Section 10. Definitions

Part I. Definitions

The following words and terms when used in this regulation shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Active life" means the length of time a facility discharges to state waters or is subject to regulation under the Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) Permit Regulation (9VAC25-31).

"Anniversary date" means the date of issuance of a financial mechanism.

"Assets" means all existing and all probable future economic benefits obtained or controlled by a particular entity.

"Board" means the State Water Control Board.

"Ceases operations" means to cease conducting the normal operation of a facility under circumstances in which it is reasonable to expect that such operation will not be resumed by the owner at the facility. The term shall not include the sale or transfer of a facility in the ordinary course of business or a permit transfer in accordance with board regulations. Ceases operations shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

1. Bankruptcy or insolvency of the owner or operator or suspension or revocation of a charter or license to operate the facility or to furnish sewer services;

2. Failure to operate and maintain a facility in accordance with the Operations and Maintenance Manual for the facility, such that a substantial or imminent threat to public health or the environment is created;

3. Failure to comply with the requirements of the VPDES permit for the facility, such that a substantial or imminent threat to public health or the environment is created;

4. Notification of termination of service by a utility providing electricity or other resource essential to the normal operation of the facility.

"Closure plan" means a plan to abate, control, prevent, remove, or contain any substantial or imminent threat to public health or the environment that is reasonably likely to occur if a facility ceases operations.

"Current annual inflation factor" means the annual inflation factor derived from the most recent implicit price deflator for gross national product published by the U.S. Department of Commerce in its Survey of Current Business.

"Current closure cost estimate" means the most recent of the estimates prepared in accordance with the requirements of this chapter.

"Current dollars" means the figure represented by the total of the cost estimate multiplied by the current annual inflation factor.

"CWA" means the Clean Water Act (33 USC § 1251 et seq.) (formerly referred to as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act or Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972) Public Law 92-500, as amended by Public Law 95-217, Public Law 95-576, Public Law 96-483, and Public Law 97-117, or any subsequent revisions thereto.

"Department" means the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

"Director" means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality, or an authorized representative.

"Discharge" when used without qualification means the discharge of a pollutant.

"Facility" or "activity" means any VPDES point source or treatment works treating domestic sewage or any other facility or activity (including land or appurtenances thereto) that is subject to regulation under the VPDES program.

"Facility closure plan" means a facility closure plan prepared in accordance with 9VAC25-790-120 E 3.

"Local government" means a municipality, county, city, town, authority, commission, school board, political subdivision of a state, or other special purpose local government which provides essential services.

"Owner or operator" means the owner or operator of any facility or activity subject to regulation under the VPDES program.

"Parent corporation" means a corporation that directly owns at least 50% of the voting stock of the corporation that is the facility owner or operator; the latter corporation is deemed a "subsidiary" of the parent corporation.

"Permit" means an authorization, certificate, license, or equivalent control document issued by the board to implement the requirements of this chapter. For the purposes of this chapter, permit includes coverage issued under a VPDES general permit. Permit does not include any permit which has not yet been the subject of final agency action, such as a draft permit or proposed permit.

"Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, a governmental body, a municipal corporation, or any other legal entity.

"Point source" means any discernible, defined and discrete conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agricultural or agricultural stormwater run off.

"Pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials (except those regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 USC § 2011 et seq.)), heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water. It does not mean:

1. Sewage from vessels; or

2. Water, gas, or other material which is injected into a well to facilitate production of oil or gas, or water derived in association with oil and gas production and disposed of in a well if the well used either to facilitate production or for disposal purposes is approved by the board, and if the board determines that the injection or disposal will not result in the degradation of ground or surface water resources.

"Pollution" means such alteration of the physical, chemical or biological properties of any state waters as will, or is likely to, create a nuisance or render such waters (i) harmful or detrimental or injurious to the public health, safety or welfare, or to the health of animals, fish or aquatic life; (ii) unsuitable with reasonable treatment for use as present or possible future sources of public water supply; or (iii) unsuitable for recreational, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or for other reasonable uses; provided that: (i) an alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological property of state waters, or a discharge or a deposit of sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes to state waters by any owner which by itself is not sufficient to cause pollution, but which, in combination with such alteration of, or discharge or deposit to state waters by other owners, is sufficient to cause pollution; (ii) the discharge of untreated sewage by any owner into state waters; and (iii) contributing to the contravention of standards of water quality duly established by the board, are "pollution" for the terms and purposes of this chapter.

"Private residence" means any building, buildings, or part of a building owned by a private entity which serves as a permanent residence where sewage is generated. Private residences include, but are not limited to, single family homes, town houses, duplexes, condominiums, mobile homes, and apartments. Private residences do not include hotels, motels, seasonal camps, and industrial facilities that do not also serve as residences.

"Privately owned sewerage system" means any device or system that is:

1. Used in the treatment (including recycling and reclamation) of sewage. This definition includes sewers, pipes, pump stations or other conveyances only if they convey wastewater to a privately owned sewerage system; and

2. Not owned by the United States, a state, or a local government.

"Publicly owned treatment works" or "POTW" means a treatment works as defined by § 212 of the CWA, which is owned by a state or municipality (as defined by § 502(4) of the CWA). This definition includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. It also includes sewers, pipes, or other conveyances only if they convey wastewater to a POTW treatment plant. The term also means the municipality as defined in § 502(4) of the CWA, which has jurisdiction over the indirect discharges to and the discharges from such a treatment works.

"Sewage" means the water-carried human wastes from residences, buildings, industrial establishments, or other places together with such industrial wastes, underground, surface, storm, or other water, as may be present.

"Special order" means an order of the board issued under the provisions of § 62.1-44.15:1.1 of the Code of Virginia, which require that an owner file with the board a plan to abate, control, prevent, remove, or contain a substantial and imminent threat to public health or the environment that is likely to occur if the facility ceases operations.

"Signature" means the name of a person written with his own hand.

"State waters" means all water, on the surface and under the ground, wholly, or partially within, or bordering the Commonwealth, or within its jurisdiction, including wetlands.

"Substantial business relationship" means the extent of a business relationship necessary under applicable Virginia law to make a guarantee contract incident to that relationship valid and enforceable. A "substantial business relationship" shall arise from a pattern of recent and ongoing business transactions, in addition to the guarantee itself, such that a currently existing business relationship between the guarantor and the owner or operator is demonstrated to the satisfaction of the director.

"Tangible net worth" means the tangible assets that remain after deducting liabilities; such assets would not include intangibles such as goodwill and rights to patents or royalties.

"Treatment works" means any devices and systems used for the storage, treatment, recycling, or reclamation of sewage or liquid industrial waste, or other waste or necessary to recycle or reuse water, including intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, individual systems, pumping, power and other equipment and their appurtenances; extensions, improvements, remodeling, additions, or alterations thereof; and any works, including land that will be an integral part of the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment; or any other method or system used for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating, or disposing of municipal waste or industrial waste, including waste in combined sewer water and sanitary sewer systems.

"Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) Permit" means a document issued by the board pursuant to 9VAC25-31, authorizing, under prescribed conditions, the potential or actual discharge of pollutants from a point source to surface waters and the use of biosolids or disposal of sewage sludge. Under the approved state program, a VPDES permit is equivalent to an NPDES permit.

Historical Notes

Derived from Volume 18, Issue 04, eff. December 5, 2001; amended, Virginia Register Volume 31, Issue 21, eff. July 30, 2015.

Statutory Authority

§§ 62.1-44.15 and 62.1-44.18:3 of the Code of Virginia.