2023 Oklahoma Statutes › Title 27A. Environment and Natural Resources › §27A-1-1-201. Definitions.

As used in the Oklahoma Environmental Quality Act:
1. “Clean Water Act” means the federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C., Section 1251 et seq., as amended;
2. “Discharge” includes but is not limited to a discharge of a pollutant, and means any addition of any pollutant to waters of the state from any point source;
3. “Environment” includes the air, land, wildlife, and waters of the state;
4. “Federal Safe Drinking Water Act” means the federal law at 42 U.S.C., Section 300 et seq., as amended;
5. “Groundwater protection agencies” include the:
a.
Oklahoma Water Resources Board,
b.
Oklahoma Corporation Commission,
c.
State Department of Agriculture,
d.
Department of Environmental Quality,
e.
Conservation Commission, and
f.
Department of Mines;
6. “Nonpoint source” means the contamination of the environment with a pollutant for which the specific point of origin may not be well defined and includes but is not limited to agricultural storm water runoff and return flows from irrigated agriculture;
7. “N.P.D.E.S.” or “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System” means the system for the issuance of permits under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C., Section 1251 et seq., as amended;
8. “Point source” means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance or outlet including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure container, rolling stock or vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged into waters of the state. The term “point source” shall not include agricultural storm water runoff and return flows from irrigated agriculture;
9. “Pollutant” includes but is not limited to 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 agribusiness waste;
10. “Pollution” means the presence in the environment of any substance, contaminant or pollutant, or any other alteration of the physical, chemical or biological properties of the environment or the release of any liquid, gaseous or solid substance into the environment in quantities which are or will likely create a nuisance or which render or will likely render the environment harmful or detrimental or injurious to public health, safety or welfare, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other aquatic life, or to property;
11. “Source” means any and all points of origin of any wastes, pollutants or contaminants whether publicly or privately owned or operated;
12. “State agencies with limited environmental responsibilities” means:
a.
the Department of Public Safety,
b.
the Department of Labor, and
c.
the Department of Civil Emergency Management;
13. “State environmental agency” includes the:
a.
Oklahoma Water Resources Board,
b.
Oklahoma Corporation Commission,
c.
State Department of Agriculture,
d.
Oklahoma Conservation Commission,
e.
Department of Wildlife Conservation,
f.
Department of Mines, and
g.
Department of Environmental Quality;
14. “Storm water” means rain water runoff, snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage;
15. “Total maximum daily load” means the sum of individual wasteload allocations (W.L.A.) for point sources, safety, reserves, and loads from nonpoint sources and natural backgrounds;
16. “Waste” means any liquid, gaseous or solid or semi-solid substance, or thermal component, whether domestic, municipal, commercial, agricultural or industrial in origin, which may pollute or contaminate or tend to pollute or contaminate, any air, land or waters of the state;
17. “Wastewater” includes any substance, including sewage, that contains any discharge from the bodies of human beings or animals, or pollutants or contaminating chemicals or other contaminating wastes from domestic, municipal, commercial, industrial, agricultural, manufacturing or other forms of industry;
18. “Wastewater treatment” means any method, technique or process used to remove pollutants from wastewater or sludge to the extent that the wastewater or sludge may be reused, discharged into waters of the state or otherwise disposed and includes, but is not limited to, the utilization of mechanized works, surface impoundments and lagoons, aeration, evaporation, best management practices (BMPs), buffer strips, crop removal or trapping, constructed wetlands, digesters or other devices or methods. “Treatment” also means any method, technique or process used in the purification of drinking water;
19. “Wastewater treatment system” means treatment works and all related pipelines or conduits, pumping stations and force mains, and all other appurtenances and devices used for collecting, treating, conducting or discharging wastewater;
20. “Waters of the state” means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, storm sewers and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through, or border upon this state or any portion thereof, and shall include under all circumstances the waters of the United States which are contained within the boundaries of, flow through or border upon this state or any portion thereof. Provided, waste treatment systems, including treatment ponds or lagoons designed to meet federal and state requirements other than cooling ponds as defined in the Clean Water Act or rules promulgated thereto and prior converted cropland are not waters of the state; and
21. “Wellhead protection area” means the surface and subsurface area surrounding a water well or wellfield supplying a public water system that defines the extent of the area from which water is supplied to such water well or wellfield.
Added by Laws 1993, c. 145, § 3, eff. July 1, 1993. Amended by Laws 1999, c. 413, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 1999; Laws 2003, c. 118, § 1, emerg. eff. April 22, 2003.