Ariz. Admin. Code § 18-11-101

Current through Register Vol. 30, No. 25, June 21, 2024
Section R18-11-101 - Definitions

The following terms apply to this Article:

1. "Acute toxicity" means toxicity involving a stimulus severe enough to induce a rapid response. In aquatic toxicity tests, an effect observed in 96 hours or less is considered acute.
2. "Agricultural irrigation (AgI)" means the use of a surface water for crop irrigation.
3. "Agricultural livestock watering (AgL)" means the use of a surface water as a water supply for consumption by livestock.
4. "Annual mean" is the arithmetic mean of monthly values determined over a consecutive 12-month period, provided that monthly values are determined for at least three months. A monthly value is the arithmetic mean of all values determined in a calendar month.
5. "Aquatic and wildlife (cold water) (A&Wc)" means the use of a surface water by animals, plants, or other cold-water organisms, generally occurring at an elevation greater than 5000 feet, for habitation, growth, or propagation.
6. "Aquatic and wildlife (effluent-dependent water) (A&Wedw)" means the use of an effluent-dependent water by animals, plants, or other organisms for habitation, growth, or propagation.
7. "Aquatic and wildlife (ephemeral) (A&We)" means the use of an ephemeral water by animals, plants, or other organisms, excluding fish, for habitation, growth, or propagation.
8. "Aquatic and wildlife (warm water) (A&Ww)" means the use of a surface water by animals, plants, or other warm-water organisms, generally occurring at an elevation less than 5000 feet, for habitation, growth, or propagation.
9. "Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (AZPDES)" means the point source discharge permitting program established under 18 A.A.C. 9, Article 9.
10. "Assimilative capacity" means the difference between the baseline water quality concentration for a pollutant and the most stringent applicable water quality criterion for that pollutant.
11. "Clean Water Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act [33 U.S.C. 1251 to 1387] .
12. "Complete Mixing" means the location at which concentration of a pollutant across a transect of a surface water differs by less than five percent.
13. "Criteria" means elements of water quality standards that are expressed as pollutant concentrations, levels, or narrative statements representing a water quality that supports a designated use.
14. "Critical flow conditions of the discharge" means the hydrologically based discharge flow averages that the director uses to calculate and implement applicable water quality criteria to a mixing zone's receiving water as follows:
a. For acute aquatic water quality standard criteria, the discharge flow critical condition is represented by the maximum one-day average flow analyzed over a reasonably representative timeframe.
b. For chronic aquatic water quality standard criteria, the discharge flow critical flow condition is represented by the maximum monthly average flow analyzed over a reasonably representative timeframe.
c. For human health based water quality standard criteria, the discharge flow critical condition is the long-term arithmetic mean flow, averaged over several years so as to simulate long-term exposure.
15. "Critical flow conditions of the receiving water" means the hydrologically based receiving water low flow averages that the director uses to calculate and implement applicable water quality criteria:
a. For acute aquatic water quality standard criteria, the receiving water critical condition is represented as the lowest one-day aver-age flow event expected to occur once every ten years, on average (1Q10).
b. For chronic aquatic water quality standard criteria, the receiving water critical flow condition is represented as the lowest seven-consecutive-day average flow expected to occur once every 10 years, on average (7Q10), or
c. For human health based water quality standard criteria, in order to simulate long-term exposure, the receiving water critical flow condition is the harmonic mean flow.
16. "Deep lake" means a lake or reservoir with an average depth of more than 6 meters.
17. "Designated use" means a use specified in Appendix B of this Article for a surface water.
18. "Domestic water source (DWS)" means the use of a surface water as a source of potable water. Treatment of a surface water may be necessary to yield a finished water suitable for human consumption.
19. "Effluent-dependent water (EDW)" means a surface water or portion of a surface water, that consists of a point source discharge without which the surface water would be ephemeral. An effluent-dependent water may be perennial or intermittent depending on the volume and frequency of the point source discharge of treated wastewater.
20. "Ephemeral water" means a surface water or portion of surface water that flows or pools only in direct response to precipitation.
21. "Existing use" means a use attained in the waterbody on or after November 28, 1975, whether or not it is included in the water quality standards.
22. "Fish consumption (FC)" means the use of a surface water by humans for harvesting aquatic organisms for consumption. Harvestable aquatic organisms include, but are not limited to, fish, clams, turtles, crayfish, and frogs.
23. "Full-body contact (FBC)" means the use of a surface water for swimming or other recreational activity that causes the human body to come into direct contact with the water to the point of complete submergence. The use is such that ingestion of the water is likely and sensitive body organs, such as the eyes, ears, or nose, may be exposed to direct contact with the water.
24. "Geometric mean" means the nth root of the product of n items or values. The geometric mean is calculated using the following formula:

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25. "Hardness" means the sum of the calcium and magnesium concentrations, expressed as calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in milligrams per liter.
26. "Igneous lake" means a lake located in volcanic, basaltic, or granite geology and soils.
27. "Intermittent water" means a surface water or portion of surface water that flows continuously during certain times of the year and more than in direct response to precipitation, such as when it receives water from a spring, elevated groundwater table or another surface source, such as melting snowpack.
28. "Mixing zone" means an area or volume of a surface water that is contiguous to a point source discharge where dilution of the discharge takes place.
29. "Oil" means petroleum in any form, including crude oil, gasoline, fuel oil, diesel oil, lubricating oil, or sludge.
30. "Outstanding Arizona water (OAW)" means a surface water that is classified as an outstanding state resource water by the Director under R18-11-112.
31. "Partial-body contact (PBC)" means the recreational use of a surface water that may cause the human body to come into direct contact with the water, but normally not to the point of complete submergence (for example, wading or boating). The use is such that ingestion of the water is not likely and sensitive body organs, such as the eyes, ears, or nose, will not normally be exposed to direct contact with the water.
32. "Perennial water" means a surface water or portion of surface water that flows continuously throughout the year.
33. "Pollutant" means fluids, contaminants, toxic wastes, toxic pollutants, dredged spoil, solid waste, substances and chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, petroleum products, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural wastes or any other liquid, solid, gaseous, or hazardous substance. A.R.S § 49-201(29)
34. "Pollutant Minimization Program" means a structured set of activities to improve processes and pollutant controls that will prevent and reduce pollutant loadings.
35. "Practical quantitation limit" means the lowest level of quantitative measurement that can be reliably achieved during a routine laboratory operation.
36. "Reference condition" means a set of abiotic physical stream habitat, water quality, and site selection criteria established by the Director that describe the typical characteristics of stream sites in a region that are least disturbed by environmental stressors. Reference biological assemblages of macroinvertebrates and algae are collected from these reference condition streams for calculating the Arizona Indexes of Biological Integrity thresholds.
37. "Regional Administrator" means the Regional Administrator of Region IX of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
38. "Regulated discharge" means a point-source discharge regulated under an AZPDES permit, a discharge regulated by a § 404 permit, and any discharge authorized by a federal permit or license that is subject to state water quality certification under § 401 of the Clean Water Act.
39. "Riffle habitat" means a stream segment where moderate water velocity and substrate roughness produce moderately turbulent conditions that break the surface tension of the water and may produce breaking wavelets that turn the surface water into white water.
40. "Run habitat" means a stream segment where there is moderate water velocity that does not break the surface tension of the water and does not produce breaking wavelets that turn the surface water into white water.
41. "Sedimentary lake" means a lake or reservoir in sedimentary or karst geology and soils.
42. "Shallow lake" means a lake or reservoir, excluding an urban lake, with a smaller, flatter morphology and an average depth of less than 3 meters and a maximum depth of less than 4 meters.
43. "Significant degradation" means:
a. The consumption of 20 percent or more of the available assimilative capacity for a pollutant of concern at critical flow conditions, or
b. Any consumption of assimilative capacity beyond the cumulative cap of 50 percent of assimilative capacity.
44. "Surface water" means "WOTUS" as defined in A.R.S. § 49-201(53).
45. "Total nitrogen" means the sum of the concentrations of ammonia (NH3), ammonium ion (NH4+), nitrite (NO2), and nitrate (NO3), and dissolved and particulate organic nitrogen expressed as elemental nitrogen.
46. "Total phosphorus" means all of the phosphorus present in a sample, regardless of form, as measured by a persulfate digestion procedure.
47. "Toxic" means a pollutant or combination of pollutants, that after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into an organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, may cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction), or physical deformations in the organism or its offspring.
48. "Urban lake" means a manmade lake within an urban landscape.
49. "Use attainability analysis" means a structured scientific assessment of the factors affecting the attainment of a designated use including physical, chemical, biological, and economic factors.
50. "Variance" means a time-limited designated use and criterion for a specific pollutant(s) or water quality parameter(s) that reflect the highest attainable condition during the term of the variance.
51. "Wadable" means a surface water can be safely crossed on foot and sampled without a boat.
52. "Wastewater" does not mean:
a. Stormwater,
b. Discharges authorized under the De Minimus General Permit,
c. Other allowable non-stormwater discharges permitted under the Construction General Permit or the Multi-sector General Permit, or
d. Stormwater discharges from a municipal storm sewer system (MS4) containing incidental amounts of non-stormwater that the MS4 is not required to prohibit.
53. "Wetland" means an area that is inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. A wetland includes a swamp, marsh, bog, cienega, tinaja, and similar areas.
54. "Zone of initial dilution" means a small area in the immediate vicinity of an outfall structure in which turbulence is high and causes rapid mixing with the surrounding water.

Ariz. Admin. Code § R18-11-101

Former Section R9-21-101 repealed, new Section R9-21-101 adopted effective January 29, 1980 (Supp. 80-1). Amended effective April 17, 1984 (Supp. 84-2). Amended effective January 7, 1985 (Supp. 85-1). Amended by adding subsection (C) effective August 12, 1986 (Supp. 86-4). Former Section R9-21-101 renumbered without change as Section R18-11-101 (Supp. 87-3). Former Section R18-11-101 repealed, new Section R18-11-101 adopted effective February 18, 1992 (Supp. 92-1). Amended effective April 24, 1996 (Supp. 96-2). Deleted first definition to R18-11-101(32) "Navigable Water", previously printed in error (Supp. 96-3). Amended by final rulemaking at 8 A.A.R. 1264, effective March 8, 2002 (Supp. 02-1). Amended by final rulemaking at 9 A.A.R. 716, effective April 8, 2003 (Supp. 03-1). Amended by final rulemaking at 14 A.A.R. 4708, effective January 31, 2009 (Supp. 08-4). Amended by final rulemaking at 25 A.A.R. 2515, effective 9/10/2019. Amended by final rulemaking at 29 A.A.R. 302, effective 2/20/2023.