Section 250-RICR-150-10-6.8 - DefinitionsA. As used in these Rules, the following terms shall, where the context permits, be construed as follows: 1. "Advanced treatment unit" means an alternative and experimental treatment system that has been approved to reduce the BOD5 and TSS to 30/30 mg/L or less.2. "Alternative OWTS component" means any part of an OWTS that does not meet the design or construction requirements as provided by these Rules, but has been demonstrated through field testing, calculations and other engineering evaluations to be equal to, or provide the equivalent performance of any part of an OWTS within these Rules or to enhance or facilitate treatment, maintenance, longevity or efficiency of an OWTS, and for which a certification from DEM has been issued.3. "Alternative technology" means any OWTS technology for which design parameters are not specified in these Rules, but has been demonstrated through field testing, calculations and other engineering evaluations to comply with performance standards consistent with these Rules, and for which a certification from DEM has been issued.4. "APD" means advanced pressure drainfield.5. "Applicant" means the owner or owners of the property or easement that is the subject of the application, or it must be the person who holds a valid purchase and sales agreement for said property.6. "Area subject to storm flowage" means drainage swales and channels which lead into, out of, pass through, or connect other watercourses, and which carry flows resulting from storm events but may remain relatively dry at other times.7. "ASTM" means ASTM International, formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials.8. "Basal area" means the horizontal surface in an APD or LPP designed to receive effluent.9. "Bedrock" means rock, commonly called ledge, that forms the earth's crust. Bedrock includes rotten rock.10. "Bedroom" means any room in a residential structure which is greater than seventy (70) square feet in area, which is susceptible to present or future use as a private sleeping area and which satisfies all of the following requirements: a. Has at least one (1) window that meets the four point four (4.4) square foot minimum size and all other requirements of 510-RICR- 00-00-1 "RISBC- 1 R hode Island Building Code" or 510-RICR-00- 00-2 "RISBC- 2 R hode Island State One and Two Family Dwellings";b. Has at least one (1) interior method of entry and egress, excluding closets and bathrooms, allowing the room to be closed off from the remainder of the residence for privacy; andc. Is a heated living space that is unrestricted for year-round use. Rooms located below grade that are not recognized as bedrooms by 510-RICR- 00-00-1, RISBC- 1 R hode Island Building Code or 510-RICR- 00-00-2, RISBC- 2 R hode Island State One and Two Family Dwellings.11. "Blackwater" means liquid and solid human body waste and the carriage waters generated through toilet usage.12. "BOD5" means biochemical oxygen demand - five (5) day. BOD5 is determined by a five (5) day laboratory test which determines the amount of dissolved oxygen used by microorganisms in the biochemical oxidation (breakdown) of organic matter. BOD5 concentrations are used as a measure of the strength of a wastewater.13. "BSF" means bottomless sand filter. A BSF is a timed-dosed sand filter used specifically as a dispersal/drainfield option for pretreated effluent which at least meets the BOD5 and TSS requirements of thirty (30) mg/l, and FOG of five (5) mg/l. The filter is intermittently pressure dosed with the effluent followed by periods of drying and oxygenation of the filter bed. Wastewater applied to the surface of a bottomless sand filter flows through that filter media once before infiltrating to the underlying native soils.14. "Building sewer" means the pipe that begins outside the building foundation wall and extends to the septic tank, the pipe that begins outside the building foundation wall and extends to the grease tank, the pipe from a grease tank to a septic tank, or the pipe carrying laundry wastes directly to a leachfield.15. "Cesspool" means any buried chamber, including, but not limited to, any perforated metal tank, perforated concrete vault or covered hollow or excavation, which receives discharges of wastewater from a building sewer for the purpose of collecting solids and discharging liquids to the surrounding soil.16. "Change of use" means any change in use or occupancy of any structure or part thereof which would violate any provision of the Rhode Island State Building Code, R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 23-27.3, or any Regulation promulgated thereto without first obtaining a certificate of occupancy indicating that the structure complies with the provisions of the State Building Code for the proposed new use. Change of use shall also be held to mean a conversion of a seasonally used structure to a structure for year-round use.17. "Coastal shoreline feature" means a part of the shore as categorized by the State of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Program using the following categories: coastal beaches; barrier islands and spits; coastal wetlands; coastal headlands, bluffs and cliffs; rocky shores; manmade shorelines; and dunes.18. "Compost toilet" means any self-contained toilet from which no liquid or solid waste materials are regularly discharged and from which a humuslike end product is produced.19. "Department" or "DEM" means the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.20. "Director" means the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management or any subordinate(s) to whom the Director has delegated the powers and duties vested in him/her pursuant to R.I. Gen. Laws Chapters 46-12 and 42-17.1, or any other duly authorized Agent.21. "Dispersal trench" means a shallow ditch with vertical sides, filled with stone, in which a single perforated distribution line or other suitable distribution device is laid and over which a cover of earth is placed.22. "Distribution box" means a watertight compartment that receives effluent and distributes it in approximately equal portions to two (2) or more distribution lines leading to some type of leachfield.23. "Distribution laterals" (pressure dosed) means usually small diameter PVC pipe with orifices evenly spaced, used to uniformly distribute wastewater over a treatment zone in an enclosed component or drainfield.24. "Distribution line" means the imperforated and perforated pipe or other suitable distribution device used to disperse effluent that extends from the distribution box.25. "Dosing" means the pumped or regulated flow of wastewater.26. "Dosing tank" means a tank that collects wastewater and from which wastewater is discharged it into another treatment or dispersal step; equivalent to a dosing chamber.27. "Drainfield" means a soil treatment area.28. "Effluent" means liquid that is discharged from a septic tank, filter, or other onsite wastewater system component.29. "Experimental technology" means any OWTS technology that does not meet the location, design or construction requirements as provided by these Rules, but has been demonstrated in theory to meet the requirements of these Rules and may not be in use in Rhode Island or elsewhere as an approved technology for wastewater treatment.30. "Failed OWTS" means any OWTS that does not adequately treat and disperse wastewater so as to create a public or private nuisance or threat to public health or environmental quality, as evidenced by, but not limited to, one (1) or more of the following conditions:a. Failure to accept wastewater into the building sewer;b. Discharge of wastewater to a basement; subsurface drain; stormwater collection, conveyance, or treatment device; or watercourse unless expressly permitted by the Department;c. Wastewater rising to the surface of the ground over or near any part of OWTS or seeping from the absorption area at any change in grade, bank or road cut;d. The top of the inlet or the top of the outlet for a septic tank, distribution box, or pump tank is submerged;e. The liquid depth in a cesspool is less than six inches (6") from the inlet pipe invert;f. Pumping of the cesspool or septic tank is required more than two (2) times per year;g. OWTS is shown to have contaminated a drinking water well or watercourse;h. If a septic tank, pump tank, distribution box, or cesspool is pumped and groundwater seeps into it;i. Any deterioration, damage, or malfunction relating to any OWTS that would preclude adequate treatment and dispersal of wastewater; orj. Excessive solids are evident in the distribution box or distribution lines.31. "Filter" means a device or structure for removing suspended solid, colloidal material, or BOD5 from wastewater.32. "Filter fabric" means any man-made permeable textile material used with foundations, soil, rock, or earth.33. "Filter media" means the material through which wastewater is passed for the purpose of treatment.34. "Financial surety" means a general obligation bond, revenue bond, performance bond, or any other type of financial guaranty, in fully marketable form, as evidence to the commitment of the construction of a public wastewater project.35. "Floodplain" means that land area adjacent to a river or stream or other body of flowing water which is, on the average, likely to be covered with flood waters resulting from a one hundred (100) year frequency storm. A one hundred (100) year frequency storm is one that is to be expected to be equaled or exceeded once in one hundred (100) years; or may be said to have a one percent (1%) probability of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. Rainfall intensity data for a one hundred (100) year frequency storm are those established for New England locations by the National Weather Service.36. "FOG" means fats, oils, and grease contained in wastewater.37. "Foundation drain" means any mechanical or gravity drainage system, including all porous media installed to facilitate drainage, that lowers the groundwater elevation beneath a building foundation and which has an outlet for the collected groundwater.38. "Freshwater wetland" means, consistent with R.I. Gen. Laws § 2-1-20(8), except as specified in R.I. Gen. Laws § 2-1-22(k), and includes, but is not limited to: a. Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions including, but is not limited to, marshes, swamps, bogs, emergent and submergent plant communities, rivers, streams, ponds, and vernal pools or any combination thereof; or b. Any or all freshwater wetlands created as part of, or the result of, any activity permitted or directed by the Department after July 16, 1971 including, but not limited to: restored freshwater wetlands; value replacement freshwater wetlands created to compensate for wetland loss such as floodplain excavations; and any freshwater wetlands created, altered or modified after July 16, 1971.39. "Graywater" means wastewater drained from sinks, tubs, showers, dishwashers, clothes washers, and other non-toilet sources.40. "Groundwater table" means the upper surface of the zone of saturation in an unconfined aquifer; includes a perched groundwater table.41. "Holding tank" means a closed watertight structure used to contain wastewater prior to being removed from the premises. A holding tank does not discharge wastewater to the surface of the ground or to the subsurface.42. "Human transported material" means any materials, other than those emplaced pursuant to these Rules, including but not limited to artifacts, organic materials, soil, rock, or sediment moved horizontally by directed human activity.43. "Influent" means wastewater being applied to a treatment unit or to a drainfield.44. "Invert" means the lowest portion of the interior of a pipe or fitting.45. "Large onsite wastewater treatment system" means an OWTS that meets any of the following:a. Any single OWTS designed to treat five thousand (5,000) gallons or more per day;b. Multiple OWTSs for any project on one (1) or more parcels of land, excluding residential subdivisions, where the total design flow for the project is five thousand (5,000) gallons or more per day;c. All OWTSs serving more than one (1) unit in a residential subdivision, provided that the total design flow of these OWTSs, each serving more than one (1) unit, is five thousand (5,000) gallons or more per day; ord. Proposed OWTSs and existing OWTSs on the parcel that will result in a total design flow for the parcel exceeding five thousand (5,000) gallons per day.46. "Large capacity cesspool" means a cesspool that serves any non-residential facility that has the capacity to serve more than twenty (20) people per day or serves any multi-family residence or apartment building.47. "Leachfield" means a group of one (1) or more dispersal chambers or trenches designed for the final treatment and dispersal of wastewater into the underlying soil. The leachfield shall be held to mean the horizontal and vertical lines circumscribing the outermost edges including the area between the chambers or trenches and the depth to the bottom of stone.48. "Linear loading rate" means the loading rate per linear foot of leachfield (gallons per day per linear foot) along the land's contour.49. "LPP" means low pressure pipe: a. Application of effluent over an infiltrative surface via pressurized orifices and associated devices and parts (including pump, filters, controls, and piping).b. Distribution via a network of small diameter laterals with small orifices installed in a soil treatment area; also called low-pressure pipe (LPP) distribution.50. "Maintenance" means the regular cleaning of any concrete chamber, cesspool, septic tank, building sewer, distribution lines or any other component of an OWTS for the purpose of removing accumulated liquid, scum or sludge. The term, "maintenance," shall also be held to include regularly required servicing or replacement of any related mechanical, electrical, or other component equipment.51. "Nitrogen reducing technology" means a wastewater treatment technology that is accepted by the Department as capable of reducing the total nitrogen concentrations by at least fifty percent (50%) and meeting an effluent concentration of less than or equal to nineteen (19) mg/l.52. "O&M service provider" means a professional who performs operation and maintenance on a wastewater treatment system.53. "Onsite wastewater treatment system" or "OWTS" means any system of piping, tanks, dispersal areas, alternative toilets or other facilities designed to function as a unit to convey, store, treat or disperse wastewater by means other than discharge into a public wastewater system.54. "Original ground" means those soils that have been deposited or developed by natural processes, excluding storm deposited sand in the backdune environment.55. "Owner" means any person who holds legal title to any real property; or has possession or control of any real property through any agent, executor, executrix, administrator, administratrix, trustee or guardian of the estate of a holder of a legal title. Each such person is bound to comply with the provisions of these Rules.56. "Particle size" means the diameter (in millimeters) of a soil or sand particle, usually measured by sedimentation or sieving methods.57. "Person" means any individual, group of individuals, firm, corporation, association, partnership or any Federal, State or municipal governmental entity.58. "Private drinking water well" means any manmade opening into the ground developed for the purpose of meeting a person's current potable drinking water needs provided said well does not supply a public water system. This definition shall include proposed private drinking water wells on an applicant's property and on other properties with an approved OWTS permit. Wells serving non-potable or non-drinking water needs are not considered private drinking water wells under these Rules. A well on a property that is connected to a public water system is not considered a private drinking water well under these Rules.59. "Probe" means any exploratory test employing a driving rod, tool or other device to establish the depth of bedrock.60. "Professional engineer" means a person who has been registered and licensed by the Rhode Island Board of Registration for Professional Engineers as defined in R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-8-2.61. "PSND" means pressurized shallow narrow drainfield.62. "Public drinking water supply well" or "public well" means any manmade opening into the ground developed for the purpose of meeting all or part of a public water system needs.63. "Public water system" means any water system that provides piped water to the public for human consumption, provided that such system has at least fifteen (15) service connections or serves an average of twenty-five (25) individuals daily at least sixty (60) days out of the year. A public water system shall include all sources and facilities involved in collecting, treating, storing and distributing the water.64. "Pump tank" means a watertight structure equipped with one (1) or more pumps designed to discharge wastewater intermittently into a leachfield.65. "Residence" means any structure used for housing purposes, including, but not limited to, single or multiple family dwellings, duplexes, tenements, apartment buildings, residential condominiums, mobile homes, recreational vehicles or trailers.66. "Restrictive layer" means a soil horizon that is assigned to a soil category 10 as defined in § 6.16(L) of this Part.67. "Rotten rock" means any decomposed but still coherent rock. Rotten rock is greater than fifty percent (50%) coherent rock and lies above equal or more coherent rock.68. "Seasonal high groundwater table" means the elevation of the groundwater table during that time of the year at which it is highest as determined in accordance with § 6.16(M) of this Part.69. "Septage" means any solid, liquid or semi-solid removed from septic tanks, cesspools, privies, wastewater holding tanks or other similar onsite wastewater treatment systems.70. "Septic tank" means a watertight receptacle which receives the discharge of wastewater from a building sewer, and is designed and constructed to permit the deposition of settled solids, the digestion of the matter deposited, and the discharge of the liquid portion into the next treatment component or distribution box.71. "Septic tank effluent pipe" means the pipe that begins at the outlet of the septic tank or other treatment tank and extends to the next treatment component or distribution box.72. "Single-service articles" means tableware, carry-out utensils, and other items such as bags, containers, placemats, stirrers, straws, toothpicks, and wrappers that are designed and constructed for use one (1) time by one (1) individual.73. "Soil texture" means the relative proportions of soil separates (sand, silt, and clay particles) in a particular soil. (USDA soil texture abbreviations illustrated in § 6.37(B)(4) of this Part are defined as: cos= coarse sand; fs = fine sand; lfs = loamy fine sand; ls = loamy sand; fsl = fine sandy loam; sl = sandy loam; l= loam; vfs = very fine sand; lvfs = loamy very fine sand; vfsl = very fine sandy loam; sil = silt loam; vfsl = very fine sandy loam; si = silt; sicl = silty clay loam.) 74. "Storm drain" means any pipe or structure designed to collect, carry and divert surface water runoff.75. "Structure" means any residence (as defined herein), building, garage, shack, trailer or other permanent or semi-permanent facility, whether commercial or non-commercial in use, which is proposed to be placed or has been built or otherwise placed on a parcel of real property.76. "Subdivision" means the division or re-division of a lot, tract, or parcel of land into two (2) or more lots, tracts, or parcels. For the purpose of these Rules, subdivisions will also include two (2) or more contiguous lots of record under common ownership when located on a public right of way or roadway, including paper streets, or where property line changes are proposed.77. "Subdivision layout" means any proposed design or arrangement of lots, roads, structures, easements, utilities or other features to be incorporated into a subdivision.78. "Substantial improvement" means any construction, renovation, or improvements made within any twelve (12) month period and costing in excess of fifty percent (50%) of the physical value of the building prior to the start of construction.79. "Subsurface drains" means any system of below surface piping or highly permeable material intended to lower the groundwater table of an area, and which has an outlet to the surface for the collected groundwater.81. "Test hole" means any excavation in the area of the proposed leachfield to collect information on the soil profile, depth to a restrictive layer or bedrock, depth to seasonal high groundwater table or any other applicable field information.82. "Transfer" means a transfer of real property except between the following relationships: a. Between current spouses;b. Between parents and their children;c. Between full siblings; ord. Where the grantor transfers the real property to be held in a revocable or irrevocable trust, where at least one (1) of the designated beneficiaries is of the first (1st) degree of relationship to the grantor.83. "Tributary" means any flowing body of water or watercourse that provides intermittent or perennial flow to down-gradient watercourses that eventually discharge to the waters of concern (e.g., reservoir impoundment or salt pond).84. "Tributary freshwater wetland" means freshwater wetlands within a watershed that are connected via a watercourse to the waters of concern (e.g., drinking water supply impoundment or coastal wetland or tidal waters).85. "TSS" means total suspended solids. The measure of solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in, water or wastewater. A measure of wastewater strength, often used in conjunction with BOD5.86. "U.C." means uniformity coefficient, a numeric quantity which is calculated by dividing the size of a sieve opening which will pass sixty percent (60%) by weight of a sand media sample by the size of the sieve opening which will pass ten percent (10%) by weight of the same sand media sample. Note that fifty percent (50%) of the sample is retained between the two (2). The uniformity coefficient is a measure of the degree of size uniformity of the sand particles in a sand media sample. As the U.C. value approaches one (1), the more uniform in particle size the sand media is. The larger the U.C., the less uniform the particle size. Click here to view
87. "Vendor" means the person seeking an alternative or experimental technology approval.88. "Wastewater" means human or animal excremental liquid or substance, putrescible animal or vegetable matter or garbage and filth, including, but not limited to, water discharged from toilets, bathtubs, showers, laundry tubs, washing machines, sinks, and dishwashers. Both blackwater and graywater are considered wastewater under these Rules.89. "Watercourse" means any freshwater wetlands, coastal wetlands as defined in R.I. Gen. Laws § 46-23-6(2)(iii)(E), area subject to storm flowage, or any other standing or flowing body of water, including such watercourses that may be affected by the tides.90. "Wellhead protection area" means the area as designated by the Director in Subchapter 05 Part 3 of this Chapter, Groundwater Quality Rules, surrounding a public well or wellfield through which water will move toward and reach such well or wellfield.250 R.I. Code R. 250-RICR-150-10-6.8
Amended effective 11/25/2018
Amended effective 12/28/2021
Amended effective 7/1/2022