7 Del. Admin. Code § 7103-103.0
The following terms have the meanings indicated.
"Aerobic digestion" is the biochemical decomposition of organic matter in sewage sludge into primarily carbon dioxide and water by microorganisms in the presence of air.
"Anaerobic digestion"is the biochemical decomposition of organic matter in sewage sludge into methane gas and carbon dioxide by microorganisms in the absence of air.
"Agricultural land" is land on which a food crop, a feed crop, or a fiber crop is grown. This includes range land and land used as pasture.
"Agricultural utilization"means the application rate of wastes or sludge or sludge products which shall not exceed the nutrient needs of the crop grown on the particular soil plus the other assimilative pathways in soils (e.g. immobilization with organic material, volatilization, and leachate in compliance with drinking water standards).
"Agricultural wastes" means wastes normally associated with the production and processing of food and fiber on farms, feedlots, ranches, ranges, and forests which may include animal manure, crop residues, and dead animals; also agricultural chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides which may find their way into surface and subsurface water.
"Agronomic rate" is the whole sludge application rate (dry weight basis) designed:
1 To provide the amount of nitrogen needed by the food crop, feed crop, fiber crop, cover crop, or vegetation grown on the land; and
2 To minimize the amount of nitrogen in the sewage sludge that passes below the root zone of the crop or vegetation grown on the land to the ground water.
"Annual pollutant loading rate"is the maximum amount of a pollutant that can be applied to a unit area of land during a 365 day period.
"Annual whole sludge application rate"is the maximum amount of sewage sludge (dry weight basis) that can be applied to a unit area of land during a 365 day period.
"Applier"is a person who is responsible for applying stabilized sewage sludge to a parcel of land.
"Aquifer"is a geologic formation, grouping of geologic formations, or a portion of a geologic formation capable of yielding ground water to wells or springs.
"Base flood"is a flood that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year.
"Bulk sewage sludge" is Exceptional Quality sludge that is not sold or given away in a bag or other container for application to the land.
"Collection"means any action involved in the gathering or subsequent placement or sludge, treated sludge, or any other product containing these materials, into a vehicle, container or any other vessel for transportation to some other location.
"Cover" is soil or other material used to cover sewage sludge placed on an active sewage sludge unit.
"Cover crop"is a small grain crop, such as oats, wheat, or barley, grown to prevent nitrogen leaching during the winter months.
"Crops for direct human consumption"means crops that are consumed by humans without processing.
"Cumulative pollutant loading rate" is the maximum amount of an inorganic pollutant that can be applied to an area of land.
"Density of microorganisms" is the number of microorganisms per unit mass of total solids (dry weight) in the sewage sludge.
"Department"means the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
"Disposal"means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of sludge, any material containing sludge, or any constituent of it on or in the land, the air or any waters, including ground water, and includes any method of sludge utilization that involves reuse of nutrients in the sludge at greater than agronomic rates (this excludes land reclamation).
"Distribute" means to barter, sell, offer for sale, consign, furnish, provide, or otherwise supply a material as part of a commercial enterprise or a giveaway program.
"Domestic septage" is either liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet, Type III marine sanitation device, or similar treatment works that receives only domestic sewage. Domestic septage does not include liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, holding tank, or similar treatment works that receives either commercial wastewater or industrial wastewater and does not include grease removed from a grease trap at a restaurant.
"Domestic sewage"is water and wastewater from humans or household operations that is discharged to or otherwise enters a treatment works.
"Dry weight basis" means calculated on the basis of having been dried at 105 degrees Celsius until reaching a constant mass (i.e., essentially 100 percent solids content).
"Exceptional Quality Sludge ("EQ Sludge")"sludge that has been stabilized (as per Subsection 603) by a Further Reduction Pathogens, meets one of the Vector Attraction Reduction Requirements specified in Subsection 604 (88.1-8) and contains lower metal concentrations than the allowable Pollutant Concentration specified Table 402-3.
"Feed crops"are crops produced primarily for consumption by animals.
"Fiber crops" are crops such as flax, cotton, and hemp.
"Food chain crops"means tobacco, crops grown for human consumption, and crops grown to feed animals whose products are consumed by humans.
"Food crops"are crops consumed by humans. These include, but are not limited to, fruits, vegetables, and tobacco.
"Forest"is a tract of land thick with trees and underbrush.
"Forestry"means the science of the ecosystems, management and production of a forest or forest system.
"Free liquids" means liquids which readily separate from the solid portion of a waste under the EPA Gravity Test. The test protocol calls for a 100 ml representative sample of the waste from a container to be placed in a 400 micron conical paint filter for 5 minutes. The filter specified is a standard paint filter which is commonly available at hardware and paint stores. The filter is to be supported by a funnel on a ring stand with a beaker or cylinder below the funnel to capture any free liquid that passes through the filter. If any amount of free liquid passes through the filter, the waste is considered to hold free liquids.
"Grease trap waste"means the combined liquid and solid fractions of material accumulated in a tank or other device designed for the removal of grease, fat and oil from wastewater (for the purpose of these regulations petroleum products are excluded).
"Grit (and screenings)"are the heavy materials such as sand, gravel, cinders and egg shells collected in the preliminary treatment of sewage. Screenings are the materials separated from wastewater during preliminary treatment made up of floatable debris such as wood, plastic and cloth.
"Ground water" is water below the land surface in the saturated zone.
"Handling" means any way in which sludge, treated sludge, or any other product containing these materials is dealt with, other than collection, burning, storage, treatment, land application, disposal, or transportation. It includes distribution of treated sludge.
"Holding tank waste"means wastewater from any home or business that is held temporarily in a container where no on-site treatment is performed. The wastewater is hauled off site for treatment.
"Impermeable" means having a hydraulic conductivity equal to or less than 1 x 10-7 cm/sec as determined by field and laboratory permeability tests made according to standard test methods which may be correlated with soil densification as determined by compaction tests.
"Industrial wastewater" is wastewater generated in a commercial or industrial process.
"Label"means the display of all written, printed, or graphic material on the immediate container, or information accompanying the material.
"Land application"means the placement of sludge, treated sludge, or any other product containing these materials on or within 2 feet below the surface of land used to support vegetative growth.
"Land disposal of sludge" means application of sludge at rates higher than acceptable for agricultural utilization.
"Land with a high potential for public exposure"is land that the public uses frequently. This includes, but is not limited to, a public contact site and a reclamation site located in a populated area (e.g., a construction site located in a city).
"Land with a low potential for public exposure"is land that the public uses infrequently. This includes, but is not limited to, agricultural land, forest, and a reclamation site located in an unpopulated area (e.g., a strip mine located in a rural area).
"Land reclamation" means the application of sludge at a rate not greater than necessary to support and maintain immediate revegetation. Application may be in multiple cycles prior to establishment of vegetation, but must be accomplished within a single short-term operational period.
"Land treatment" means a technology for the intimate mixing or dispersion of wastes into the upper zone of the plant-soil system with the objective of microbial stabilization, immobilization, selective dispersion, or crop recovery leading to an environmentally acceptable assimilation of the waste.
"Landfill" means a natural topographic depression, man-made excavation or diked area formed primarily of earthen materials, which has been lined with man-made materials or remains unlined and which is designed to hold an accumulation of solid wastes.
"Liquid waste" means any waste which is not a solid waste as defined for the purposes of these regulations.
"Other container"is either an open or closed receptacle. This includes, but is not limited to, a bucket, box, carton, truck or trailer.
"Pasture"is land on which animals feed directly on forage crops such as legumes, grasses, grain stubble, or stover.
"Pathogenic organisms"are disease-causing organisms. These include, but are not limited to, certain bacteria, protozoa, viruses, and viable helminth ova.
"Permitting authority"is either EPA or a State with an EPA-approved sludge management program.
"Person"means an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, federal agency, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, or any interstate body.
"PFRP"means process to further reduce pathogens.
"pH"means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration.
"Pollutant"is an organic substance, an inorganic substance, a combination of organic and inorganic substances, or a pathogenic organisms that, after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into an organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through the food chain, could, on the basis of information available to the Administration of EPA, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions(including malfunctions in reproduction), or physical deformations in either organisms or offspring of the organisms.
"Pollutant limit" is a numerical value that describes the amount of a pollutant allowed per unit amount of sewage sludge (e.g., milligrams per kilogram of total solids); the amount of a pollutant that can be applied to a unit area of land (e.g., kilograms per hectare); or the volume of a material that can be applied to a unit area of land (e.g., gallons per acre).
"Preparer"is a person who prepares sewage sludge or is either the person who generates sewage sludge during the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works or the person who derives a material from sewage sludge.
"PSRP"means process to significantly reduce pathogens.
"Public contact site" is land with a high potential for contact by the public. This includes, but is not limited to, public parks, ball fields, cemeteries, plant nurseries, turf farms, and golf courses.
"Range land"is open land with indigenous vegetation.
"Reclamation site"is drastically disturbed land that is reclaimed using sewage sludge. This includes, but is not limited to, strip mines and construction sites.
"Runoff"is rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains overland on any part of a land surface and runs off of the land surface.
"Sewage" means water-carried human or animal wastes from septic tanks, water closets, residences, buildings, industrial establishments, or other places, together with such groundwater infiltration, subsurface water, admixture of industrial wastes or other wastes as may be present.
"Sewage sludge" means sludges which derives in whole or in part from sewage.
"Silviculture"means any forest management activity, including but not to, the harvest of timber, construction of roads and trails for the purpose of forest management, and preparation of property for reforestation.
"Sludge compost"means a treated sludge produced by subjecting a mixture of sludge and a bulking agent, such as wood chips, to aerobic decomposition in a manner that destroys primary pathogenic and malodorous components.
"Sludge"means the accumulated semi-liquid suspension, settled solids, or dried residue of these solids that is deposited from (a) liquid waste in a municipal or industrial wastewater treatment plant, (b) domestic septage is included herein as sludge (see section 200, (22)).
"Sludge generator":
Means a person who owns or operates a facility that receives or processes wastewater and produces or otherwise generates sludge.
Does not include the owner or operator of a septic tank, chemical toilet, privy, or holding tank used for the collection of sewage.
"Sludge utilization"means the preparation, transportation, storage, land application, or marketing and distribution of sludge.
"Sludge utilizer" means:any person who collects, stores, applies to land, or markets or distributes sludge.
"Solid waste"means any garbage, refuse, rubbish, and other discarded materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, agricultural operations and from community activities which does not contain free liquids. Containers holding free liquids shall be considered solid waste when the container is designed to hold free liquids for use other than storage (e.g. radiators, batteries, transformers) or the waste is household waste.
"Specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR)"is the mass of oxygen consumed per unit time per unit mass of total solids (dry weight basis) in the sewage sludge.
"Spray irrigation" means the loading rate for land treatment of wastewater which shall not exceed either the needs of the crop grown on the particular soil plus the other assimilative mechanisms (immobilization with organic material, volatilization, and leachate in compliance with drinking water standards), or the hydraulic capacity of the soil. The Department may require a lower loading rate if the design criteria for pathogens, metals or organics contained in these Regulations and generally accepted technical standards for land treatment technology (e.g. U.S. EPA Process Design Manual or Overcash, M.R. and P. Pal 1979 Design of Land Treatment Systems for Industrial Wastes - Theory and Practice cannot be achieved at a rate consistent with agricultural utilization.
"Storage" means the interim containment (for a period not to exceed two years) of sludge, treated sludge, or any other product containing these materials after removal from a wastewater treatment plant and before disposal or utilization.
"Surface impoundment"means a natural topographic depression, or diked area formed primarily of earthen materials may be lined with man-made materials or remains unlined, and which is designed to hold an accumulation of liquid wastes or wastes containing free liquids.
"Total solids"are the materials in sewage sludge that remain as residue when the sewage sludge is dried at 103 to 105 degrees Celsius.
"Transportation" means the off-site movement of sludge, treated sludge, or any other product containing these materials by air, rail, highway, pipeline, or water.
Treat or treatment of sewage sludge" is the preparation of sewage sludge for final use or disposal. This includes, but is not limited to, thickening, stabilization, and dewatering of sewage sludge.
"Treatment"means a process which alters, modifies, or changes the biological, physical, or chemical characteristics of sludge or liquid waste.
"Treatment works"means any device and system used in the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage, or industrial wastes of a liquid nature, or necessary to recycle or reuse water at the most economical cost over the estimated life of the works, including intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, pumping, power and other equipment, and their appurtenances, extensions, improvements, remodeling, additions and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities and improvements to exclude or minimize inflow and infiltration.
"TWDS"means Treatment Works Treating Domestic Sewage.
"Unstabilized solids"are organic materials in sewage sludge that have not been treated in either an aerobic or anaerobic treatment process.
"Vector attraction" is the characteristic of sewage sludge that attracts rodents, flies, mosquitos, or other organisms capable of transporting infectious agents.
"Volatile solids"is the amount of the total solids in sewage sludge lost when the sewage sludge is combusted at 550 degrees Celsius in the presence of excess air.
"Wastewater treatment plant"means a facility designed and constructed to receive, treat, or store waterborne wastes.
"Wetlands"means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or ground water at a frequency and duration to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.
7 Del. Admin. Code § 7103-103.0