It may seem overly technical to dwell on the exact meaning of the term industrial facility. A facility is readily conceived as one or more structures within a designated area surrounded by a fence or other clearly demarcated border. Industrial activities include manufacturing or similar operations performed by the facility’s operator within the facility’s boundaries. This conceptualization provides a workable understanding that is adequate for most purposes.
At times, however, related industrial operations may not be confined to a single location. Separation of activities may result from various factors, including among others the availability or cost of land, the need for available infrastructure to support certain portions of a manufacturing operation, proximity to resources or customers or the dependence of activities on particular geological features. Natural gas exploration and production are examples of interrelated activities that occur at multiple spatially separated locations often connected by pipelines to common compressor stations or industrial plants.
