Article (1) - Definitions
The following terms and expressions - wherever they appear in this executive regulation – shall have the meanings set forth below, unless the context requires otherwise:
Law: Environmental Law.
Executive Regulation: Executive Regulation for Air Quality.
Ministry: Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture. Minister: Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture.
Center: National Center for Environmental Compliance. Competent
Authority: The Ministry or any of the national environmental centers, within their jurisdiction.
Person: Any public or private natural or legal person.
Activity: Any industrial, commercial, or service-related facility, project, business, or other activities that are expected to have an environmental impact.
Supervising Authority: Any government body that is legally authorized to supervise the activity, and that is mandated to issue licenses for the undertaking of activities under its jurisdiction.
Permit: Document issued by the center to a person before undertaking an activity. Permittee: Person who is granted a permit in accordance with the provisions of this executive regulation. License: Document issued by the center authorizing a person to undertake an environmental activity.
Licensee: Person who is granted a license in accordance with the provisions of this executive regulation. Service
Provider: Person licensed by the center to provide environmental services.
Environment/Environmental Media: All that surrounds man, animals, plants, or any other living organism, such as water, air, land, soil, organisms, biodiversity, atmospheric gases, waterbodies and all the contents of these milieus such as inanimate objects, various forms of energy, habitats, and natural processes, and their interaction with each other.
Environment Protection: Preservation of the environment, which includes preventing pollution and mitigating its severity, reducing environmental degradation, and ensuring sustainable development; through the compliance with standards, requirements and preventive or remedial measures related to the environment in accordance with the provisions of the law and the executive regulations. Air Quality: Air characteristics, assessed according to the standards and norms set by the competent authority to protect the environment and human health. Ambient Air: Atmospheric air where all life activities occur, not including indoor air.
Air Pollutants: Presence of one or more substances in certain quantities or characteristics, over a period of time, that directly or indirectly lead to damaging the air quality.
Environmental Degradation: Severe damage to the environment due to the depletion of natural resources, or the destruction of habitats, or the extinction of wildlife, or the pollution of environmental media and the decline of air, water and soil quality. Compensation: What is paid by the person causing damage, pollution, or environmental degradation; to repair or remove the deterioration resulting from such damage, pollution, or environmental degradation. This includes rehabilitation costs to be paid in case rehabilitation works cannot be carried out by the person causing damage, pollution, or environmental degradation.
Emissions: Release of gases or airborne particles from a specific source into the air.
Point Sources: Permanent or semi-permanent activities resulting in the emission of air pollutants, such as industrial stacks, energy production plants, and the dust resulting from mining activities and construction works, amongst others.
Fugitive Emissions: Gas, liquid, vapor, smoke, drizzle, or dust released from equipment or devices used in any activity.
Environmentally Sensitive Areas: Areas that have environmental significance and whose degradation leads to adverse environmental consequences. They include protected areas, parks, forests, wetlands, significant areas for birds, mangroves, landscaped sites, watersheds, water catchment and run-off areas, beaches, waterways, aquifers, or any area(s) identified or declared by the State, the Ministry, or national environmental centers as environmentally sensitive areas.
Sensitive Receptors: Receptors that are likely to be significantly affected by an activity or project due to their geographical proximity or sensitive nature. They include environmental elements, living species, archaeological, cultural, and religious sites, and community groups (such as endangered species, hospitals, elder care centers, schools, residential complexes, and others).
Standards: Maximum allowable limits or percentages of pollutants or emissions to ensure the quality of environmental media.