interest, and demonstrate that the person is seeking to sell or liquidate the secured property rather than holding the property for investment purposes.
(2) Does not exhibit managerial control of, or managerial responsibility for, the daily operation of the hazardous condition site through the actual, direct, and continual or recurrent exercise of managerial control over the hazardous condition site in which that person holds a security interest, which managerial control materially divests the borrower, debtor, or obligor of control.
(3) Has taken no subsequent action with respect to the site which causes or exacerbates a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance.
8. “Political subdivision” means any municipality, township, or county, or district, or authority, or any portion, or combination of two or more thereof, including but not limited to any emergency services and emergency management agency established pursuant to chapter 28E or 29C, and any municipal fire departments and ambulance services and agents thereof.
9. “Release” means a threatened or real emission, discharge, spillage, leakage, pumping, pouring, emptying, or dumping of a hazardous substance into or onto the land, air, or waters of the state unless one of the following applies:
a. The release is done in compliance with the conditions of a federal or state permit.
b. The hazardous substance is confined and expected to stay confined to property owned, leased or otherwise controlled by the person having control over the hazardous substance.
c. In the use of pesticides, the application is done in accordance with the product label.
10. “Toxic” means causing or producing a dangerous physiological, anatomic, or biochemical change in a biological system.
11. “Waters of the state” means rivers, streams, lakes, and any other bodies of surface and subsurface water lying within or forming a part of the boundaries of the state which are not entirely confined and located completely upon lands owned, leased or otherwise controlled by a single person or by two or more persons jointly or as tenants in common. “Waters of the state” includes waters of the United States lying within the state.
[C79, 81, §455B.110]
C83, §455B.381
84 Acts, ch 1108, §1; 86 Acts, ch 1025, §1; 86 Acts, ch 1245, §1899; 91 Acts, ch 155, §1; 93 Acts, ch 42, §2; 2009 Acts, ch 16, §1, 2; 2017 Acts, ch 54, §56; 2021 Acts, ch 76, §150
Referred to in §124C.1, 455B.171, 455B.191, 455B.392, 455B.751, 455B.752, 455H.103, 455H.301, 459.506
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