§22-17-3. Definitions.

(a) “Change in status” means causing an underground storage tank to be no longer in use or a change in the reported uses, contents or ownership of an underground storage tank.

(b) “Director” means the director of the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection or such other person to whom the director has delegated authority or duties pursuant to section six or eight, article one of this chapter.

(c) “Nonoperational storage tank” means an underground storage tank in which regulated substances will not be deposited or from which regulated substances will not be dispensed after November 8, 1984.

(d) “Operator” means any person in control of, or having responsibility for, the daily operation of an underground storage tank.

(e) “Owner” means:

(1) In the case of an underground storage tank in use on November 8, 1984, or brought into use after that date, a person who owns an underground storage tank used for the storage, use or dispensing of a regulated substance.

(2) In the case of an underground storage tank in use before November 8, 1984, but no longer in use on that date, a person who owned such a tank immediately before the discontinuation of its use.

(f) “Person” means any individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including government corporations), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, interstate body, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity and the United States government.

(g) “Petroleum” means petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof which is liquid at a temperature of sixty degrees Fahrenheit and a pressure of fourteen and seven-tenths pounds per square inch absolute.

(h) “Regulated substance” means:

(1) Any substance defined in section 101 (14) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, but not including any substance regulated as a hazardous waste under Subtitle C of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended; or

(2) Petroleum.

(i) “Release” means any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, leaching or disposing from an underground storage tank into groundwater, surface water or subsurface soils.

(j) “Subtitle I” means Subtitle I of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended.

(k) “Underground storage tank” means one tank or a combination of tanks, and the underground pipes connected thereto, which is used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances and the volume of which, including the volume of the underground pipes connected thereto, is ten percent or more beneath the surface of the ground, but does not include:

(1) Farm or residential tanks with a capacity of eleven hundred gallons or less and used for storing motor fuel for noncommercial purposes;

(2) Tanks used for storing heating oil for consumptive use on the premises where stored;

(3) Septic tanks;

(4) A pipeline facility, including gathering lines, regulated under the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, or the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979, or an intrastate pipeline facility regulated under state laws comparable to the provisions of either of those acts;

(5) Surface impoundments, pits, ponds or lagoons;

(6) Storm water or wastewater collection systems;

(7) Flow-through process tanks;

(8) Liquid traps or associated gathering lines directly related to oil or gas production and gathering operations; or

(9) Storage tanks situated in an underground area such as a basement, cellar, mineworking, drift, shaft or tunnel, if the storage tank is situated upon or above the surface of the floor.

The term “underground storage tank” does not include any pipes connected to any tank which is described in subparagraphs (1) through (9).