Md. Code Regs. 26.04.02.01

Current through Register Vol. 51, No. 12, June 14, 2024

Section 26.04.02.01 - Definitions

A. The following terms have the meanings indicated.

B. Terms Defined.

(1) "Approving Authority" means the Secretary of the Department of the Environment or the Secretary's designee.

(2) "Aquifer" means any formation of soil, sand, rock, gravel, limestone, sandstone, or other material, or any crevice from which underground water is or may be produced.

(3) "At-grade system" means an on-site sewage disposal system utilizing a raised bed of gravel over the natural soil surface with a distribution system constructed so as to distribute sewage equally along the length of the gravel bed..

(4) "Best Available Technology for Removal of Nitrogen (BAT)" means a technology that has been approved by the Department as a best available technology for removing nitrogen from onsite sewage disposal systems.

(5) "Certified service provider" means an individual who is certified by the Department to perform operation and maintenance on BAT systems.

(6) "Chemical toilet" means a toilet arranged to receive the nonwater-carried human waste directly into a deodorizing and liquefying chemical in a watertight tank.

(7) "Cistern" means a covered tank in which rain water from roof drains is stored for household or other purposes.

(8) "Community sewerage system" means any system, whether publicly or privately owned, serving two or more individual lots for the collection and disposal of domestic sewage or domestic sewage combined with industrial waste including various devices for the treatment of that sewage.

(9) "Community water supply system" means a source of water and distribution system, including treatment facilities and storage facilities whether publicly or privately owned, serving two or more individual lots.

(10) "Confined aquifer" means an aquifer bounded above and below by beds of distinctly lower permeability than that of the aquifer itself and which contains ground water under pressure greater than that of the atmosphere. This term is synonymous with the term "artesian aquifer".

(11) "Contamination" means the introduction into water of any substance, which may transfer infectious agents or other foreign substances (organic, inorganic, radiological, or biological), in concentrations which may constitute a health hazard or impair the usefulness of the water.

(12) "Controlled hazardous substance" means a substance identified as a hazardous substance by the Department of the Environment pursuant to Environment Article, Title 7, Subtitle 2, Annotated Code of Maryland, and COMAR 26.13.01.03B(26).

(13) "Conventional on-site sewage disposal system" is a system that meets current regulations and includes a sewage treatment unit or BAT with standard trench or deep trench subsurface irrigation, a seepage pit on-site disposal or a sand mound system under Regulation .05 of this chapter, or an at-grade system under Regulation .05 of this chapter.

(14) "County water and sewer plan" means a comprehensive plan and all amendments and revisions of it as required by Environment Article, Title 9, Subtitle 5, Annotated Code of Maryland, for the provision of adequate water and sewerage systems, whether publically or privately owned throughout the county, including towns, municipal corporations, and sanitary districts in the county.

(15) "Deep trench" means a trench having perforated pipe in which the trench side wall and bottom area are used to calculate the absorptive area in the system design. At least 2 inches of gravel/stone covers the pipe and extends throughout the depth of absorptive side wall to the trench bottom.

(16) "Domestic sewage" means the liquid or water carried wastes derived from dwellings, including floating homes, business buildings, institutions, and the like, exclusive of wastes derived from industrial processes.

(17) "Floating home" means any vessel, whether self-propelled or not, which is:

(a) Used, designated, or occupied as a permanent dwelling unit, place of business, or for any private or social club, including a structure constructed upon a barge primarily immobile and out of navigation or any structure which functions substantially as a land structure while the same is moored or docked within Maryland; and

(b) Which has a volume coefficient greater than 3,000 square feet based upon the ratio of the habitable space of a vessel measured in cubic feet and the draft of a vessel measured in feet of depth.

(18) "Fall line" means the contact between the unconsolidated sediments of the coastal plain physiographic province and the crystalline rocks of the Maryland Piedmont physiographic province (see the map of Maryland Physiographic Provinces and Their Divisions in this chapter), and is approximated by the line connecting the numerous waterfalls and rapids in adjacent streams.

(19) "Flood plain soils" are those soils that are listed in the soil survey as either having a flood hazard or being susceptible to flooding.

(20) "Grease intercepter" means a receptacle designed to collect and retain grease and fatty substances normally found in kitchen or similar wastes.

(21) "Ground water" means underground water in a zone of saturation.

(22) "Hazardous substance" means any matter:

(a) That conveys toxic, lethal, or sublethal effects to plant, aquatic, or animal life, or which may be injurious to human health, or persists in the environment; or

(b) Which causes sublethal alterations to aquatic, plant, animal, or human systems through their cumulative or immediate reactions.

(23) "Holding tank" means a watertight receptacle which is used, or intended to be used, for the collection of sewage.

(24) "Liquid waste hauler" means a person engaged in the business of cleaning and emptying septic tanks, holding tanks, seepage pits, privies, or any other on-site disposal facility.

(24-1) "Membrane Bioreactors (MBR)" is a treatment technology that combines the biological-activated sludge process and the membrane filtration process and that is capable of reducing the 5 day biochemical oxygen demand (BODs), total nitrogen (TN), and total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations in wastewater effluent to less than 1 mg/l of TSS, less than 3 mg/l of TN, and less than 3 mg/l of BODs.

(25) "Mobile home" means a structure that can be used with or without a permanent foundation, is transportable in one or more sections, built on a permanent chassis, and is designed to be used as a dwelling when connected to the required utilities.

(26) "Non-conventional on-site sewage disposal systems" are experimental systems and innovative technologies not currently described in these regulations that are undergoing evaluation by the Department of the Environment and the Approving Authority.

(27) "On-site disposal" means the disposal of sewage effluent beneath the land surface.

(28) "On-site sewage disposal system" means a sewage treatment unit, collection system, disposal area, and related appurtenances related to on-site sewage disposal.

(29) "Percolation test" means a procedure used to determine the rate of movement of water through soil at the depth of installation of a proposed on-site sewage disposal system.

(30) "Permeability" means the capability of a soil, rock, aquifer, or confining bed to transmit waters or air.

(31) "Person" means an individual, partnership, firm, corporation, cooperative enterprise, or a governmental agency.

(32) "Pollution" means any contamination or other alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of any ground or surface waters of this State, including a change in temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of the waters or the discharge or deposit of any organic matter, harmful organism, or liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive, or other substance onto the ground surface or into any waters of this State that will render the ground or waters harmful or detrimental to:

(a) Public health, safety, or welfare;

(b) Domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate beneficial uses;

(c) Livestock, wild animals, or birds; or

(d) Fish or other aquatic life.

(33) "Potable water" means water which is free from substances or agents which may cause disease or harmful physiological effects, and which complies with the bacteriological and chemical quality requirements of COMAR 26.04.01 and 26.04.04.

(34) "Privy" means an earth or watertight pit or receptacle for receiving nonwater-carried human wastes over which is placed a privy house containing a seat or seats.

(35) "Sand mound system" means an on-site sewage disposal system utilizing a raised bed of sand fill with a distribution system constructed so as to distribute sewage equally into the sand fill.

(36) "Seepage pit" means a dug or drilled hole extending into porous soils for the purpose of introducing sewage effluent into the ground.

(37) "Septage" means the liquid and solid material pumped or removed from chemical toilets, septic tanks, seepage pits, privies, cesspools, or holding tanks when the system is cleaned and maintained.

(38) "Septic tank" means a watertight receptacle which receives the discharge of sewage from a building sewer or part of it and is designed and constructed to permit the settling and the digestion of the organic matter by anaerobic bacterial action.

(39) "Sewage" means water-carried human, domestic and other wastes and includes all human and animal excreta.

(40) "Sewage treatment unit" means a device designed and constructed to receive sewage and to provide treatment to reduce organic and inorganic matter and includes septic tanks, BAT, aerobic treatment units, or any other approved devices.

(41) "Sewer" means the system of pipes, lift stations, and other appurtenances that receive and convey sewage and is designed to exclude stormwater, surface water, and ground water.

(42) "Site evaluation" means the inventory and review of all site characteristics pertinent to on-site sewage disposal systems including topography, geology, surface and subsurface drainage, seasonal high water table, drinking water sources and wells, proximity to waters of the State, soil evaluation and percolation tests.

(43) "Soil evaluation" means a description of the physical properties of a soil including color, texture, structure, limiting horizons, and percolation rates.

(44) "Soil survey" means the scientific inventory of soil maps, soil unit descriptions, classification in the national system, and interpretation for use, as conducted by the National Cooperative Soil Survey by the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, in cooperation with the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station.

(45) "Spring" means groundwater seeping out of the earth where the water table intersects the ground surface.

(46) "Standard trench" or shallow trench means a trench having either at least 6 inches of gravel or stone beneath and at least 2 inches over the perforated pipe or at least 6 inches air space beneath an open chamber. Only the bottom area is used to calculate the absorptive area in the design of a standard trench..

(47) "Stream" means a perennial or intermittent watercourse of groundwater origin.

(48) "Subsurface sewage disposal" means the process of on-site sewage disposal in which the sewage effluent is applied to land by distribution beneath the surface through perforated pipes or pressurized pipes and includes a standard trench, deep trench, sand mound or at-grade system.

(49) "Unconfined aquifer" means an aquifer not bounded above by a bed of distinctly lower permeability than that of the aquifer itself and containing ground water under pressure approximately equal to that of the atmosphere. This term is synonymous with the term "water table aquifer".

(50) "Unconsolidated material" means uncemented soil and sediment material having not more than 70 percent coarse fragments (greater than 2 millimeters) by weight or 50 percent coarse fragments (greater than 2 millimeters) by volume. Volume is estimated by visual comparison with a standard chart.

(51) "Water supply system" means a system that provides water for human consumption through pipes or other constructed conveyances and includes all sources of water that are or may be used as potable water including wells, springs, cisterns, or other sources and their appurtenances, such as, pitless adaptors, pumps, pressure tanks, water lines, and treatment and storage facilities.

(52) "Well" means any hole that extends more than 20' below the ground surface to explore for ground water, to obtain or monitor ground water, or to inject water into any underground formation from which ground water may be produced or to transfer heat to or from the ground or groundwater.

Md. Code Regs. 26.04.02.01

Regulations.01 effective November 16, 1953; amended effective July 1, 1957, November 15, 1957, June 8, 1965, October 15, 1966, April 1, 1967, December 1, 1970
Regulations.01E amended, effective December 17, 1984 (11:25 Md. R. 2134)
Regulations.01 adopted effective November 18, 1985 (12:23 Md. R. 2218)
Regulations.01 amended as an emergency provision effective May 6, 1986 (13:11 Md. R. 1267); emergency status extended at 13:20 Md. R. 2205 (Emergency provisions are temporary and not printed in COMAR)
Regulation .01 amended effective November 3, 1986 (13:22 Md. R. 2398)
Regulation .01B amended effective March 25, 1996 (23:6 Md. R. 477)
Regulations.01 adopted effective 41:9 Md. R. 522, eff.5/12/2014 ; amended effective 46:7 Md. R. 371, eff. 4/8/2019