Sec. 26.342. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:

(1) "Aboveground storage tank" means a nonvehicular device that is:

(A) made of nonearthen materials;

(B) located on or above the surface of the ground or on or above the surface of the floor of a structure below ground such as a mineworking, basement, or vault; and

(C) designed to contain an accumulation of petroleum.

(2) "Claim" means a demand in writing for a certain sum.

(3) "Corporate fiduciary" means an entity chartered by the Banking Department of Texas, the Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending, the United States comptroller of the currency, or the director of the United States Office of Thrift Supervision that acts as a receiver, conservator, guardian, executor, administrator, trustee, or fiduciary of real or personal property.

(4) "Eligible owner or operator" means a person designated as an eligible owner or operator for purposes of this subchapter by the commission under Section 26.3571(d) of this code.

(5) "Hazardous substance" has the meaning assigned by Section 101(14) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. Section 9601 et seq.).

(6) "Hydraulic fluid" means any regulated substance that can be used in a hydraulic lift system.

(7) "Lender" means:

(A) a state or national bank;

(B) a state or federal savings and loan association or savings bank;

(C) a credit union;

(D) a state or federal agency that customarily provides financing; or

(E) an entity that is registered with the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner pursuant to Chapter 348 or 353, Finance Code, if the entity is regularly engaged in the business of extending credit and if extending credit represents the majority of the entity's total business activity.

(8) "Operator" means any person in day-to-day control of and having responsibility for the daily operation of the underground storage tank system.

(9) "Owner" means a person who holds legal possession or ownership of an interest in an underground storage tank system or an aboveground storage tank. If the actual ownership of an underground storage tank system or an aboveground storage tank is uncertain, unknown, or in dispute, the fee simple owner of the surface estate of the tract on which the tank system is located is considered the owner of the system unless that person can demonstrate by appropriate documentation, including a deed reservation, invoice, or bill of sale, or by other legally acceptable means that the underground storage tank system or aboveground storage tank is owned by another person. A person that has registered as an owner of an underground storage tank system or aboveground storage tank with the commission under Section 26.346 after September 1, 1987, shall be considered the tank system owner until such time as documentation demonstrates to the executive director's satisfaction that the legal interest in the tank system was transferred to a different person subsequent to the date of the tank registration. This definition is subject to the limitations found in Section 26.3514 (Limits on Liability of Lender), Section 26.3515 (Limits on Liability of Corporate Fiduciary), and Section 26.3516 (Limits on Liability of Taxing Unit).

(10) "Person" means an individual, trust, firm, joint-stock company, corporation, government corporation, partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, an interstate body, a consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, or the United States government.

(11) "Petroleum product" means a petroleum product that is obtained from distilling and processing crude oil and that is capable of being used as a fuel for the propulsion of a motor vehicle or aircraft, including motor gasoline, gasohol, other alcohol blended fuels, aviation gasoline, kerosene, distillate fuel oil, and #1 and #2 diesel. The term does not include naphtha-type jet fuel, kerosene-type jet fuel, or a petroleum product destined for use in chemical manufacturing or feedstock of that manufacturing.

(12) "Petroleum storage tank" means:

(A) any one or combination of aboveground storage tanks that contain petroleum products and that are regulated by the commission; or

(B) any one or combination of underground storage tanks and any connecting underground pipes that contain petroleum products and that are regulated by the commission.

(13) "Regulated substance" means an element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance that, when released into the environment, may present substantial danger to the public health, welfare, or the environment.

(14) "Release" means any spilling including overfills, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, leaching, or disposing from an underground or aboveground storage tank into groundwater, surface water, or subsurface soils.

(15) "Risk-based corrective action" means site assessment or site remediation, the timing, type, and degree of which is determined according to case-by-case consideration of actual or potential risk to public health from environmental exposure to a regulated substance released from a leaking underground or aboveground storage tank.

(16) "Spent oil" means a regulated substance that is a lubricating oil or similar petroleum substance which has been refined from crude oil, used for its designed or intended purposes, and contaminated as a result of that use by physical or chemical impurities, including spent motor vehicle lubricating oils, transmission fluid, or brake fluid.

(16-a) "Subsurface soil" does not include backfill or native material that is placed immediately adjacent to or surrounding an underground storage tank system when the system is installed or the system's individual components are replaced unless free phase petroleum product is present in the backfill or native material.

(17) "Underground storage tank" means any one or combination of underground tanks and any connecting underground pipes used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances, the volume of which, including the volume of the connecting underground pipes, is 10 percent or more beneath the surface of the ground.

(18) "Vehicle service and fueling facility" means a facility where motor vehicles are serviced or repaired and where petroleum products are stored and dispensed from fixed equipment into the fuel tanks of motor vehicles.

Added by Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 277, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987. Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 228, Sec. 1, eff. May 31, 1989; Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 905, Sec. 1, eff. June 16, 1991; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 315, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1995; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 62, Sec. 7.96, eff. Sept. 1, 1999; Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1441, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1999; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 965, Sec. 14.01, eff. Sept. 1, 2001; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1135, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.

Amended by:

Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 722 (S.B. 485), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2005.

Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 1256 (H.B. 1987), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2005.

Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 921 (H.B. 3167), Sec. 6.068, eff. September 1, 2007.

Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 117 (H.B. 2559), Sec. 25, eff. September 1, 2011.