7 Del. Admin. Code § 7103-51.0

Current through Register Vol. 28, No. 3, September 1, 2024
Section 7103-51.0 - Definitions

The following terms have the meanings indicated.

"Agricultural land" means land cultivated for the production of crops or used for raising livestock.

"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.

"Crops for direct human consumption" means crops that are consumed by humans without processing to minimize pathogens before distribution to the consumer.

"Department" means the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

"Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of wastewater, other liquid waste, or any constituent of it on or in the land, the airor any waters, including ground water, and includes any method of utilization that involves reuse of the nutrients at greater than agronomic rates.

"Food chain crops" means tobacco, crops grown for human consumption, and crops grown to feed animals whose products are consumed by humans.

"Free liquids" means liquids which readily separate from the solid portion of a waste under the following tests:

(a) EPA Plate Test. Place a 1 to 5 kilogram (2.2 to 11.0 lbs.)sample of waste on a level or slightly sloping plate of glass or other similarly flat and smooth solid material for at least 5 minutes. If a liquid phase separation is observed, the waste contains free liquids.
(b) 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.

"Household waste" means any waste derived from households (including single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, and day-use recreation areas), not including sewage or septage.

"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.

"Land application" means the placement of liquid waste or treated liquid waste within 2 feet below the surface of land used to support vegetative growth.

"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.

"Liquid waste" means any waste which is not a solid waste as defined for the purposes of these regulations.

"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.

"Septage" means the liquid and solid contents of a septic tank.

"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 derive in whole or in part from sewage.

"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) surface or groundwaters treated in a water treatment plant, whether or not these solids have undergone treatment. Septage is included herein as 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 which is not sewage or septage.

"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 (e.g. 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 of liquid waste or treated liquid waste before disposal or utilization.

"Surface impoundment" means a natural topographic depression, and/or man-made excavation, and/or diked area formed primarily of earthen materials (although it 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. Examples of surface impoundments are holding, storage, settling, and elevation pits, ponds, and lagoons. Design requirements for storage are given in Section 900 of the Sludge and Sludge Products Regulations.

"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.

"Wastewater treatment plant" means a facility designed and constructed to receive, treat, or store waterborne or liquid wastes.

7 Del. Admin. Code § 7103-51.0