Regulations last checked for updates: Nov 22, 2024

Title 40 - Protection of Environment last revised: Nov 20, 2024
§ 125.58 - Definitions.

For the purpose of this subpart:

(a) Administrator means the EPA Administrator or a person designated by the EPA Administrator.

(b) Altered discharge means any discharge other than a current discharge or improved discharge, as defined in this regulation.

(c) Applicant means an applicant for a new or renewed section 301(h) modified permit. Large applicants have populations contributing to their POTWs equal to or more than 50,000 people or average dry weather flows of 5.0 million gallons per day (mgd) or more; small applicants have contributing populations of less than 50,000 people and average dry weather flows of less than 5.0 mgd. For the purposes of this definition the contributing population and flows shall be based on projections for the end of the five-year permit term. Average dry weather flows shall be the average daily total discharge flows for the maximum month of the dry weather season.

(d) Application means a final application previously submitted in accordance with the June 15, 1979, section 301(h) regulations (44 FR 34784); an application submitted between December 29, 1981, and December 29, 1982; or a section 301(h) renewal application submitted in accordance with these regulations. It does not include a preliminary application submitted in accordance with the June 15, 1979, section 301(h) regulations.

(e) Application questionnaire means EPA's “Applicant Questionnaire for Modification of Secondary Treatment Requirements,” published as an appendix to this subpart.

(f) Balanced indigenous population means an ecological community which:

(1) Exhibits characteristics similar to those of nearby, healthy communities existing under comparable but unpolluted environmental conditions; or

(2) May reasonably be expected to become re-established in the polluted water body segment from adjacent waters if sources of pollution were removed.

(g) Categorical pretreatment standard means a standard promulgated by EPA under 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N.

(h) Current discharge means the volume, composition, and location of an applicant's discharge at the time of permit application.

(i) Improved discharge means the volume, composition, and location of an applicant's discharge following:

(1) Construction of planned outfall improvements, including, without limitation, outfall relocation, outfall repair, or diffuser modification; or

(2) Construction of planned treatment system improvements to treatment levels or discharge characteristics; or

(3) Implementation of a planned program to improve operation and maintenance of an existing treatment system or to eliminate or control the introduction of pollutants into the applicant's treatment works.

(j) Industrial discharger or industrial source means any source of nondomestic pollutants regulated under section 307(b) or (c) of the Clean Water Act which discharges into a POTW.

(k) Modified discharge means the volume, composition, and location of the discharge proposed by the applicant for which a modification under section 301(h) of the Act is requested. A modified discharge may be a current discharge, improved discharge, or altered discharge.

(l) New York Bight Apex means the ocean waters of the Atlantic Ocean westward of 73 degrees 30 minutes west longitude and northward of 40 degrees 10 minutes north latitude.

(m) Nonindustrial source means any source of pollutants which is not an industrial source.

(n) Ocean waters means those coastal waters landward of the baseline of the territorial seas, the deep waters of the territorial seas, or the waters of the contiguous zone. The term “ocean waters” excludes saline estuarine waters.

(o) Permittee means an NPDES permittee with an effective section 301(h) modified permit.

(p) Pesticides means demeton, guthion, malathion, mirex, methoxychlor, and parathion.

(q) Pretreatment means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW. The reduction or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical, or biological processes, process changes, or by other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR part 403.

(r) Primary or equivalent treatment for the purposes of this subpart means treatment by screening, sedimentation, and skimming adequate to remove at least 30 percent of the biochemical oxygen demanding material and of the suspended solids in the treatment works influent, and disinfection, where appropriate.

(s) Public water supplies means water distributed from a public water system.

(t) Public water system means a system for the provision to the public of piped water for human consumption, if such system has at least fifteen (15) service connections or regularly serves at least twenty-five (25) individuals. This term includes: (1) Any collection, treatment, storage, and distribution facilities under the control of the operator of the system and used primarily in connection with the system, and (2) Any collection or pretreatment storage facilities not under the control of the operator of the system which are used primarily in connection with the system.

(u) Publicly owned treatment works or POTW means a treatment works, as defined in section 212(2) of the Act, which is owned by a State, municipality, or intermunicipal or interstate agency.

(v) Saline estuarine waters means those semi-enclosed coastal waters which have a free connection to the territorial sea, undergo net seaward exchange with ocean waters, and have salinities comparable to those of the ocean. Generally, these waters are near the mouth of estuaries and have cross-sectional annual mean salinities greater than twenty-five (25) parts per thousand.

(w) Secondary removal equivalency means that the amount of a toxic pollutant removed by the combination of the applicant's own treatment of its influent and pretreatment by its industrial users is equal to or greater than the amount of the toxic pollutant that would be removed if the applicant were to apply secondary treatment to its discharge where the discharge has not undergone pretreatment by the applicant's industrial users.

(x) Secondary treatment means the term as defined in 40 CFR part 133.

(y) Shellfish, fish, and wildlife means any biological population or community that might be adversely affected by the applicant's modified discharge.

(z) Stressed waters means those ocean waters for which an applicant can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Administrator, that the absence of a balanced indigenous population is caused solely by human perturbations other than the applicant's modified discharge.

(aa) Toxic pollutants means those substances listed in 40 CFR 401.15.

(bb) Water quality criteria means scientific data and guidance developed and periodically updated by EPA under section 304(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act, which are applicable to marine waters.

(cc) Water quality standards means applicable water quality standards which have been approved, left in effect, or promulgated under section 303 of the Clean Water Act.

(dd) Zone of initial dilution (ZID) means the region of initial mixing surrounding or adjacent to the end of the outfall pipe or diffuser ports, provided that the ZID may not be larger than allowed by mixing zone restrictions in applicable water quality standards.

authority: The Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1251
source: 44 FR 32948, June 7, 1979, unless otherwise noted.
cite as: 40 CFR 125.58