2023 West Virginia Code › Chapter 22. Environmental Resources › Article 11. Water Pollution Control Act › §22-11-3. Definitions

Unless the context in which used clearly requires a different meaning, as used in this article:
(1) "Activity" or "activities" means any activity or activities for which a permit is required by section seven of this article;
(2) "Board" means the environmental quality board, provided in article three, chapter twenty-two-b of this code;
(3) "Chief" means the director of the division of water and waste management of the Department of Environmental Protection;
(4) "Code" means the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended;
(5) "Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection;
(6) "Disposal system" means a system for treating or disposing of sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes, or the effluent therefrom, either by surface or underground methods, and includes sewer systems, the use of subterranean spaces, treatment works, disposal wells and other systems;
(7) "Disposal well" means any well drilled or used for the injection or disposal of treated or untreated sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes into underground strata;
(8) "Effluent limitation" means any restriction established on quantities, rates and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological and other constituents which are discharged into the waters of this state;
(9) "Establishment" means an industrial establishment, mill, factory, tannery, paper or pulp mill, mine, colliery, breaker or mineral processing operation, quarry, refinery, well and each and every industry or plant or works in the operation or process of which industrial wastes, sewage or other wastes are produced;
(10) "Industrial user" means those industries identified in the standard industrial classification manual, United States Bureau of the Budget, 1967, as amended and supplemented, under the category "division d--manufacturing" and other classes of significant waste producers identified under regulations issued by the director or the administrator of the United States environmental protection agency;
(11) "Industrial wastes" means any liquid, gaseous, solid or other waste substance, or a combination thereof, resulting from or incidental to any process of industry, manufacturing, trade or business, or from or incidental to the development, processing or recovery of any natural resources; and the admixture with such industrial wastes of sewage or other wastes, as hereinafter defined, is also "industrial waste" within the meaning of this article;
(12) "Other wastes" means garbage, refuse, decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark and other wood debris and residues resulting from secondary processing; sand, lime, cinders, ashes, offal, night soil, silt, oil, tar, dyestuffs, acids, chemicals, heat or all other materials and substances not sewage or industrial wastes which may cause or might reasonably be expected to cause or to contribute to the pollution of any of the waters of the state;
(13) "Outlet" means the terminus of a sewer system or the point of emergence of any water-carried sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes, or the effluent therefrom, into any of the waters of this state, and includes a point source;
(14) "Person", "persons" or "applicant" means any industrial user, public or private corporation, institution, association, firm or company organized or existing under the laws of this or any other state or country; State of West Virginia; governmental agency, including federal facilities; political subdivision; county commission; municipal corporation; industry; sanitary district; public service district; drainage district; soil conservation district; watershed improvement district; partnership; trust; estate; person or individual; group of persons or individuals acting individually or as a group; or any legal entity whatever;
(15) "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 or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged;
(16) "Pollutant" means industrial wastes, sewage or other wastes as defined in this section;
(17) "Pollution" means the man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological and radiological integrity of the waters of the state;
(18) "Publicly owned treatment works" means any treatment works owned by the state or any political subdivision thereof, any municipality or any other public entity, for the treatment of pollutants;
(19) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection or such other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to section six or eight, article one of this chapter;
(20) "Sewage" means water-carried human or animal wastes from residences, buildings, industrial establishments or other places, together with such groundwater infiltration and surface waters as may be present;
(21) "Sewer system" means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, force mains and all other constructions, facilities, devices and appliances appurtenant thereto, used for collecting or conducting sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes to a point of disposal or treatment;
(22) "Treatment works" means any plant, facility, means, system, disposal field, lagoon, pumping station, constructed drainage ditch or surface water intercepting ditch, diversion ditch above or below the surface of the ground, settling tank or pond, earthen pit, incinerator, area devoted to sanitary landfills or other works not specifically mentioned herein, installed for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, stabilizing, holding or disposing of sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes or for the purpose of regulating or controlling the quality and rate of flow thereof;
(23) "Water resources", "water" or "waters" means any and all water on or beneath the surface of the ground, whether percolating, standing, diffused or flowing, wholly or partially within this state, or bordering this state and within its jurisdiction, and includes, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, natural or artificial lakes, rivers, streams, creeks, branches, brooks, ponds (except farm ponds, industrial settling basins and ponds and water treatment facilities), impounding reservoirs, springs, wells, watercourses and wetlands; and
(24) "Well" means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction or injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with such extraction or injection or placement. The term "well" does not include any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth for the sole purpose of core drilling or pumping or extracting therefrom potable, fresh or usable water for household, domestic, industrial, agricultural or public use.