NR 700.03(11)
(11) “Department" means the department of natural resources.
NR 700.03(11m)
(11m) “Department database" means the publicly accessible database available on the internet as required by ss.
292.12,
292.31, and
292.57, Stats.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: The Remediation and Redevelopment Program maintains a database called the “Bureau for Remediation and Redevelopment Tracking System" or “BRRTS". The program also maintains an internet accessible version of this database, called “BRRTS on the Web", or “BOTW". “BOTW" includes information on properties where a hazardous substance discharge has or may have taken place. The program also maintains a web-based mapping system called “Remediation and Redevelopment Sites Map" or “RRSM", that allows users to view information from the BRRTS database using a geographic information system (GIS) application. Both these applications may be found at
https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Brownfields/WRRD.html.
NR 700.03(12)
(12) “Department-funded response action" means a response action undertaken by the department using the authority of s.
292.11,
292.31 or
292.41, Stats., which is funded in whole or in part by appropriations in s.
20.370 (2) or
20.866 (2), Stats.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Under s.
292.01 (3), Stats., “discharge" means, but is not limited to, “spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying or dumping."
NR 700.03(14)
(14) “Dispose" or “disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any solid or hazardous waste into or on any land or water in a manner which may permit the waste to be emitted into the air, to be discharged into any waters of the state or otherwise to enter the environment.
NR 700.03(15)
(15) “Emergency" means a situation which requires an immediate response to address an imminent threat to public health, safety, or welfare or the environment.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
NR 140.05 (7) defines “enforcement standard" to mean “a numerical value expressing the concentration of a substance in groundwater which is adopted under s.
160.07, Stats., and s.
NR 140.10 or s.
160.09, Stats., and s.
NR 140.12."
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Under s.
292.01 (3m), Stats., “engineering control" means an “action designed and implemented to contain contamination or to minimize the spread of contamination, including a cap, soil cover, or in-place stabilization, but not including a sediment cover."
NR 700.03(18)
(18) “Environment" means any plant, animal, natural resource, surface water (including underlying sediments and wetlands), groundwater, drinking water supply, land surface and subsurface strata, and ambient air within the state of Wisconsin or under the jurisdiction of the state of Wisconsin.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
291.01 (4), Stats., defines “environmental pollution" to mean “the contamination or rendering unclean or impure the air, land or waters of the state, or making the same injurious to public health, harmful for commercial or recreational use, or deleterious to fish, bird, animal or plant life."
NR 700.03(20)
(20) “Environmental standards" mean those cleanup standards, performance standards, standards of control and other substantive and procedural requirements, criteria or limitations promulgated as a regulation or rule under or pursuant to federal environmental or state environmental or facility citing laws that specifically address a hazardous substance, pollutant, remedial action, location or other circumstances found at a site or facility.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Under s.
289.01 (3), Stats., “approved facility" means “a solid or hazardous waste disposal facility with an approved plan of operation under s.
289.30 or a solid waste disposal facility initially licensed within 3 years prior to May 21, 1978, whose owner successfully applies, within 2 years after May 21, 1978, for a determination by the department that the facility's design and plan of operation comply substantially with the requirements necessary for plan approval under s.
289.30." Under s.
292.01 (1m), Stats., “approved mining facility" is defined by reference to the definition of approved mining facility in s.
289.01 (4), Stats., and also includes a mining waste site as defined in s.
295.41 (31), Stats. “Approved mining facility" as defined in s.
289.01 (4) means “an approved facility which is part of a mining site, as defined under s.
293.01 (12), used for the disposal of solid waste resulting from mining, as defined under s.
293.01 (9), or prospecting, as defined under s.
293.01 (18)." Chapter
293, Stats., applies to nonferrous metallic mining. “Mining waste site" as defined under s.
295.41 (31), Stats., means any land or appurtenances thereto used for the storage or disposal of ferrous mining waste. Subch.
III of ch. 295, Stats., applies to ferrous metallic mining. “Nonapproved facility" as defined in s.
289.01 (24), Stats., means “a licensed solid or hazardous waste disposal facility which is not an approved facility."
NR 700.03(22)
(22) “Free product" means a discharged hazardous substance or environmental pollution that is present in the environment as a floating or sinking non-aqueous phase liquid.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
160.01 (4), Stats., defines “groundwater" to mean “any waters of the state, as defined in s.
281.01 (18), Stats., occurring in a saturated subsurface geological formation of rock or soil." See “waters of the state" definition in sub. (67).
NR 700.03(24)
(24) “Groundwater quality standards" mean site-specific standards developed pursuant to ch.
NR 140 and groundwater quality standards adopted by the department in ch.
NR 140, including enforcement standards, preventive action limits, indicator parameters and alternative concentration levels.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
299.01 (6), Stats., defines “hazardous substance" to mean “any substance or combination of substances including any waste of a solid, semisolid, liquid or gaseous form which may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness or which may pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics. This term includes, but is not limited to, substances which are toxic, corrosive, flammable, irritants, strong sensitizers or explosives as determined by the department."
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
291.01 (7), Stats., defines “hazardous waste" to mean any “solid waste identified by the department as hazardous under s.
291.05" Federal laws and rules may have broader or different definitions than the state does. If so, federal hazardous waste laws must be complied with, in addition to state laws.
NR 700.03(27)
(27) “High groundwater level" means the higher of the elevation to which the soil is saturated and observed as a free water surface in an unlined hole, or the elevation to which the soil has been seasonally or periodically saturated as indicated by soil color patterns throughout the soil profile.
NR 700.03(28)
(28) “Immediate action" means a response action that is taken within a short period of time after the discharge of a hazardous substance occurs, or after the discovery of a hazardous substance discharge or environmental pollution, to halt the discharge, contain or remove discharged hazardous substances or remove contaminated environmental media, in order to restore the environment to the extent practicable and to minimize the harmful effects of the discharge to air, lands and waters of the state and to eliminate any imminent threat to public health, safety, or welfare that may exist. This term includes both emergency and non-emergency immediate actions.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Examples of immediate actions may be found in s.
NR 708.05 (4). If further action will be required after a non-emergency response action is taken, that action would meet the definition of “interim action" in s.
NR 700.03 (29). The principal distinction between a non-emergency, immediate action and an interim action is that a site investigation will generally be required in conjunction with an interim action, but not with a non-emergency immediate action. In addition, interim actions will be closed out using the criteria in ch.
NR 726, not the “no further action" criteria in s.
NR 708.09 which apply at the completion of an immediate action.
NR 700.03(28m)
(28m) “Industrial land use" means the utilization of a parcel of real estate for manufacturing operations that use machinery and mechanical power to produce products or services, including electrical power, or for a service business that provides storage facilities, product distribution or maintenance or repair services for machinery.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Examples of industrial land uses include manufacturing and assembly plants; warehouses; scrap salvage operations; foundries and forging plants; metal pressing, stamping and spinning plants; electroplating facilities; tanneries; chemical processing facilities; electrical generating plants and electrical substations; slaughter houses and meat processing plants; fertilizer and pesticide packaging plants; bottling plants; wholesale bulk fuel storage and distribution facilities; railroad yards; and businesses that sell and repair motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, transportation containers or construction machinery and equipment.
NR 700.03(29)
(29) “Interim action" means a response action taken to contain or stabilize a discharge of a hazardous substance, in order to minimize any threats to public health, safety, or welfare or the environment, while other response actions are being taken or planned for the site or facility.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Examples of interim actions may be found in s.
NR 708.11. “Interim action"does not include emergency or non-emergency immediate actions. An interim action is followed by subsequent response actions at the site or facility, unless the department determines in compliance with the requirements of ch.
NR 726, that no further response action is necessary after a site investigation has been conducted.
NR 700.03(30)
(30) “Interim action options report" means a report which identifies and evaluates various interim action options with the goal of selecting an option which meets the environmental standards for the interim action being undertaken.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
NR 149.03 (41) defines “limit of detection" or “LOD" to mean “the lowest concentration or amount of analyte that can be identified, measured, and reported with confidence that the concentration is not a false positive value." For department purposes, the LOD approximates the method detection limit (MDL) and is determined by the method cited in s.
NR 149.03 (46) (MDL). See sub. (33m) for MDL.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
NR 149.03 (42) defines “limit of quantitation" or “LOQ" to mean “the lowest concentration or amount of an analyte for which quantitative results can be obtained."
NR 700.03(31)
(31) “Long-term monitoring" means systematic evaluation of the selected remedial or interim action option through collection and inspection of soil data, groundwater data, surface water data, sediment data, and other relevant data.
NR 700.03(32)
(32) “Management of a hazardous substance" means the treatment, storage or disposal, including recycling, of a hazardous substance.
NR 700.03(33)
(33) “Media" means air, surface water, groundwater, sediments and land surface and subsurface strata, including soil.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
NR 149.03 (46) defines the “method detection limit" to mean “the minimum concentration of an analyte that can be measured and reported with 99% confidence that the stated concentration is greater than zero, determined from analyses of a set of samples containing the analyte in a given matrix. The method detection limit is generated according to the protocol specified in
40 CFR 136, Appendix B."
NR 700.03(34)
(34) “Migration pathway" means natural geologic features or cultural features, including but not limited to water mains, sewage laterals, drain tiles and road beds, which allow the movement of a hazardous substance or environmental pollution in liquid, solid, dissolved or vapor phase.
NR 700.03(34m)
(34m) “Minority business" means a business certified by the department of safety and professional services pursuant to s.
16.287 (2), Stats.
NR 700.03(35)
(35) “Municipal population" means the number of people residing in the municipality according to the most recent department of administration estimates.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
292.01 (11), Stats., defines “municipality" to mean, “any city, town, village, county, county utility district, town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, or metropolitan sewage district."
NR 700.03(37)
(37) “National priorities list" means the list, compiled by the U.S. environmental protection agency (EPA) pursuant to section 105 (8) (b) of CERCLA, of hazardous substance releases in the United States that are priorities for investigation and remedial action.
NR 700.03(38m)
(38m) “Natural attenuation'' means the reduction in the concentration and mass of a substance and its breakdown products in groundwater, due to naturally occurring physical, chemical, and biological processes without human intervention or enhancement. These processes include, but are not limited to, dispersion, diffusion, sorption and retardation, and degradation processes such as biodegradation, abiotic degradation and radioactive decay.
NR 700.03(39)
(39) “Naturally occurring background" means the quality of individual media in the vicinity of a discharge of a hazardous substance or environmental pollution that has not been affected by a hazardous substance discharge or environmental pollution.
NR 700.03(39m)
(39m) “Non-residential setting" means a setting other than a residential setting, used for commercial or industrial purposes.
NR 700.03(40)
(40) “Operation and maintenance" means measures designed to monitor, operate and maintain the effectiveness of response actions.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
292.31 (8) (a) 1., Stats., defines “operator" to mean “any person who operates a site or facility or who permits the disposal of solid waste at a site or facility under his or her management or control for consideration, regardless of whether the site or facility remains in operation and regardless of whether the person operates or permits the disposal of solid waste at the time any environmental pollution occurs. This term includes a subsidiary or parent corporation."
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
292.31 (8) (a) 2., Stats., defines “owner" to mean “any person who owns or who receives direct or indirect consideration from the operation of a site or facility regardless of whether the site or facility remains in operation and regardless of whether the person owns or receives consideration at the time any environmental pollution occurs. This term includes a subsidiary or parent corporation."
NR 700.03(42m)
(42m) “Pathway" means the route a substance takes in traveling to a receptor or potential receptor or the specific portal of entry, such as lungs, skin or digestive tract, that the substance takes to potentially express its toxic effect, or both.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: The food chain pathway for cadmium, for example, refers to cadmium being taken up in plant tissue and the plant tissue being ingested by an organism.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
292.01 (13), Stats., defines “person" to mean “an individual, owner, operator, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, association, municipality, interstate agency, state agency, or federal agency."
NR 700.03(43g)
(43g) “Phase I environmental site assessment" means an assessment of a site to identify potential or known areas of environmental contamination. This assessment may include reviewing records, interviewing persons, and conducting physical inspections of the site.
NR 700.03(43r)
(43r) “Phase II environmental site assessment" means an assessment of a site to physically confirm that contamination exists in potential or known areas of environmental contamination identified in the Phase I environmental assessment, but not to determine the nature, degree and extent of contamination. This assessment may include field sampling of media, laboratory analysis of samples and visual confirmation of environmental contamination at the site.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: The department recommends that at a minimum, the current ASTM standards be followed when conducting Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments. When a person is seeking liability protections under CERCLA the person should follow EPA's requirements. See EPA's web page at:
www.epa.gov for more information.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
NR 140.05 (15) defines “point of standards application" to mean “the specific location, depth or distance from a facility, activity or practice at which the concentration of a substance in groundwater is measured for purposes of determining whether a preventive action limit or an enforcement standard has been attained or exceeded."
NR 700.03(45)
(45) “Practicable" means capable of being implemented, taking into account:
NR 700.03(45)(a)
(a) The technical feasibility of a remedial action option, considering its long-term effectiveness, short-term effectiveness, implementability and the time it will take until restoration is achieved; and
NR 700.03(45)(b)
(b) The economic feasibility of a remedial action option, considering the cost of the remedial action option compared to its technical feasibility.
NR 700.03(45e)
(45e) “Property" means a contiguous area of land the entire legal description of which is found in one deed.
NR 700.03(45m)
(45m) “Property boundary'' means the boundary of the property owned or leased by a common owner or lessor, regardless of whether public or private roads run through the property.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: Section
NR 140.05 (17) defines “preventive action limit" to mean “a numerical value expressing the concentration of a substance in groundwater which is adopted under s.
160.15, Stats., and s.
NR 140.10,
140.12 or
140.20."
NR 700.03(47)
(47) “Receptor" means environmental resources, including but not limited to, plant and animal species and humans, sensitive environments and habitats, water supply wells, and buildings or locations that have the potential to be, or have actually been, exposed to contamination.
NR 700.03(48)
(48) “Remedial action" or “remedy" means those response actions, other than immediate or interim actions, taken to control, minimize, restore, or eliminate the discharge of hazardous substances or environmental pollution so that the hazardous substances or environmental pollution do not present an actual or potential threat to public health, safety, or welfare or the environment. The term includes actions designed to prevent, minimize, stabilize, or eliminate the threat of discharged hazardous substances, and actions to restore the environment to the extent practicable and meet all applicable environmental standards. Examples include storage, disposal, containment, treatment, recycling, or reuse, and any monitoring required to assure that such actions protect public health, safety, and welfare and the environment.
NR 700.03(49)
(49) “Remedial action options report" means a report which identifies and evaluates various remedial action options with the goal of selecting an option in compliance with the requirements of s.
NR 722.11.
NR 700.03(49g)
(49g) “Residential setting" means any dwelling designed or used for human habitation, and includes educational, childcare, and elder care settings.
NR 700.03(49r)
(49r) “Residual contamination" means that some contamination remains after a cleanup is completed and approved. Residual contamination includes all phases of remaining contamination including vapor, dissolved, adsorbed, and free-phase.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: The term “residual contamination" does not have the same meaning as the terms “residual phase", “residual concentration" or “residual contaminant level." The terms “residual phase" and “residual (phase) concentration" are used in some publications and are used when referring to the free-phase or separate non-aqueous phase liquid in soil or groundwater. The term “residual contaminant level" is used in ch.
NR 720 to refer to soil standards developed under that chapter.
NR 700.03(50)
(50) “Response" or “response action" means any action taken to respond to a hazardous substance discharge or to environmental pollution, including emergency and non-emergency immediate actions, investigations, interim actions and remedial actions.
NR 700.03(51)
(51) “Responsible party" or “responsible parties" means any of the following:
NR 700.03(51)(a)
(a) Any person who is required to conduct a response action under ch.
292, Stats.
NR 700.03(51)(b)
(b) Persons liable to reimburse the department for the costs incurred by the department to take response action under chs.
289 and
292, Stats.
NR 700.03(51)(c)
(c) Owners and operators of solid waste facilities that are subject to regulation under ch.
NR 508.
NR 700.03(52)
(52) “Restore" or “restoration" means those actions necessary to return the environment to its original condition before the hazardous substance discharge or environmental pollution occurred. Such actions may include, but are not limited to, the replacement or removal of injured plant and animal life and treatment of contaminated soils.
NR 700.03 Note
Note: This definition was formerly found in s. NR 158.04 (5).
NR 700.03(52m)
(52m) “Right–of–way" means the strip of land over which railroad tracks run, or within which a public street or highway has been constructed, regardless of whether the strip of land is owned by the railroad or the entity that maintains the public street or highway; and corridors created by dedication, by the granting of an easement and by the acquisition of fee title.
