40 CFR § 503.9 - General definitions.

(a) Apply sewage sludge or sewage sludge applied to the land means land application of sewage sludge.

(b) Base flood is a flood that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year (i.e., a flood with a magnitude equalled once in 100 years).

(c) Class I sludge management facility is any publicly owned treatment works (POTW), as defined in 40 CFR 501.2, required to have an approved pretreatment program under 40 CFR 403.8(a) (including any POTW located in a State that has elected to assume local program responsibilities pursuant to 40 CFR 403.10(e)) and any treatment works treating domestic sewage, as defined in 40 CFR 122.2, classified as a Class I sludge management facility by the EPA Regional Administrator, or, in the case of approved State programs, the Regional Administrator in conjunction with the State Director, because of the potential for its sewage sludge use or disposal practice to affect public health and the environment adversely.

(d) Cover crop is a small grain crop, such as oats, wheat, or barley, not grown for harvest.

(e) CWA means the Clean Water Act (formerly referred to as either the Federal Water Pollution Act or the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972), Public Law 92–500, as amended by Public Law 95–217, Public Law 95–576, Public Law 96–483, Public Law 97–117, and Public Law 100–4.

(f) Domestic septage is either liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet, Type III marine sanitation device, or similar treatment works that receives only domestic sewage. Domestic septage does not include liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, or similar treatment works that receives either commercial wastewater or industrial wastewater and does not include grease removed from a grease trap at a restaurant.

(g) Domestic sewage is waste and wastewater from humans or household operations that is discharged to or otherwise enters a treatment works.

(h) Dry weight basis means calculated on the basis of having been dried at 105 degrees Celsius until reaching a constant mass (i.e., essentially 100 percent solids content).

(i) EPA means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

(j) Feed crops are crops produced primarily for consumption by animals.

(k) Fiber crops are crops such as flax and cotton.

(l) Food crops are crops consumed by humans. These include, but are not limited to, fruits, vegetables, and tobacco.

(m) Ground water is water below the land surface in the saturated zone.

(n) Industrial wastewater is wastewater generated in a commercial or industrial process.

(o) Municipality means a city, town, borough, county, parish, district, association, or other public body (including an intermunicipal Agency of two or more of the foregoing entities) created by or under State law; an Indian tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organization having jurisdiction over sewage sludge management; or a designated and approved management Agency under section 208 of the CWA, as amended. The definition includes a special district created under State law, such as a water district, sewer district, sanitary district, utility district, drainage district, or similar entity, or an integrated waste management facility as defined in section 201(e) of the CWA, as amended, that has as one of its principal responsibilities the treatment, transport, use, or disposal of sewage sludge.

(p) Permitting authority is either EPA or a State with an EPA-approved sludge management program.

(q) Person is an individual, association, partnership, corporation, municipality, State or Federal agency, or an agent or employee thereof.

(r) Person who prepares sewage sludge is either the person who generates sewage sludge during the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works or the person who derives a material from sewage sludge.

(s) Place sewage sludge or sewage sludge placed means disposal of sewage sludge on a surface disposal site.

(t) Pollutant is an organic substance, an inorganic substance, a combination of organic and inorganic substances, or a pathogenic organism that, after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into an organism either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through the food chain, could, on the basis of information available to the Administrator of EPA, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunction in reproduction), or physical deformations in either organisms or offspring of the organisms.

(u) Pollutant limit is a numerical value that describes the amount of a pollutant allowed per unit amount of sewage sludge (e.g., milligrams per kilogram of total solids); the amount of a pollutant that can be applied to a unit area of land (e.g., kilograms per hectare); or the volume of a material that can be applied to a unit area of land (e.g., gallons per acre).

(v) Runoff is rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains overland on any part of a land surface and runs off of the land surface.

(w) Sewage sludge is solid, semi-solid, or liquid residue generated during the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works. Sewage sludge includes, but is not limited to, domestic septage; scum or solids removed in primary, secondary, or advanced wastewater treatment processes; and a material derived from sewage sludge. Sewage sludge does not include ash generated during the firing of sewage sludge in a sewage sludge incinerator or grit and screenings generated during preliminary treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works.

(x) State is one of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and an Indian Tribe eligible for treatment as a State pursuant to regulations promulgated under the authority of section 518(e) of the CWA.

(y) Store or storage of sewage sludge is the placement of sewage sludge on land on which the sewage sludge remains for two years or less. This does not include the placement of sewage sludge on land for treatment.

(z) Treat or treatment of sewage sludge is the preparation of sewage sludge for final use or disposal. This includes, but is not limited to, thickening, stabilization, and dewatering of sewage sludge. This does not include storage of sewage sludge.

(aa) Treatment works is either a federally owned, publicly owned, or privately owned device or system used to treat (including recycle and reclaim) either domestic sewage or a combination of domestic sewage and industrial waste of a liquid nature.

(bb) Wetlands means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or ground water at a frequency and duration to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.