Ariz. Admin. Code § R18-9-A801 - Definitions

In addition to the definitions in A.R.S. § 49-201, the following terms apply to this Article:

1. "Action level" means a value or criterion established in an Advanced Water Purification (AWP) permit at a critical control point that, when exceeded, triggers a required response or action to prevent a potentially hazardous event and will involve actions or responses such as additional monitoring, treatment adjustments, public notification or other corrective responses or actions.
2. "Acute exposure threats" means the increased imminent risk of adverse health effects, including infectious diseases and toxic effects from short-term exposures to contaminants in water which triggers public notice pursuant to A.A.C. R18-4-119, which incorporates 40 CFR § 141.201 by reference.
3. "ADEQ" or "Department" means Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
4. "Advanced Oxidation Process" or "AOP" means a set of chemical treatment processes whereby oxidation of organic contaminants occurs on a molecular level through reactions with hydroxyl radicals or similarly aggressive radical oxidant species.
5. "Advanced treated water" means water produced by an advanced water treatment facility (AWTF) and can be from one or more AWTFs.
6. "Advanced Water Purification" or "AWP" means the treatment or processing of treated wastewater to advanced treated water standards for the purpose of delivery to a drinking water treatment facility or a drinking water distribution system.
7. "Advanced Water Purification Responsible Agency" or "AWPRA" means the applicant or permittee, comprising one or more AWPRA Partners, responsible for compliance with the requirements of the AWP program for a particular AWP project and formed pursuant to R18-9-B805. An AWPRA must be a "person" under A.R.S. § 49-201(33).
8. "Advanced Water Purification Responsible Agency Partner" or "AWPRA Partner" means any entity that collects or provides treated wastewater to the AWP project, performs wastewater source control or treatment pursuant to this Article, or utilizes AWP project water as a source for delivery to a drinking water distribution system.
9. "Advanced Water Purification project" or "AWP project" means all facilities related to the advanced treatment of treated wastewater to drinking water standards operating under an AWP permit or demonstration permit.
10. "AWP project treatment train" means a treatment train designed to meet the requirements contained in this Article. In addition to the advanced water treatment facility (AWTF), portions of the water reclamation facility or drinking water treatment facility can be part of an AWP project treatment train.
11. "AWPRA facility" or "facility" means a drinking water treatment facility, advanced water treatment facility (AWTF), collection system, or wastewater treatment plant involved in the production of advanced treated water or finished water under this Article.
12. "Advanced Water Treatment Facility" or "AWTF" means a facility where treated wastewater is treated pursuant to the requirements of this article.
13. "Alert level" means a value or criterion established in an AWP permit at a critical control point that, when exceeded, alerts an operator that a potential problem may require a response.
14. "Amendment" means a change to the permit language resulting from a modification event.
15. "Aquifer Protection Permit" or "APP" means an individual permit or a general permit issued under A.R.S. §§ 49-203, 49-241 through 49-252, and Articles 1, 2, and 3 of this Chapter.
16. "AWP" means Advanced Water Purification (See R18-9-A801(6)).
17. "Barrier" means a measure (technical, operational or managerial) implemented to control microbial or chemical constituents in advanced treated water.
18. "Best Management Practices" or "Best Practices" means a set of principles, guidelines and standards that an AWPRA follows to ensure high levels of quality, safety, efficiency and reliability. The principles, guidelines and standards in an AWP guidance document constitute Best Management Practice or Best Practice.
19. "Bioassay" means tests performed using live cell cultures or mixtures of cellular components in which the potency of a chemical or water concentrate is tested based on its effect on a measurable constituent, such as inhibition or the induction of a response (including carcinogenicity and mutagenicity). Bioassays can be used to measure synergistic, additive, and antagonistic interactions between compounds that may be present in a mixture.
20. "Blending" means the mixing of advanced treated water with another water source that will result in raw water augmentation or treated water augmentation directly to the distribution system. Blending does not apply to an Engineered Storage Buffer where storage of only advanced treated water takes place.
21. "Challenge test" means a study comparing a pathogen, surrogate parameter, or indicator compound concentration between the influent and effluent of a treatment process to determine the removal capacity of the treatment process. The concentration in the influent must be high enough to ensure that a measurable concentration is detected in the effluent (i.e., filtrate detection limit).
22. "Chemical" means any substance, used in or produced by a reaction involving changes to atoms or molecules, that has a defined composition and which is either naturally occurring or manufactured.
23. "Chemical peak" means an abnormal increase in the level of a chemical that represents a potential human health hazard that is the result of intentional or unintentional illicit discharges of chemicals to the sewershed. Chemical peaks are different from normal facility variation in water quality.
24. "Compliance schedule" means a list of required items assigned by the Department to the Permittee to be completed in the AWP permit.
25. "Constituent of Concern" means a potentially harmful or difficult to treat substance that could cause treatment interference, pass-through, or a violation of a treatment technique requirement, action level or Maximum Contaminant Level in the advanced treated water or finished water. Constituents of concern include Tiers 1, 2, and 3 chemicals.
26. "Constituent" means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter found in water and/or wastewater.
27. "Continuous online analyzers" means a monitoring sensor or device that monitors continuously or in real time (intervals of 15 minutes or less) and is positioned directly in the process flow or sample line to measure treatment performance.
28. "Critical Control Point" means a point in the treatment train that is specifically designed to reduce, prevent, or eliminate process failure, and for which controls exist to ensure the proper performance of that process, verified via monitoring.
29. "Demonstration permit" means an AWP permit that does not include distribution of finished water to drinking water consumers.
30. "Department" means the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
31. "Direct integrity test" means a physical test applied to a membrane unit in order to identify and isolate integrity breaches, such as leaks that could result in contamination of the filtrate.
32. "Director" means the Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
33. "Disinfection treatment process" means a treatment process that either physically or chemically eliminates or inactivates pathogenic microorganisms.
34. "Distribution" means the act of delivering finished water through a network of pipes or other constructed conveyances from a facility to a consumer for human consumption.
35. "Distribution system" means the infrastructure used to carry out distribution.
36. "Draft permit" means a preliminary draft of a permit upon which the Director has not yet made a final permit determination.
37. "Drinking Water Treatment Facility" means a water treatment facility that is designed and operated to meet the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
38. "Engineered Storage Buffer" means a storage facility used to provide retention time before advanced treated water is introduced into a drinking water treatment facility or distribution system.
39. "Enhanced Source Control" means a program that enables the AWPRA to prevent constituents of concern, including target chemicals, from negatively impacting the AWTF, or the water it produces, by controlling them at their source.
40. "Exceedance" means an increase in the concentration of a constituent of concern beyond an established level such as an MCL, alert level, or action level.
41. "Excursion" means a deviation from established water quality boundaries for a process or at any point in a treatment train.
42. "Failure" means a condition in which an excursion or loss of performance occurs in one or more of the unit processes that results in a treatment train to not meet a performance metric or deviate from an approved operational range for parameters, necessitating a shutdown of a specific train or the entire plant for compliance.
43. "Failure Response Time" means the maximum possible time from when a failure occurs in the treatment system to when the quality of the final product water is no longer affected by the failure. Failure response time is calculated as a sum of the sampling interval, sample turnaround time and system reaction time, with overall failure response time based on the treatment process with the highest individual failure response time.
44. "Filtration treatment process" means a treatment process that physically separates a constituent of concern from water.
45. "Finished water" or "finished drinking water" means water produced by an AWTF, or a drinking water treatment facility, and which is introduced into a distribution system or served for human consumption without additional treatment, except for measures required to uphold water quality within the distribution system.
46. "Full scale" means the complete implementation and operation of an AWP system that is designed to treat treated wastewater to advanced treated water or finished water standards and to meet the finished water demand of the community.
47. "Good engineering practice" means a set of principles, guidelines, and standards that engineers follow to ensure their work meets high levels of quality, safety, efficiency and reliability. The principles, guidelines, and standards in an ADEQ-issued AWP guidance document constitute good engineering practice.
48. "Health Advisory" or "HA" means an estimate of acceptable levels for a chemical substance in drinking water based on health effects information that is:
a. Published by EPA;
b. Established in credible peer-reviewed literature or state or Federal databases;
c. Established by the Department; or
d. Established by another state's drinking water program as a "notification level".
49. "Impactful non-domestic dischargers" means a non-domestic discharger that has been determined by the AWPRA to discharge in such a way that will or does significantly impact the AWPRA's treatment processes and may or does significantly impact public health. Such determinations are made through a significant impact analysis pursuant to R18-9-E824(C).
50. "Indicator compound" or "Indicator" or "Performance Based Indicator" means a chemical found in treated wastewater that serves as a representative substance for a particular group of trace organic compounds, embodying their physical, chemical, and biodegradation properties.
51. "Initial Source Water Characterization" or "ISWC" means baseline monitoring of chemicals and pathogens performed on the treated wastewater effluent of a Water Reclamation Facility pursuant to R18-9-C814.
52. "Interference" means a discharge which alone, or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
a. inhibits or disrupts the Water Reclamation Facility or the Advanced Water Treatment Facility, and
b. is the cause of a violation of any requirement of the AWP permit.
53. "Local limit" means a set of specific, local, relevant, and enforceable limits, control measures, and best management practices established to protect AWPRA Facilities from pass-through or interference that could result in a threat to public health.
54. "Log reduction value" means the measure of a treatment train's or a treatment process's ability to remove or inactivate microorganisms such as bacteria, protozoa and viruses. A log reduction value is the log reduction validated or credited for a treatment process or treatment train.
55. "Log reduction" means the logarithm base 10 of the ratio of the levels of a pathogenic organism or other contaminant before and after treatment or a reduction in the concentration of a contaminant or microorganism by a factor of 10. One log reduction corresponds to a 90-percent reduction from the original concentration.
56. "Maximum Contaminant Level" or "MCL" has the same meaning set forth in Title 18, Chapter 4, Article 1 of this Title.
57. "Modification" means a change or changes to the treatment train or operations or any other component that will result in a change in the water quality of any process, unit of operation or to the advanced treated water or finished water.
58. "Municipal wastewater" means wastewater that contains predominantly domestic waste and may include commercial and industrial waste.
59. "Non-domestic sources" means both industrial and commercial sources.
60. "National Pretreatment Program" or "NPP" means the federal program referred to by this name under the Clean Water Act that is meant to protect infrastructure and receiving waters to a fishable and swimmable standard. The NPP is designed to reduce conventional and toxic pollutant levels discharged by industries and other non-domestic wastewater sources into municipal sewer systems and into the environment. The National Pretreatment Program's implementing regulations are found at Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 122, 123, 124, and 403 and chapter I, subchapter N.
61. "National Pretreatment Program AWPRA" or "NPP AWPRA" means an AWPRA subject to R18-9-C813(B).
62. "Non-National Pretreatment Program AWPRA" or "Non-NPP AWPRA" means an AWPRA subject to R18-9-C813(C).
63. "Off-specification water" or "off-spec water" means water that has a quality that does not meet standards such as drinking water MCLs or other AWP programmatic requirements such as standards associated with surrogates or indicators.
64. "Operational barrier" means a barrier in the form of measures, including operations and monitoring plans, failure and response plans, as well as operator training and certification.
65. "Operational parameter" means a measurable property used to characterize or partially characterize the operation of a treatment process and must confirm the treatment barriers are intact to ensure the process is meeting the water quality and pathogen/chem-ical removal goals.
66. "Original drinking water" means drinking water that was being distributed prior to the introduction of advanced treated water or finished water.
67. "Oxidized wastewater" means wastewater that is treated to a level beyond simple removal of floating and suspended solids and meets the secondary treatment levels as described in R18-9-B204(B)(1).
68. "Ozone with biologically active filtration" or "Ozone/BAC" means an ozonation process immediately followed by biologically activated carbon.
69. "Pass-through" means the occurrence of a constituent of concern exiting Water Reclamation Facilities or Advanced Water Treatment Facilities in quantities or concentrations that have a significant potential to have serious adverse public health effects or to cause a violation of a treatment technique requirement, an action level or an MCL in the advanced treated water or finished water.
70. "Pathogen" means a microorganism such as bacteria, virus, or protozoa that can cause human illness.
71. "Pilot Study" or "Pilot train" or "Pilot" means a preliminary study and treatment train, of any scale representative to the fullscale facility, which is conducted to evaluate the feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and to improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale project.
72. "Potentially impactful non-domestic discharger" means a non-domestic discharger that has been determined by the AWPRA to pose a potential to adversely impact treatment processes or the public health or which otherwise must be identified and tracked by the AWPRA pursuant to R18-9-E824(B)(4).
73. "Product water" means water exiting a specific treatment process or a combination of treatment processes.
74. "Public water system" has the same definition as the one incorporated by reference at A.A.C. R18-4-103 (40 CFR 141.2).
75. "Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction" or "qPCR" means a PCR-based technique that couples amplification of a target DNA sequence with quantification of the concentration of that DNA species in the reaction.
76. "Raw wastewater" means wastewater that is entering a Water Reclamation Facility via a sewage collection system and which has not undergone any centralized treatment. For the purposes of pathogen log removal, raw wastewater means wastewater prior to any point in a wastewater treatment process that may be credited for disinfection.
77. "Raw water augmentation" means introducing advanced treated water into the raw water supply upstream of a drinking water treatment facility.
78. "Real time monitoring" or "online monitoring" means treatment performance monitoring using instruments directly in the process flow or sample line that occurs continuously or semi-continuously in intervals of 15 minutes or less.
79. "Recalcitrant Total Organic Carbon" or "rTOC" means the Total Organic Carbon (TOC) found in finished water, which once used or consumed becomes wastewater. rTOC is unlike anthropogenic TOC present in wastewater because it may not be effectively eliminated by the Water Reclamation Facility, which leaves it as a constituent of the TOC in the treated wastewater.
80. "Redundancy" means the use of multiple treatment barriers to attenuate the same type of constituent, so that if one barrier fails, performs inadequately, or is taken offline for maintenance, the overall system will still perform effectively, reducing risk.
81. "Reference Dose" or "RfD" means an estimate (with uncertainty spanning perhaps an order of magnitude) of a daily oral exposure to the human population (including sensitive subgroups) that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime.
82. "Reference pathogens" means Enteric viruses (specifically norovirus), Giardia lamblia cysts, and Cryptosporidium oocysts.
83. "Reliability" means the ability of a treatment process or treatment train to consistently achieve the desired degree of treatment, based on its inherent redundancy, robustness, and resilience.
84. "Resilience" means the ability of a treatment train to adapt successfully and restore performance rapidly when failure occurs.
85. "Robustness" means the ability of an AWP system to address a broad variety of constituents and changes in the concentrations of the constituents in the source water and resist a failure.
86. "Safe Drinking Water Act" means the Safe Drinking Water Act (Pub. L. 93-523, as amended; 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.).
87. "SCADA" or "SCADA System" means Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system.
88. "Secondary treatment" means treated wastewater that meets the following treatment levels:
a. Five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) less than 30 mg/l (30-day average) and 45 mg/l (seven-day average), or carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD5) less than 25 mg/l (30-day average) or 40 mg/l (seven-day average);
b. Total suspended solids (TSS) less than 30 mg/l (30-day average) and 45 mg/l (seven-day average);
c. pH maintained between 6.0 and 9.0 standard units; and
d. A removal efficiency of 85 percent for BOD5, CBOD5, and TSS.
89. "Source water" means water that is characterized for chemical constituents and pathogens based on which treatment or source control is designed.
90. "Surrogate parameter" or "Surrogate" means a measurable chemical or physical property, microorganism, or chemical that has been demonstrated to provide a direct correlation with the concentration of an indicator compound or pathogen; that may be used to monitor the efficacy of constituent reduction by a treatment process; and/or that provides an indication of a treatment process failure.
91. "Target chemical" means any unregulated chemical causing a potential human health concern that may be present in the treated wastewater.
92. "Tier 1 chemicals" means contaminants regulated as Primary Drinking Water Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) under 40 CFR Part 141 of the Safe Drinking Water Act, as incorporated by reference in R18-4-102, including MCLs and treatment techniques.
93. "Tier 2 chemicals" means AWP-specific contaminants pursuant to R18-9-E826 that are not regulated in the Safe Drinking Water Act, but may be present in treated wastewater and may pose human health concerns.
94. "Tier 3 chemicals" means Performance Based Indicators that are used to monitor the performance of AWP treatment trains.
95. "Total Organic Carbon" or "TOC" means the amount of organic carbon in a sample.
96. "Trace Organic Compounds" or "TOrCs" means a category of compounds such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and hormones.
97. "Treated wastewater" means any water or wastewater source of predominantly municipal origin coming from a Water Reclamation Facility and going to an Advanced Water Treatment Facility that has undergone treated wastewater characterization for either enhanced wastewater treatment or secondary wastewater treatment. For the purposes of the AWP program, treated wastewater originates from a Water Reclamation Facility that has liquid stream treatment processes that, at a minimum, are designed and operated to produce oxidized wastewater that achieves a defined source water quality for the purpose of additional treatment by an Advanced Water Treatment Facility.
98. "Treated water augmentation" means finished drinking water from an AWTF, permitted as a drinking water treatment facility, which is directly introduced into a distribution system for human consumption.
99. "Treatment barrier" means a barrier in constant operation, such as a physical barrier, that can be credited with treatment performance.
100. "Treatment interference" or "interference" means a discharge from a non-domestic source which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, inhibits or disrupts the AWPRA's treatment processes or operations and has significant potential for adverse public health consequences or significant potential to cause a violation of an action level, treatment technique or an MCL in advanced treated water or finished water.
101. "Treatment mechanism" means a physical, chemical, or biological action within each treatment process that reduces the concentration of a pathogen or a chemical contaminant.
102. "Treatment process" means a sequence of physical, chemical, or biological procedures applied to municipal wastewater or treated wastewater to remove pathogens and/or chemical constituents.
103. "Treatment technique" means a required process intended to reduce the level of a contaminant in water and/or drinking water.
104. "Treatment train" means a grouping of physical, chemical, and biological treatment technologies or processes that conditions or treats water to achieve a specific water quality goal.
105. "Upset" means unintentional and temporary non-compliance with a performance metric resulting in an excursion or loss of performance in one or more of the unit processes.
106. "Water Reclamation Facility" or "Wastewater Treatment Plant" means an arrangement of devices and structures for collecting, treating, neutralizing, stabilizing, or disposing of domestic wastewater, industrial wastes, and biosolids. For the purposes of the AWP program, a wastewater treatment plant does not include industrial wastewater treatment plants or complexes whose primary function is the treatment of industrial wastes.
107. "10-4 cancer risk" means the concentration of a chemical in drinking water corresponding to an excess estimated lifetime cancer risk of 1 in 10,000.

Notes

Ariz. Admin. Code § R18-9-A801
Corrected A.R.S. reference (Supp. 77-3). Former Section R9-8-311 renumbered without change as Section R18-9-801 (Supp. 87-3). Amended effective December 1, 1988 (Supp. 88-4). Section repealed by final rulemaking at 7 A.A.R. 235, effective December 8, 2000 (Supp. 00-4). New Section made by final rulemaking at 31 A.A.R. 1069, effective 3/4/2025.

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