Feather River AQMD 1.1 - 1

Rule 1.1 DEFINITIONS (Adopted 06/1991, Amended 8/1/2011)

A. APPLICABILITY

A.1 The definitions listed in Section (B) of this rule shall be 

applicable to all Rules and Regulations of the Feather River Air 

Quality Management District, unless the same term is 

specifically defined in any other applicable Rule or Regulation.

B. DEFINTION OF TERMS

B.1 Agricultural Burning: The use of open outdoor fires for the 

purpose of: Disposal of Agricultural Waste from agricultural 

operations; Forest Management Burning; Range Improvement 

Burning; Improvement of Land for Wildlife Habitat; Disease or 

Pest Prevention; Wildland Vegetative Management Burning and 

fires used for maintenance of a system for delivery of water for 

agricultural purposes.

B.2 Agricultural Operations: The growing and harvesting of crops, 

including timber, or the raising of fowls, animals or bees, for 

the primary purpose of earning a living, or making a profit.

B.3 Agricultural Wastes: The unwanted or unsalable material produced 

wholly from agricultural operations which are directly related 

to growing of crops, raising of fowls, animals or bees for the 

purpose of making a profit or a livelihood. This would also 

include grass and weeds in or adjacent to fields in cultivation 

or being prepared for cultivation, and materials not produced 

wholly from such operations but which are intimately related to 

the growing or harvesting of crops, and which are used in the 

field. Example: empty fertilizer and pesticide sacks, bags or 

cartons.

B.4 Air Contaminant: Includes smoke, dust, charred paper, soot, 

grime, carbon, acids, fumes, gases, odors, or particulate 

matter, or any combination thereof.

B.5 Air Pollution Control Officer (APCO): The air pollution control 

officer of the Feather River Air Quality Management District, 

and his duly authorized representatives.

B.6 Alteration or Modification: Any addition to, enlargement of, or 

any major modification or change of the design, capacity, 

process, or arrangement, or any increase in the connected 

loading of equipment or control apparatus, which will 
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significantly increase or affect the kind or amount of air 

contaminants emitted.

B.7 Approved Ignition Devices: Those instruments or materials that 

will ignite open fires for agricultural burning without the 

production of black smoke by the ignition device.

B.8 Atmosphere: The air that envelopes or surrounds the earth. 

Where air pollutants are emitted into a building not designed 

specifically as a piece of air pollution control equipment, such 

emission into the building shall be considered to be an emission 

into the atmosphere.

B.9 Board: The Board of Directors of the Feather River Air Quality 

Management District.

B.10 Brush Treated: The material to be burned has been felled, 

crushed or uprooted with mechanical equipment, or has been 

desiccated with herbicide.

B.11 Burn Day: A day designated by the California Air Resources Board 

as permissible to allow open burning within designated districts 

or areas.

B.12 Combustible or Flammable Waste: Any garbage, rubbish, trash, 

rags, paper, boxes, crates, excelsior, ashes, offal, carcass or 

dead animals, or any other combustible or flammable refuse 

matter which is in solid or liquid state.

B.13 Combustion Contaminant: Particulate matter discharged into the 

atmosphere from the burning of any kind of material containing 

carbon in a free or combined state.

B.14 Condensed Fumes: Particulate matter generated by the 

condensation of vapors evolved after volatilization from the 

molten or liquid state.

B.15 Coordinated Agricultural Burning Program: The Agricultural 

Burning Program approved by the Sacramento Valley Air Basin 

Control Council and the California Air Resources Board. It also 

includes policies and procedures developed by the District to 

Implement the Program.

B.16 Designated Agency: The public fire protection or other agency 

designated by the California Air Resources Board to issue 

permits for agricultural burning.

B.17 District: The Feather River Air Quality Management District.
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B.18 Dust: Minute solid particles released in the air by natural 

forces or by mechanical processes such as crushing, grinding, 

milling, drilling, demolishing, shoveling, conveying, covering, 

bagging, sweeping, etc.

B.19 Emission: The passing into the atmosphere of an air contaminant 

or gas stream which contains an air contaminant.

B.20 Emission Point: The place at which an emission enters the 

atmosphere.

B.21 Exempt Compounds: The following compounds are exempt from the 

definition of Reactive Organic Gases (ROG):

a. Acetone;

b. Ammonium carbonate;

c. Carbon monoxide;

d. Carbon dioxide;

e. Carbonic acid;

f. Ethane;

g. Metallic carbides or carbonates;

h. Methane;

i. Methyl Acetate;

j. Methyl formate (HCOOCH3);

k. Methylene chloride (dichloromethane);

l. Parachlorobenzotrifluoride (PCBTF) (1-chloro-4-

trifluoromethyl benzene);

m. Perchloroethylene (tetrachloroethylene);

n. 2-(difluoromethoxymethyl)-1,1,1,2,3,3,3 heptafluoropropane 

((CF3)2CFCF2OCH3);

o. 2-(ethoxydifluoromethyl)-1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane 

((CF3)2CFCF2OC2H5);

p. 1,1,1-trichloroethane (methylchloroform);

q. The following chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs):

1. Chloropentafluoroethane (CFC-115);

2. Dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12);

3. 1,2-dichloro-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethane(CFC-114);

4. 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane(CFC-113);

5. Trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11);

r. The following hydrochlorofluorocarbons(HCFCs):

1. Chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22);

2. Chlorofluoromethane (HCFC-31);

3. 1-chloro-1,1-difluoroethane (HCFC-142b);

4. 1-chloro-1-fluoroethane (HCFC-151a);

5. 2-chloro-1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (HCFC-124);

6. 1,1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane (HCFC-141b);

7. 3,3-dichloro-1,1,1,2,2-pentafluoropropane(HCFC-225ca);

8. 1,3-dichloro-1,1,2,2,3-pentafluoropropane(HCFC-225cb);

9. 1,2-dichloro-1,1,2-trifluoroethane (HCFC-123a);

10. 1,1,1-trifluoro-2,2-dichloroethane (HCFC-123);
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s. The following hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs):

1. 1,1,1,2,3,4,4,5,5,5-decafluoropentane(HFC 43-10mee);

2. 1,1-difluoroethane (HFC-152a);

3. Difluoromethane (HFC-32);

4. Ethlyfluoride (HFC-161);

5. 1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane (HFC-227ea);

6. 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropane (HFC-236fa);

7. 1,1,1,3,3-pentafluorobutane (HFC-365mfc);

8. 1,1,2,2,3-pentafluoropropane (HFC-245ca);

9. 1,1,2,3,3-pentafluoropropane (HFC-245ea);

10. 1,1,1,2,3-pentafluoropropane (HFC-245eb);

11. 1,1,1,3,3-pentafluoropropane (HFC-245fa);

12. 1,1,1,2,3,3-hexafluoropropane (HFC-236ea);

13. Pentafluoroethane (HFC-125);

14. 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134);

15. 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (HFC-134a);

16. 1,1,1-trifluoroethane (HFC-143a);

17. Trifluoromethane (HFC-23);

t. The following hydrofluorethers (HFEs):

1. 3-ethoxy-1,1,1,2,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,6- dodecafluoro-2-

(trifluoromethyl) hexane(HFE 7500);

2. 1 - ethoxy - 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,4 - nonafluorobutane 

(C4F9OC2H5 or HFE-7200);

3. 1,1,1,2,2,3,3-heptafluoro-3-methoxypropane(n-C3F7OCH3, 

HFE-7000);

4. 1,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4-nonafluoro-4-methoxybutane (C4F9OCH3 

or HFE-7100);

5. Cyclic, branched, or linear completely methylated 

siloxanes;

u. The following four classes of perfluorocarbon compounds:

1. Cyclic, branched, or linear, completely fluorinated 

alkanes;

2. Cyclic, branched, or linear, completely fluorinated 

ethers with no unsaturations;

3. Cyclic, branched, or linear, completely fluorinated 

tertiary amines with no unsaturations;

4. Sulfur-containing perfluorocarbons with no 

unsaturations and with the sulfur bonds to carbon and 

fluorine;

v. T-butyl acetate.

B.22 Flue: Any duct or passage for air, gases, or the like, such as a 

stack or chimney.

B.23 Forest Management Burning: The use of open fires as part of a 

forest management practice to remove forest debris, and 

includes:

a. Forest management practices, including hazard 

reduction;
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b. Timber operations; and,

c. Silviculture and forest protection practices.

B.24 Health and Safety Code: Health and Safety Code (H & S Code) 

means the Health and Safety Code of the State of California.

B.25 Hearing Board: The appellate review board of the Feather River 

Air Quality Management District.

B.26 Hearing Board Clerk: The Clerk of the Feather River Air Quality 

Management District is the ex-officio clerk of the hearing 

board.

B.27 Incineration: An operation in which combustion is carried on for 

the principal purpose, or with the principal result of oxidizing 

a waste material to reduce its bulk or facilitate its disposal.

B.28 Installation: The placement, assemblage or construction of 

equipment or control apparatus at the premises where the 

equipment or control apparatus will be used, and includes all 

preparatory work at such premises.

B.29 Inversion layer: That point in the atmosphere at which there is 

no, or very little, vertical mixing or movement of air between 

the area above and below said point.

B.30 Multiple-Chamber Incinerator: Any article, machine, equipment, 

contrivance, structure or part of a structure used to dispose of 

combustible refuse by burning, consisting of three or more 

refractory-lined combustion furnaces in series, physically 

separated by refractory walls, inter-connected by gas passage 

ports or ducts and employing adequate design parameters 

necessary for maximum combustion of the material to be burned.

B.31 "No-Burn" Day: Any day on which the California Air Resources 

Board prohibits agricultural burning or the District prohibits 

open burning.

B.32 Open Fires, i.e., Open Burning: Any combustion of solid waste 

outdoors, in the open, not in an enclosure, where the products 

of combustion are not directed through a flue.

B.33 Operation: Any physical action resulting in a change in the 

location or physical properties of a material, or any chemical 

action resulting in a change in the chemical composition or the 

chemical or physical properties of a material.

B.34 Orchard or Citrus Heater: Any article, machine, equipment, or 

other contrivance, burning any type of fuel or material capable 
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of emitting air contaminants used or capable of being used for 

the purpose of giving protection from frost damage.

B.35 Owner: Includes but is not limited to, any person who leases, 

supervises or operates equipment in addition to the normal 

meaning of ownership.

B.36 Particulate Matter: Discrete atmospheric particles of solids or 

liquids, other than uncombined water, as distinguished from 

gases or vapors.

B.37 Person or Persons: An individual, public or private corporation, 

political subdivision, agency, board, department or bureau of 

the state or any municipality, partnership, co-partnership, 

firm, association, trust or estate, or any other legal entity 

whatsoever which is recognized in law as the subject of rights 

and duties.

B.38 PPM: Parts per million by volume on a dry gas basis.

B.39 Process Weight Per Hour: The total weight excluding water added 

for processing or air used in processing introduced into any 

specific process which process may cause any discharge into the 

atmosphere. Solid fuels charged will be considered as part of 

the process weight, but liquid and gaseous fuels and combustion 

air will not. The "process weight per hour" will be derived by 

dividing the total process weight by the number of hours in one 

complete operation from the beginning of any given process to 

the completion thereof, excluding any time during which the 

equipment is idle.

B.40 Range Improvement Burning: The use of open fires to remove 

vegetation for wildlife, game or livestock habitat or for the 

initial establishment of an agricultural practice on previously 

uncultivated land.

B.41 Reactive Organic Gases (ROG): Any compound containing at least 

(1) atom of carbon, excluding any exempt compound as identified 

in this rule.

B.42 Regulation: One of the major subdivisions of the Rules and 

Regulations of the Feather River Air Quality Management 

District.

B.43 Representative Rice Straw Testing Sample: A composite sample of 

rice straw from under the mat and from the center of the mat. 

The samples are to be taken from various parts of the field.
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B.44 Rice Straw Dryness Test Procedure: A representative rice straw 

sample is bent sharply at a minimum of a 90 degree angle. If 

the straw sample makes an audible cracking sound, it is 

considered dry enough for burning.

B.45 Rowed Rice Straw: Rice straw passing directly through the 

harvester discharge without being spread.

B.46 Rule: Means a rule of the Feather River Air Quality Management 

District.

B.47 Section: Refers to a section of the Health and Safety Code of 

the State of California unless some other statute is 

specifically mentioned.

B.48 Solid Waste Dump: Any accumulation for the purpose of disposal 

of any solid waste.

B.49 Source: A point or source of emissions in a facility where an 

individual operation would not affect the rest of the operation.

B.50 Source Operation: The last operation preceding the emission of 

an air contaminant which operation:

a. Results in the separation of the air contaminant from the 

process material, or in the conversion of the process 

material into air contaminants as in the case of combustion 

of fuel, and,

b. Is not an air pollution abatement operation.

B.51 Spray Coating: The application of paint, lacquer, shellac, 

stains, or other protective or surface preparation coatings to 

any type of surface by means of air or airless spray equipment.

B.52 Spread Rice Straw: Rice straw spread by means of a mechanical 

straw spreader attached to the discharge of the harvester that 

will ensure even distribution of straw.

B.53 Standard Conditions: As used in these Regulations, refers to a 

gas temperature of sixty (60) degrees Fahrenheit and a gas 

pressure of fourteen and seven-tenths (14.7) pounds per square 

inch absolute.

B.54 Standard Dry Cubic Foot of Gas: The amount of gas that would 

occupy a volume of one (1) cubic foot, if free of water vapor at 

standard conditions.

B.55 Volatile Organic Compound (VOC): Shall have the same meaning as 

Reactive Organic Gases (ROG).