La. Admin. Code tit. 51 § XII-707

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 11, November 20, 2024

Section XII-707 - Classification of Violations [formerly section 4.1 of paragraph IV of appendix B]

A. The various types of violations which can occur are classified into three levels of seriousness based upon their public health risk. The three levels of seriousness are defined as follows.

1. Imminent threat type violations are defined as those violations considered to be of an acute risk to public health requiring an immediate action or response by the owner and/or operator of a public water system. Imminent threat type violations include, but are not limited to, the following:

a. exceeding maximum contaminant levels for nitrate;

b. exceeding the maximum contaminant level for total coliform when fecal coliform or E. coli is present in the water distribution system;

c. occurrence of a water-borne disease outbreak in an unfiltered surface water system or an unfiltered ground water system which is under the direct influence of surface water;

d. any violation specified by the state health officer as posing an acute risk to human health;

e. failure to comply with any remedial action(s) ordered in the context of an emergency order issued by the state health officer, such as but not limited to boil notices;

f. failure to give public notification of an acute violation (Tier 1-Acute) within the time frames allowed by law or duly adopted rule.

2.Priority threattype violations are defined as those violations considered to be of a moderate risk to public health but which could result in an acute risk and therefore require an immediate action or response by the owner and/or operator. Priority threat violations include, but are not limited to, the following:

a. exceeding the maximum contaminant level for total coliform;

b. failure to comply with a treatment technique requirement;

c. failure to comply with a variance or exemption schedule;

d. exceeding the maximum contaminant level for a physical, radiological, or chemical (other than nitrate) contaminant. For the purpose of clarification, a physical contaminant is defined as turbidity, temperature, conductivity, color, taste, or odor;

e. failure to perform compliance monitoring as required for any bacteriological, physical, radiological, or chemical contaminant;

f. failure to utilize either a laboratory certified by the Office of Public Health or an Office of Public Health laboratory which has been certified by EPA for compliance monitoring determination of any bacteriological, physical, radiological, or chemical contaminant in drinking water when such contaminant determination is required by law or duly adopted rule to be analyzed by an EPA or state-certified laboratory;

g. failure to perform proper testing procedures for turbidity, disinfectant residual, temperature, pH, conductivity, alkalinity, calcium, silica, orthophosphate, or any other parameter which is not required to be analyzed in an EPA or state-certified laboratory but the results of which are required to be reported to the state for compliance monitoring determinations;

h. failure to report the results of any test measurement or analysis to the state within the time frame allowed by law or duly adopted rule;

i. failure to comply with any remedial action(s) ordered in the context of a non-emergency order issued by the state health officer;

j. failure to give public notification of a non-acute (Tier 1-Non-Acute) violation within the time frames allowed by law or duly adopted rule.

3.Non-imminent threat violations are defined as those violations considered to be of a low risk to public health which do not require an immediate response by the owner and/or operator. These include operational deficiencies, facility deficiencies, and administrative deficiencies. Non-imminent threat type violations include, but are not limited to, the following:

a. failure to give public notification of a monitoring violation, testing procedure violation, variance grant or existence, or exemption grant or existence (Tier 2) within the time frames allowed by law or duly adopted rule;

b. failure to comply with an operational or maintenance requirement;

c. failure to comply with design and construction standards as required by law or duly adopted rule;

d. failure to submit plans and specifications as required by law or duly adopted rule;

e. failure to comply with an operator certification requirement;

f. failure to submit to the state, within the time frames allowed by law or duly adopted rule, a representative copy of each type of public notice distributed, published, posted, and/or made available to the persons served by the system and/or to the news media;

g. failure to maintain records as prescribed by law or duly adopted rule, such as but not limited to, bacteriological and chemical analyses.

La. Admin. Code tit. 51, § XII-707

Promulgated by the Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health, LR 28:1332 (June 2002).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 40:5.9 (A)(4).