N.J. Admin. Code § 7:14-8.2 - Definitions

As used in this subchapter, the following words and terms shall, in addition to those provided in 7:14A-1.2, have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

"Any rules issued pursuant to the Water Pollution Control Act" means, but is not limited to, the following rules:

Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act Rules, N.J.A.C. 7:7A;

Stormwater Management, N.J.A.C. 7:8;

Water Pollution Control, N.J.A.C. 7:9;

Standards for Individual Subsurface Sewage Disposal Systems, N.J.A.C. 7:9A;

Safe Drinking Water Act, N.J.A.C. 7:10;

Flood Hazard Area Control, N.J.A.C. 7:13;

Water Pollution Control Act, N.J.A.C. 7:14;

Pollution Discharge Elimination System, N.J.A.C. 7:14A;

Statewide Water Quality Management Planning, N.J.A.C. 7:15; and

Regulations Governing the Certification of Laboratories and Environmental Measurements, N.J.A.C. 7:18; and

Sewage Infrastructure Improvement Act Grants, N.J.A.C. 7:22A.

"Bypass" means the anticipated or unanticipated intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of a treatment works.

"Delegated local agency" means a local agency with an industrial pretreatment program approved by the Department.

"Discharge" means an intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the releasing, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping of a pollutant into the waters of this State, onto land or into wells from which it might flow or drain into such waters, or into waters or onto lands outside the jurisdiction of the State which pollutant enters the waters of this State, and shall include the release of any pollutant into a municipal treatment works. A leak into a secondary containment system which does not involve a release into the waters or lands of this State is not a "discharge" for purposes of applying the rules under this chapter to violations of the Underground Storage of Hazardous Substances Act, 58:11-49 et seq., and the rules promulgated pursuant thereto, N.J.A.C. 7:14B.

"Discharge Monitoring Report" or "DMR" means the EPA's uniform national form, as amended, for the reporting of self-monitoring results by permittees, and includes Baseline Reports.

"Effluent limitation" means any restriction on quantities, quality, discharge rates and concentration of chemical, physical, thermal, biological, radiological, and any other constituents of pollutants established by permit, or impose as an interim enforcement limit pursuant to an administrative order, including an administrative consent order.

"Federal Act" means the Clean Water Act or the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq.) including all subsequent supplements and amendments.

"Grace period" means the period of time afforded under 13:1D-125 et seq., commonly known as the Grace Period Law, for a person to correct a minor violation in order to avoid imposition of a penalty that would be otherwise applicable for such violation.

"Groundwater remedial action" means the removal or abatement of one or more pollutants in a groundwater source.

"Hazardous pollutant" means:

1. Any toxic pollutant;

2. Any hazardous substance as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L. 1976, c.141 (N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.1 1b);

3. 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.);

4. 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.);

5. Any substance identified as a known carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer; or

6. 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.).

"Indirect discharge" means any discharge, excluding any discharges by municipal collection systems, into any domestic treatment works.

"Indirect user" means an entity with an indirect discharge.

"Industrial pretreatment program" or "IPP" means a program designed to regulate the introduction of pollutants into a local agency's treatment works from any nondomestic source.

"Inhibition concentration" means that concentration of effluent which produces the specified inhibition effect in a chronic whole effluent toxicity test. An IC25 is the concentration of effluent which produces an inhibition of 25 percent for the monitored effect as compared to the control.

"Lawful entry" means an entry by the Commissioner into any building, place, or premise pursuant to N.J.S.A. 13:1D, 58:10A and as otherwise provided by law, ordinance, regulation, order, permit or agreement.

"LC50" means the median lethal concentration of a toxic substance, expressed as a statistical estimate of the concentration that kills 50 percent of the test organisms under specified test conditions, based on the results of an acute bioassay.

"Local agency" means a political subdivision of the State, or an agency or instrumentality thereof, that owns or operates a municipal treatment works.

"Major facility" means:

1. For industrial facilities, any facility which scores 80 or more points on the NJPDES permit rating work sheet using the USEPA rating criteria. A facility with less than the required score of 80 may still be classified as a Major facility by the Regional Administrator or the Department. In those situations, the Department shall state the reasons for doing so; and

2. For municipal facilities, any POTW with a design flow of 1.0 million gallons per day or greater.

"Monitoring report form" means the standard Department form, including any subsequent additions, revisions or modifications, for the reporting of data pursuant to certain DGW permits.

"Municipal treatment works" means the treatment works of any municipality, county, or State agency or any agency or subdivision created by one or more municipal, county, or State governments and the treatment works of any public utility as defined in 48:2-13.

"No observed adverse effect concentration" or "NOAEC" means the lowest concentration at which the organisms are adversely affected as compared to the control determined using hypothesis testing technique.

"NOEC" or "no observable effect concentration" means the maximum effluent concentration which results in no observable effect for the evaluated end-point. The NOEC is usually determined as the next lower tested concentration than the concentration which results in the lowest observable effect as compared to the controls. For discharge permits where the limitation is expressed as an NOEC, the results shall be reported as the calculated IC25 and shall be considered equivalent to the observed NOEC.

"No measurable acute toxicity" or "NMAT" means a type of water quality based acute whole effluent toxicity limit imposed in accordance with N.J.A.C. 7:9B-4.6(c)5 i(2), which requires that no mortality occurs in any acute toxicity test concentration, including 100 percent effluent, above normal background mortality levels for the test organism population. The normal background mortality level is the acceptable level of control mortality for a valid test specific in 7:18-6.6(v).

"Permit" means an authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued by the Department or a delegated local agency to implement the requirements of the State Act and the related statutes specified in 7:14-8.1 even where any or all the conditions of the permit have been stayed. Permit does not include any permit which has not yet been the subject of final agency action, such as a "draft permit." Permit includes a letter of agreement entered into between a delegated local agency and a user of its municipal treatment works, setting effluent limitations and other conditions on the user of the agency's municipal treatment works. Permit also includes a general permit and a permit-by-rule.

"Permitted groundwater remedial action" means the removal or abatement of one or more pollutants in a groundwater source pursuant to a permit.

"Person" means an individual, corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, owner or operator of a treatment works, political subdivision of this State and any state, Federal or interstate agency or an agent or employee thereof. "Person" shall also include any responsible corporate official for the purpose of enforcement action under Section 10 of the State Act.

"Pollutant" means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, refuse, oil, grease, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, medical wastes, radioactive substance (except those regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended ( 42 U.S.C. §§ 2011 et seq.)), thermal waste, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, agricultural, and construction waste or runoff, or other residue discharged directly or indirectly to the land, ground waters or surface waters of the State or to a DTW. "Pollutant" includes both hazardous and nonhazardous pollutants.

"Schedule of compliance" or "compliance schedule" means a schedule of remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with water quality standards, an effluent limitation or other limitation, prohibition or standard.

"Serious violation" means an exceedance, at a discharge point source, of an effluent limitation, except color, set forth in a permit, administrative order, or administrative consent agreement, including interim enforcement limits, as follows:

1. For effluent limitations for pollutants that are measured by concentration or mass, except for whole effluent toxicity;

i. Violations of an effluent limitation that is expressed as a monthly average:

(1) By 20 percent or more for a hazardous pollutant; and

(2) By 40 percent or more for a nonhazardous pollutant;

ii. Violations of an effluent limitation that is expressed as a daily maximum or daily minimum without a monthly average:

(1) By 20 percent or more of the average of all of the daily maximum or minimum values for a hazardous pollutant; and

(2) By 40 percent or more of the average of all of the daily maximum or minimum values for a nonhazardous pollutant; and

2. For effluent limitations for whole effluent toxicity as follows:

i. For any violation of an LC50, NOAEC, IC[LESS THAN]25[GREATER THAN] or a NOEC limit when, upon subtracting the toxicity test result from the whole effluent toxicity limit, the difference is as follows:

Whole Effluent Toxicity	Difference (% Effluent)
Limit (% Effluent)
greater than or equal to 80 and	greater than or equal to 20
less than or equal to 100
greater than or equal to 50 and	greater than or equal to 15
less than 80
greater than 10 and less than 50	greater than or equal to 10
less than or equal to 10	greater than or equal to 9

ii. Any violation of a No Measurable Acute Toxicity (NMAT) limit with greater than or equal to 50 percent mortality in any test concentration, including 100% effluent.

3. The greatest violation of a pH effluent range in any one calendar day which violation deviates from the midpoint of the range by at least 40 percent of the midpoint of the range excluding the excursions specifically excepted by a NJPDES permit with continuous pH monitoring.

For example: Assuming that a permittee's effluent limitation range for pH is 6.0 to 9.0, the midpoint would be 7.5.

If five separate readings of pH during a given day were 4.3, 5.8, 6.5, 6.0 and 6.5, the reading of 4.3 would be a serious violation as follows:

For example: Using the same information as above.

Forty percent of 7.5 is 3; therefore, if the greatest violation of a pH effluent range for any calendar day has a pH of 4.5 or less or a pH of 10.5 or greater, the violation would be a "serious violation."

4. Notwithstanding the above, the Department may utilize, on a case-by-case basis, a more stringent factor of exceedance to determine a serious violation if the Department states the specific reasons therefore, which may include the potential for harm to human health or the environment.

"Significant noncomplier" or "SNC" means any person, except a local agency for an exceedance of an effluent limitation for flow, who commits any of the violations described below, unless the Department uses, on a case-by-case basis, a more stringent frequency or factor of exceedance to determine a significant noncomplier and the Department states the specific reasons therefor, which may include the potential for harm to human health or the environment. Violations which cause a person to become or remain an SNC include:

1. A serious violation for the same pollutant, at the same discharge point source, in any two months of any consecutive six month period;

2. Exceedance of an effluent limitation expressed as a monthly average, for the same pollutant, at the same discharge point source, by any amount in any four months of any consecutive six month period;

3. If there is not an effluent limitation for a particular pollutant expressed as a monthly average, exceedance of the monthly average of the daily maximums for the effluent limitation, for the same pollutant, at the same discharge point source, by any amount in any four months of any consecutive six month period;

4. Any exceedance of an effluent limitation for pH by any amount, excluding the excursions specifically excepted by a NJPDES permit with continuous pH monitoring, at the same discharge point source in any four months of any consecutive six month period; or

5. Failure to submit a completed discharge monitoring report in any two months of any consecutive six month period.

"Sludge Quality Assurance Report" or "SQAR" means the standard Department form, including any subsequent additions, revisions or modifications, for the reporting of sludge quality and quantity.

"State Act" means the Water Pollution Control Act, 58:10A-1 et seq.

"Toxic pollutant" or "toxic substances" means any pollutant identified pursuant to the Federal Act 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, may, 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. Toxic pollutants shall include but not be limited to, those pollutants identified pursuant to Section 307 of the Federal Act or Section 4 of the State Act, or in the case of "sludge use or disposal practices," any pollutant identified pursuant to Section 405(d) of the Federal Act.

"Upset" means an exceptional incident in which there is unintentional and temporary noncompliance with an effluent limitation because of an event beyond the reasonable control of the permittee, including fire, riot, sabotage, or a flood, storm event, natural cause, or other act of God, or other similar circumstance, which is the cause of the violation. "Upset" also includes noncompliance consequent to the performance of maintenance operations for which a prior exception has been granted by the Department or a delegated local agency.

"Violator" means any person against whom the Department or delegated local agency asserts a violation of the State Act or any rules issued pursuant to the State Act.

"Whole effluent toxicity" or "WET" means the aggregate toxic effect of an effluent measured by a toxicity test.

Notes

N.J. Admin. Code § 7:14-8.2

Amended by R.1991 d.307, effective 6/17/1991.
See: 22 N.J.R. 2870(a), 23 N.J.R. 1926(a).
Added " 'Any rules issued pursuant to the Water Pollution Control Act' means, but is not limited to, the following rules: ...".
Amended by R.1991 d.378, effective 8/5/1991.
See: 23 N.J.R. 1089(a), 23 N.J.R. 2366(a).
Added additional definitions including new definitions of "serious violations" and "significant noncompliers"; substantial revision of definition of "Hazardous pollutant".
Amended by R.1992 d.145, effective 4/6/1992.
See: 23 N.J.R. 2238(a), 24 N.J.R. 1334(a).
Added "lawful entry", "No Measurable Acute Toxicity" and revised "discharge", "discharge monitoring report", "serious violation" and "significant noncomplier".
Amended by R.1999 d.163, effective 5/17/1999.
See: 31 N.J.R. 508(b), 31 N.J.R. 1314(b).
Rewrote the section.
Amended by R.2007 d.234, effective 8/6/2007.
See: 38 N.J.R. 2919(a), 39 N.J.R. 3298(a).
Added definition "Grace period".
Amended by R.2009 d.7, effective 1/5/2009.
See: 40 N.J.R. 1478(a), 41 N.J.R. 142(a).
In paragraph 2i of definition "Serious violation", inserted ", NOAEC, IC<25>".