For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions shall
be applicable:
(1) "Administrator"
means the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection
Agency.
(2) "Combined waste
treatment facility" means any publicly owned waste treatment facility in which
the maximum monthly average influent from any one industrial category, or
categories producing similar wastes, constitutes over eighty-five percent of
the design load for biochemical oxygen demand or suspended solids. Each single
industrial category must contribute a minimum of ten percent of the applicable
load.
(3) "Department" means
department of ecology.
(4)
"Director" means the director of the department of ecology or his/her
authorized representative.
(5)
"Discharge of pollutant" and the term "discharge of pollutants" each means (a)
any addition of any pollutant or combination of pollutants to surface waters of
the state from any point source, (b) any addition of any pollutant or
combination of pollutants to the waters of the contiguous zone or the ocean
from any point source, other than a vessel or other floating craft which is
being used as a means of transportation.
(6) "Discharger" means owner or operator of
any facility or activity subject to regulation under the NPDES
program.
(7) "Domestic wastewater"
means water carrying human wastes, including kitchen, bath, and laundry wastes
from residences, buildings, industrial establishments or other places, together
with such groundwater infiltration or surface waters as may be
present.
(8) "Domestic wastewater
facility" means all structures, equipment, or processes required to collect,
carry away, treat, reclaim or dispose of domestic wastewater together with such
industrial waste as may be present. This term applies only to facilities
discharging to surface water.
(9)
"Effluent limitation" means any restriction established by the state or
administrator on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical,
biological, and other constituents which are discharged from point sources into
surface waters of the state.
(10)
"FWPCA" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended,
33 U.S.C.
1251 et seq.
(11) "General permit" means a permit which
covers multiple dischargers of a point source category within a designated
geographical area, in lieu of individual permits being issued to each
discharger.
(12) "Individual
permit" means a permit for a single point source or a single
facility.
(13) "Major discharger"
means any discharger classified as such by the administrator in conjunction
with the director and published in the annual state-EPA agreement.
(14) "Minor discharger" means any discharger
not designated as major or covered under a general permit.
(15) "NPDES" means the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System.
(16)
"Permit" means an authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued
by the director to implement this chapter.
(17) "Person" includes any political
subdivision, local, state, or federal government agency, municipality,
industry, public or private corporation, partnership, association, firm,
individual, or any other entity whatsoever.
(18) "Point source" means any discernible,
confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch,
channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock,
concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from
which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return
flows from irrigated agriculture.
(19) "Pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid
waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical
wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded
equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal and agricultural
waste discharged into water. This term does not include sewage from vessels
within the meaning of section 312 of the FWPCA nor does it include dredged or
fill material discharged in accordance with a permit issued under section 404
of the FWPCA.
(20) "Regional
administrator" means the regional administrator of Region X of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or his/her authorized
representative.
(21) "Surface
waters of the state" means all waters defined as "waters of the United States"
in 40 C.F.R.
122.2 that are within the boundaries of the
state of Washington. This includes lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, inland
waters, wetlands, ocean, bays, estuaries, sounds, and inlets.
(22) "Water quality standards" means the
state of Washington's water quality standards for surface waters of the state,
which are codified in chapter
173-201 WAC.