15A N.C. Admin. Code 2H.0903

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 9, November 1, 2024

Section 02H .0903 - DEFINITION OF TERMS

(a) Unless otherwise stated in Paragraph (b) of this Rule, the definitions promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency and codified as 40 CFR 403.3 are hereby incorporated by reference, including any subsequent amendments and editions. A copy of the reference material can be found at https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title40/40cfr403_main_02.tpl, free of charge.

(b) For this Section, the following additional definitions shall apply:

(1) "Approval Authority" means the Director of the Division of Water Resources of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or his or her designee;

(2) "Average" means the value calculated by dividing the sum of the data values collected over a time period by the number of data points that comprise the sum;

(3) "Bypass" is the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of a pretreatment facility. Also see Rule .0919 of this Section and 40 CFR 403.17 for additional requirements;

(4) "Commission" means the Environmental Management Commission of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality;

(5) "Control Authority" refers to the POTW if the POTW'S pretreatment program has been approved in accordance with Rules .0905, .0906, and .0907 of this Section, and that approval has not been subsequently withdrawn. Otherwise, the approval authority is the control authority;

(6) "Division" refers to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Resources;

(7) "Enforcement Response Plan" or "ERP" means the control authority pretreatment program document describing the guidelines for identifying violations of and enforcing specific local limits and other pretreatment standards and requirements;

(8) "EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency;

(9) "Fundamentally Different Factors" are factors upon which a variance from a categorical standard may be granted under Rule .0912 of this Section and 40 CFR 403.13;

(10) "Headworks Analysis" or "HWA" is the analysis used to calculate the maximum allowable POTW influent loadings for flow and pollutants of concern based on design capacity, NPDES or non-discharge permit limits, pass through, interference, sludge, or worker safety and health considerations, as applicable. The headworks analysis is the technical basis for deriving local limits applied to industrial users;

(11) "Indirect Discharge" or "Discharge" refers to the introduction of pollutants into a POTW from any non-domestic source regulated under Sections 307(b), (c), or (d) of the Clean Water Act;

(12) "Industrial User" or "User" means a source of indirect discharge;

(13) "Industrial Waste Survey" or "IWS" refers to the survey of the users of the POTW collection system or treatment plant performed by the control authority as required by 40 CFR 403.8(f)(2) (i-iii) and Rule .0905 of this Section, including identification of all industrial users and the character and amount of pollutants contributed to the POTW by these industrial users and identification of those industrial users meeting the definition of significant industrial user. Where the control authority accepts wastewater from one or more satellite POTWs, the IWS for that control authority shall address all satellite POTW services areas, unless the pretreatment program in those satellite service areas is administered by a separate control authority;

(14) "Interference" refers to inhibition or disruption of the: POTW collection system; treatment processes; operations; or its sludge process, use, or disposal that causes or contributes to a violation of any requirement of the control authority's (or the POTW's if different from the control authority) NPDES, collection system, or non-discharge permit, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation, or prevents sewage sludge use or disposal in compliance with specified applicable State and Federal statutes, regulations, or permits;

(15) "Medical Waste" refers to isolation wastes, infectious agents, human blood and blood products, pathological wastes, sharps, body parts, contaminated bedding, surgical wastes, potentially contaminated laboratory wastes, and dialysis wastes;

(16) "Monitoring Plan" refers to the monitoring plan designed to collect POTW site-specific data for use in the headworks analysis. Monitoring plans may be designated as Long Term (LTMP) or Short Term (STMP) as the Division Director determines to be necessary;

(17) "National Pretreatment "Standard," "Pretreatment Standard," or "Standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Sections 307(b) and (c) of the Clean Water Act that applies to industrial users. This term also includes any prohibitive discharge limits established pursuant to 40 CFR 403.5, categorical standards established under the appropriate subpart of 40 CFR Chapter I, Subpart N or local limit that applies to an industrial user. 40 CFR 403.5, Chapters I and N of Part 405 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations are hereby incorporated by reference, including any subsequent amendments and editions available free of charge (https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title40/40cfr403_main_02.tpl);

(18) "Net/Gross Calculation" is an adjustment of a categorical standard to reflect the presence of pollutants in the industrial user's intake water that may be granted under Rule .0915 of this Section and 40 CFR 403.15;

(19) "Noncontact Cooling Water" is water used for cooling that does not come into direct contact with any raw material, intermediate product, waste product, or finished product;

(20) "Non-discharge Permit" is a permit issued by the State pursuant to G.S. 143-215.1(d) for a waste that is not discharged directly to surface waters of the State or for a wastewater treatment works that does not discharge directly to surface waters of the State;

(21) "Pass Through" means a discharge that exits the POTW into waters of the State in quantities or concentrations which, alone or with discharges from other sources, causes a violation, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation, of the control authority's (or the POTW's, if different from the control authority) NPDES, collection system, or non-discharge permit;

(22) "Pollutant" includes any waste defined in G.S. 143-213(18); dredged spoil; solid waste; incinerator residue; garbage; sewage sludge; munitions; medical wastes; chemical waste; biological materials; radioactive materials; heat; wrecked or discarded equipment; rock; sand; cellar dirt; municipal and agricultural waste; and certain characteristics of wastewater, such as pH, temperature, TSS, turbidity, color, metals, BOD, COD, toxicity, and odor;

(23) "Pollutant of Concern" or "POC" is a pollutant identified as being of concern to the control authority for purposes of the pretreatment program. A pollutant of concern may include a conventional wastewater pollutant, such as BOD, TSS, or ammonia; any of the priority pollutants; pH; and any pollutant that may be identified as a source of interference, pass through, whole effluent toxicity, or sludge contamination;

(24) "POTW," or "Publicly Owned Treatment Works," means a treatment works as defined by Section 212 of the Clean Water Act, which is owned by a state or municipality. This definition includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. It also includes the collection system, as defined in 15A NCAC 02T .0402, only if it conveys wastewater to a POTW treatment plant. The term also means the municipality, as defined in Section 502(4) of the CWA, that has jurisdiction over indirect discharges to and the discharges from such a treatment works. The municipality may be the owner of the POTW treatment plant or the owner of the collection system into which an indirect discharger discharges. This second type of municipality may be referred to as a "satellite municipality," a "satellite POTW," or a "satellite POTW organization";

(25) "POTW Director" means the chief administrative officer of the control authority or his or her delegate;

(26) "Pretreatment" refers to the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW collection system or treatment plant. The reduction or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical, or biological processes, or process changes or other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR 403.6(d). Where wastewater from a regulated process is mixed with unregulated wastewater or with wastewater from another regulated process, the pretreatment limit must be calculated in accordance with 40 CFR 403.6(e);

(27) "Process Wastewater" means any water which, during manufacturing or processing, comes into direct contact with or results from the production or use of any raw material, intermediate product, finished product, by-product, or waste product;

(28) "Removal Credits" are credits that may be granted under Rule .0921 of this Section and 40 CFR Parts 403.7 and 403.11 to adjust categorical standards in such a way as to reflect POTW consistent removal of a particular pollutant;

(29) "Sewer Use Ordinance" or "SUO" means the POTW or control authority organization ordinance providing the legal authority for administering the pretreatment program;

(30) "Significant Industrial User" or "SIU" means an industrial user that discharges wastewater into a POTW and that:

(A) Discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the POTW excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater;

(B) Contributes process wastewater that makes up five percent or more of the NPDES or non-discharge permitted flow limit or organic capacity of the POTW treatment plant. In this context, organic capacity refers to BOD, TSS, and ammonia;

(C) Is subject to categorical standards under 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 CFR Chapter I, Subpart N;

(D) is designated as such by the control authority on the basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation (including contributing to violations of the limitation and requirements of the NPDES or non-discharge permit or limiting the POTW's sludge disposal options) or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement (in accordance with 40 CFR 403.3(l)and (t);

(E) Subject to approval under Rule .0907(b) of this Section, the control authority may determine that an industrial user meeting the criteria in Parts (A) or (B) of this Subparagraph has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the POTW's effluent limitations and conditions in its NPDES or non-discharge permit, or to limit the POTW's sludge disposal options, and thus is not a significant industrial user; or

(F) Subject to approval under Rule .0907(b) of this Section, the control authority may determine that an industrial user meeting the criteria in Part (C) of this Subparagraph meets the requirements of 40 CFR 403.3(v)(2) and thus is a non-significant categorical industrial user;

(31) "Significant Noncompliance" or "SNC" is the status of noncompliance of a significant industrial user when one or more of the following criteria are met, or any industrial user that meets the criteria in Parts (C), (D), or (H) of this Subparagraph:

(A) "Chronic violations" of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which 66 percent or more of all the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter (not including flow) during a six month period exceed (by any magnitude) a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement including instantaneous limits, as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(l);

(B) "Technical Review Criteria" (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which 33 percent or more of all the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter during a six-month period equal or exceed the product of the numeric pretreatment standard or requirement including instantaneous limits, as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(l) multiplied by the applicable TRC; (TRC = 1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil, and grease, 1.2 for all other pollutants (except flow and pH));

(C) Any other violation of a pretreatment standard or requirement as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(l) (daily maximum, long-term average, instantaneous limit, or narrative standard) that the control authority (or POTW, if different from the control authority), determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through (including endangering the health of POTW personnel or the general public);

(D) Any discharge of a pollutant or wastewater that has caused imminent endangerment to human health or welfare or to the environment or has resulted in either the control authority's or the POTW's, if different from the control authority, exercise of its emergency authority under 40 CFR 403.8(f)(1)(vi)(B) to halt or prevent the discharge;

(E) Failure to meet, within 90 days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a pretreatment permit or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction, or attaining final compliance;

(F) Failure to provide, within 45 days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, 90-day compliance reports, self-monitoring reports, and reports on compliance with compliance schedules;

(G) Failure to report noncompliance; or

(H) Any other violation or group of violations that the control authority or POTW determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program;

(32) "Staff" means the staff of the Division of Water Resources, Department of Environmental Quality;

(33) "Upset" means the same as set out in Rule .0914 of this Section and 40 Part 403.16;

(34) "Wastewater" means the liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, mobile sources, treatment facilities, and institutions, together with any groundwater, surface water, and storm water that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which are contributed to or permitted to enter the POTW; and

(35) "Waters of the State" shall have the same meaning as the terms "waters" as defined in G.S. 143-212.

15A N.C. Admin. Code 02H .0903

Authority 143-215.3(a)(1); 143-215.3(a)(14);
Eff. March 28, 1980;
Amended Eff. April 1, 2011; November 1, 1994; October 1, 1987; December 1, 1984;
Readopted Eff. July 1, 2019.

Authority G.S. 130A-334(13); 143-215.3(a)(1); 143-215.3(a)(14);150B-21.6;
Eff. 3/28/1980;
Amended Eff. 4/1/2011; November 1, 1994; October 1, 1987; December 1, 1984.

Readopted by North Carolina Register Volume 34, Issue 03, August 1, 2019 effective 7/1/2019.