2023 Rhode Island General Laws › Title 46 - Waters and Navigation › Chapter 46-12 - Water Pollution › Section 46-12-1. - Definitions.

§ 46-12-1. Definitions.
As used in this chapter the following terms shall, where the context permits, be construed as follows:
(1) “Boat”
means any vessel or water craft whether moved by oars, paddles, sails, or other power mechanism, inboard or outboard, or any other vessel or structure floating upon the water whether or not capable of self locomotion, including house boats, barges, and similar floating objects.
(2) “Clean Water Act”
refers to the federal law enacted under 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., and all amendments thereto.
(3)(i) “Director”
means the director of the department of environmental management or any subordinate or subordinates to whom the director has delegated the powers and duties vested in him or her by this chapter.
(ii)
Wherever reference is made in this chapter to any order of the director and the order shall have been modified by the court, the order referred to shall be taken to be the order of the director as so modified.
(4) “Discharge”
means the addition of any pollutant to the waters from any point source.
(5) “Effluent limitation”
means any restriction or prohibitions, established in accord with the provisions of this chapter or under the federal Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, radiological, and other constituents which are discharged into the waters.
(6) “Fecal coliform bacteria”
means organisms within the intestines of warm blooded animals that indicate the presence of fecal material, and the potential presence of organisms capable of causing disease in humans.
(7) “Groundwaters”
includes all underground waters of whatever nature.
(8) “Marine Sanitation Device-Type I”
means a marine toilet which, under prescribed test conditions, will produce an effluent that will not exceed a fecal coliform bacteria count of one thousand (1,000) parts per one hundred (100) milliliters and have no visible solids.
(9) “Marine Sanitation Device-Type II”
means a marine toilet which, under prescribed test conditions will produce an effluent that does not exceed a fecal coliform bacteria count of two hundred (200) parts per one hundred (100) milliliters, and have suspended solids not greater than one hundred and fifty (150) milligrams per liter.
(10) “Marine Sanitation Device-Type III”
means a marine toilet which is designed to prevent the discharge from the boat of any treated or untreated sewage, or any waste derived from sewage.
(11) “Marine toilet”
means any toilet on or within any boat as that term is defined herein.
(12) “No discharge zone”
means an environmentally sensitive area of the waters of the state which has been declared by the department of environmental management pursuant to the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., to be an area in which any discharge of sewage is prohibited.
(13) “Person”
includes an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a quasi government corporation) partnership, association, syndicate, municipality, municipal or state agency, fire district, club, nonprofit agency, or any subdivision, commission, department, bureau, agency, or department of state or federal government (including any quasi government corporation) or of any interstate body.
(14) “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.
(15) “Pollutant”
means any material or effluent which may alter the chemical, physical, biological, or radiological characteristics and/or integrity of water, including, but 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, cellar dirt or industrial, municipal, agricultural, or other waste petroleum or petroleum products, including but not limited to oil.
(16) “Polluting”
means the causing of pollution.
(17) “Pollution”
means the man made or man induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological integrity of water.
(18) “Publicly owned treatment works”
means any facility for the treatment of pollutants owned by the state or any political subdivision thereof, municipality, or other public entity, including any quasi government corporation.
(19) “Release”
means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any pollutant into a surface water or wetland, or onto or below the land surface.
(20) “Schedule of compliance”
means a schedule of remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions, or operations, leading to compliance with an effluent limitation or any other limitation, prohibition, or standard.
(21) “Sewage”
means fecal material and human waste, or wastes from toilets and other receptacles intended to receive or retain body waste, and any wastes, including wastes from human households, commercial establishments, and industries, and storm water runoff, that are discharged to or otherwise enter a publicly owned treatment works.
(22) “Underground storage tank”
means any one or combination of tanks (including underground pipes connected thereto) which is used to contain an accumulation of petroleum product or hazardous materials, and the volume of which (including the volume of the underground pipes connected thereto) is ten percent (10%) or more beneath the surface of the ground.
(23) “Waters”
includes all surface waters including all waters of the territorial sea, tidewaters, all inland waters of any river, stream, brook, pond, or lake, and wetlands, as well as all groundwaters.
(24) “Eutrophication”
means a reduction of dissolved oxygen from excessive plant growth, chiefly algae, typically as an effect of increased nutrient loadings, to levels that impair the viability of other aquatic life.
(25) “Nutrient”
means organic materials and chemicals, including especially nitrogen and phosphorous and their compounds, that are biologically reactive and necessary for life.
History of Section.
P.L. 1920, ch. 1914, § 1; G.L. 1923, ch. 125, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 634, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 46-12-1; P.L. 1963, ch. 89, § 1; P.L. 1966, ch. 261, §§ 1, 16; P.L. 1980, ch. 239, § 1; P.L. 1981, ch. 253, § 1; P.L. 1983, ch. 149, § 1; P.L. 1990, ch. 320, § 1; P.L. 1990, ch. 324, § 1; P.L. 1991, ch. 332, § 1; P.L. 1995, ch. 149, § 1; P.L. 2004, ch. 146, § 1; P.L. 2004, ch. 222, § 1.