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Health & Saf. Code, § 5410 · Article 2. Sewage and Other Waste

Health & Saf. Code, § 5410

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

As used in this chapter:

(a) “Waste” includes sewage and any and all other waste substances, liquid, solid, gaseous, or radioactive, associated with human habitation, or of human or animal origin, or from any producing, manufacturing, or processing operation of whatever nature.

(b) “Person” as used in this article also includes any city, county, district, the state or any department or agency thereof.

(c) “Waters of the state” means any water, surface or underground, including saline waters, within the boundaries of the state.

(d) “Contamination” means an impairment of the quality of the waters of the state by waste to a degree which creates a hazard to the public health through poisoning or through the spread of disease. “Contamination” shall include any equivalent effect resulting from the disposal of waste, whether or not waters of the state are affected.

(e) “Pollution” means an alteration of the quality of the waters of the state by waste to a degree which unreasonably affects: (1) such waters for beneficial uses, or (2) facilities which serve such beneficial uses. “Pollution” may include “contamination.”

(f) “Nuisance” means anything which: (1) is injurious to health, or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, and (2) affects at the same time an entire community or neighborhood, or any considerable number of persons, although the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon individuals may be unequal, and (3) occurs during, or as a result of, the treatment or disposal of wastes.

(g) “Regional board” means any California regional water quality control board created pursuant to Section 13201 of the Water Code.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 1969, Ch. 482.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&sectionNum=5410.
Text hash
sha256 8c49e2337031f2c2e35c671844fefddaf2a5c7d0b2acda7c0ca16270742e4af7
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

This section cites

Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.