N.J. Admin. Code § 7:9C-1.4
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings:
"ACL" means alternative concentration limit.
"Agricultural water" means water used for crop production, livestock, horticulture and silviculture.
"Alternative concentration limit" or "ACL" means a constituent standard or narrative description of actions, discharge controls and water quality requirements that is less stringent than the ground water quality requirements of 7:9C-1.7, 1.8 and 1.9 due to a Departmental decision pursuant to NJPDES regulations (7:14A-10.8(b) ). In order to approve an ACL, the Department must find that the relevant constituent standard(s) cannot be achieved through technologically practicable means.
"Applicable regulatory program" means any of the Department's programs which implement the regulations issued pursuant to the statutes cited in 7:9C-1.1(b) or in any other regulations that specifically cite this chapter.
"Aquifer" means a saturated geologic formation(s) or unit(s) which is sufficiently permeable to transmit water to a pumping well in usable and economic quantities. The upper level of an unconfined aquifer may vary over time; "aquifer" applies to the full saturated zone at any time.
"Aquitard" means a hydrogeologic confining unit(s) that exhibits limited permeability, bounding one or more aquifers, that does not readily yield water to wells or springs, but may serve as a storage unit for ground water and may release this water to adjacent ground water units or surface waters. Such confining units are further defined and listed in 7:9C-1.5(f)1 or may be established through reclassification under 7:9C-1.10.
"Background water quality" means the concentration of constituents in ground water which is determined to exist directly upgradient of a discharge but not influenced by the discharge, or is otherwise representative of such concentration of constituents as determined using methods and analyses consistent with the requirements of 7:14A-10.11(g).
"Carcinogen" means a constituent capable of inducing a cancer response, including Group A (Human Carcinogen), Group B (Probable Human Carcinogen) or Group C (Possible Human Carcinogen) categorized in accordance with the USEPA Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, 51 Fed. Reg. 33932, 1986, incorporated herein by reference, as amended or supplemented.
"Classification area" means the geographic extent (lateral and vertical) of a geologic formation(s) or unit(s) wherein ground water is classified for designated uses, as described in N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.5.
"Classification exception area" means an area within which one or more constituent standards and designated uses are suspended in accordance with 7:9C-1.6.
"Conservation restriction" means the restricting of development on property as that term is defined under the New Jersey Conservation Restriction and Historic Preservation Restriction Act, 13:8B-1 et seq.
"Constituent" means a specific chemical substance (that is, element or compound) or water quality parameter (for example, temperature, odor, color).
"Constituent standard" means the required maximum level or concentration or the required range of levels or concentrations (as applicable) for a constituent in a classification area, as established in N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.7, 1.8 and 1.9(a) and (b). The constituent standards shall be the basis for the Department's regulation of ground water quality effects of past, present or future discharges to ground water or the land surface, pursuant to applicable authorities as defined in N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.1.
"Conventional water supply treatment" means the chemical and physical treatment of ground water supplies for microbiological contaminants and undesirable naturally occurring substances resulting in treated water that meets all the primary and secondary standards for those constituents stipulated by the New Jersey Safe Drinking Water Act regulations (N.J.A.C. 7:10-12 ).
"Criteria" means ground water quality criteria.
"Department" means the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
"Designated use" means a present or potential use of ground water which is to be maintained, restored and enhanced within a ground water classification area, as determined by N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.5. Designated uses may include any human withdrawal of ground water (for example, for potable, agricultural and industrial water), the discharge of ground water to surface waters of the State which support human use or ecological systems, or the direct support of ecological systems.
"Discharge" means an intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the releasing, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying or dumping of a pollutant at any time into the waters of the State, onto land or into wells from which it might flow or drain into said waters, or into waters or onto lands outside the jurisdiction of the State, which pollutant enters the waters of the State. "Discharge" includes, without limitation, the release of any pollutant into a municipal treatment works.
"Discharger" means any person, corporation, municipality, government agency or authority or other legal entity, who causes or allows a discharge, either through action or omission.
"Extensive exceedance," as used in N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.10, means a condition where ground water quality in an area exceeds the criteria of 7:9C-1.7 for one or more constituents over the vast majority subject area for such constituent(s) and that such exceedances are not attributable to the past or present discharges of a single discharger or any group of active NJPDES permitted discharges.
"FW1" means those surface fresh waters defined as such in the Surface Water Quality Standards, N.J.A.C. 7:9B, and shown on maps maintained by the Department.
"Ground water" means the portion of water beneath the land surface that is within the saturated zone.
"Ground water quality criteria" means the designated levels or concentrations of constituents that, when exceeded, will prohibit or significantly impair a designated use of water. Criteria may be "specific" (listed for each constituent in Appendix Table 1), "interim specific" (derived using a standard method, for constituents not listed in Appendix Table 1), or "interim generic" (as listed for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic Synthetic Organic Chemicals in Appendix Table 2).
"Hazardous pollutant" means:
1. Any toxic pollutant;
2. Any substance regulated as a pesticide under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, Pub.L. 92-516 ( 7 U.S.C. § 136 et seq.);
3. Any substance the use or manufacture of which is prohibited under the Federal Toxic Substances Control Act, Pub.L. 94-469 ( 15 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq.);
4. Any substance identified as a known carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer;
5. Any hazardous waste as designated pursuant to section 3 of P.L. 1981, c.279 (13:1E-51 ) or the "Resource Conservation and Recovery Act," Pub.L. 94-580 ( 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.); or
6. Any hazardous substance as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L. 1976, c.141 (N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.1 1b).
"HUC 11" or "hydrologic unit code 11" means an area within which water drains to a particular receiving surface water body, also known as a watershed, which is identified by an 11 - digit hydrologic unit boundary designation, delineated within New Jersey by the United States Geological Survey.
"Industrial water" means water used for processing, heating or cooling in a manufacturing process.
"Natural Area" means an area of land or water, designated by the Department under 7:5A-1.13 and shown on maps maintained by the Office of Natural Lands Management, Division of Parks and Forestry, of the Department, which is owned in fee simple or in which a conservation restriction is held by the Department.
"Natural quality" means the concentration or level of constituents which occurs in ground water of a hydrologic unit without the influence of human activity, other than the effects of regional precipitation of air pollutants (for example, acid precipitation). The natural quality for SOCs is established as zero (0.0) except where the SOCs are the result of air transport from outside the State, enter the State from ground water transport of pollutants having their origins in other states, or are created entirely by natural processes. Where natural quality for other constituents is not ascertainable from generally acceptable scientific studies, the lowest concentrations known to exist within the same or a similar hydrologic unit and setting (that is, depth) within the classification area shall be used to represent the natural quality, provided, however, that for pH, corrosivity and hardness, the most representative concentration shall be used.
"NJPDES" means the New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (N.J.A.C. 7:14A).
"NJPDES permit action" means a draft or final NJPDES permit, a permit equivalent, or a decision that a discharge is not to be regulated by NJPDES, as determined pursuant to the NJPDES regulations.
"Non-carcinogen" means a constituent not categorized as a carcinogen, including Group D (Not Classifiable as to Human Carcinogenicity) or Group E (Evidence of Non-Carcinogenicity for Humans) categorized in accordance with the USEPA Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, 51 Fed. Reg. 33932, 1986, incorporated herein by reference, as amended or supplemented.
"Organoleptic effect" means an offensive taste, foul odor or other adverse aesthetic consequence caused by pollutants in a water supply and rendering the water supply unfit for potable use.
"PQL" means practical quantitation level.
"Pollutant" means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, refuse, oil, grease, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive substance, thermal waste, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal or agricultural or other residue discharged into the waters of the State. "Pollutant" includes both hazardous and nonhazardous pollutants. "Industrial, municipal or agricultural or other residue" specifically includes, without limitation, constituents that are not considered wastes (that is, process chemicals) prior to discharge, but which are discharged and may or do degrade natural or existing ground water quality.
"Potable water" means water suitable for household consumption, primarily as drinking water, based upon human health, welfare and aesthetic considerations.
"Practical quantitation level" (PQL) means the lowest concentration of a constituent that can be reliably achieved among laboratories within specified limits of precision and accuracy during routine laboratory operating conditions. "Specified limits of precision and accuracy" are the criteria which have been included in applicable regulations including, but not limited to, those regulations listed at 7:9C-1.9 or are listed in the calibration specifications or quality control specifications of an analytical method.
"Saturated zone" means the zone in which all the subsurface voids in the rock or soil are filled with water.
"SOC" means Synthetic Organic Chemical.
"Soils" means any naturally occurring or man-made unconsolidated mineral and organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and influenced by geologic and environmental factors. "Soils" also includes fill or overburden.
"Source water" means the supply source of water (for example, private wells, public water supply) to a discharger, where the source water becomes part of a discharge.
"Surface waters" means water at or above the land's surface which is neither ground water nor contained within the unsaturated zone, including, but not limited to, the ocean and its tributaries, all springs, streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and artificial waterbodies.
"Synthetic organic chemicals" (SOCs) means any compounds that contain at least one carbon atom and that result from purposeful chemical synthesis, whether as products, by-products, or waste, or from the purposeful refinement of naturally occurring substances. Where a chemical substance is sometimes found in nature and sometimes synthesized, it shall be considered an SOC only to the extent or in the proportion produced or isolated by human activity. Naturally occurring organic chemicals in their natural location are not considered a pollutant pursuant to the Ground Water Quality Standards. An SOC may be considered to be in its natural location, if, by background sampling and modeling, it is shown that such SOC has migrated to that point from the place it naturally occurred.
"Technologically practicable means" means the best available treatment or remedial technology, from an engineering perspective; "best" means that technology which achieves the most stringent numerical values attainable for a constituent at a contaminated site or for a NJPDES-regulated discharge; "available" means field-demonstrated technology although such technology need not be in common commercial use.
"Toxic pollutant" means any pollutant identified pursuant to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 ( Pub.L. 92-500, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.), or any pollutant or combination of pollutants, including disease causing agents, which after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation into any organism, either directly or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will, on the basis of information available to the Department, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions, including malfunctions in reproduction, or physical deformation, in such organisms or their offspring.
"USEPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
"Unsaturated zone" (vadose zone) means the subsurface volume between the land's surface and the top of a saturated zone.
"Waters of the State" means the ocean and its estuaries, all springs, streams and bodies of surface or ground water, whether natural or artificial, within the boundaries of this State or subject to its jurisdiction.
"Zone of Contribution" means the volume of a geologic formation or unit that directly contributes ground water to a pumping well over time, or a Well Head Protection Area as defined by the Department pursuant to the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, Amendments of 1986.
N.J. Admin. Code § 7:9C-1.4
See: 25 N.J.R. 1552(a).
Amended by R.1993 d.610, effective 12/6/1993.
See: 24 N.J.R. 3983(a), 25 N.J.R. 5569(a).
Recodified from N.J.A.C. 7:9-6.4 by R.2005 d.368, effective 11/7/2005.
See: 36 N.J.R. 4374(b), 37 N.J.R. 4226(b).
Added definitions "Carcinogen", "Conservation restriction", "Ground water quality criteria" and "Non-carcinogen"; deleted definition "Water quality criteria".
Amended by R.2008 d.162, effective 7/7/2008.
See: 39 N.J.R. 2417(a), 40 N.J.R. 3992(a).
Deleted definitions "Antidegradation" and "Antidegradation limit"; and added definition "HUC 11".