Hawaii Administrative Rules › Title 11 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH › Subtitle 1 - GENERAL DEPARTMENTAL PROVISIONS › Chapter 56 - NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION CONTROL › Section 11-56-1 - Definitions

Current through June, 2024
As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly requires
				  otherwise:
"40 CFR" means the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40,
				  Protection of Environment, revised as of July 1, 2018 unless otherwise
				  specified.
"Activity" means the performance of functions, assumptions of
				  risks, or use by a party of tangible or intangible property or other resources
				  to create a result.
"Agriculture" means the science or practice of farming,
				  including growing crops and raising animals for the production of food, fiber,
				  fuel, and/or other products.
"Agricultural activity" means an activity primarily involved
				  with agriculture.
"Agricultural land" means land that is used principally for
				  agricultural activities.
"Animal Feeding Operation" or "AFO" means a lot or facility
				  (other than an aquatic animal production facility) where the following
				  conditions are met:
(1) Animals (other than aquatic animals) have been, are, or
				  will be stabled or confined and fed or maintained for a total of forty-five
				  days or more in any twelve-month period; and
(2) Crops, vegetation forage growth, or postharvest residues
				  are not sustained in the normal growing season over any portion of the lot or
				  facility.
Animal feeding operations include the animal confinement
				  area, the manure storage area, the raw materials storage area, and the waste
				  containment areas. The animal confinement area includes but is not limited to
				  open lots, housed lots, feedlots, confinement houses, stall barns, free stall
				  barns, milkrooms, milking centers, cowyards, barnyards, medication pens,
				  walkers, animal walkways, and stables. The manure storage area includes but is
				  not limited to lagoons, runoff ponds, storage sheds, stockpiles, under house or
				  pit storages, liquid impoundments, static piles, and composting piles. The raw
				  materials storage area includes but is not limited to feed silos, silage
				  bunkers, and bedding materials. The waste containment area includes but is not
				  limited to settling basins, and areas within berms and diversions which
				  separate uncontaminated storm water. Included in the definition is any egg
				  washing or egg processing facility, and any area used in the storage, handling,
				  treatment, or disposal of mortalities. Two or more animal facilities under
				  common ownership are considered, for the purposes of Appendix A, to be a single
				  animal facility for purposes of determining the number of animals at an
				  operation if they adjoin each other or if they use a common area or system for
				  the disposal of wastes.
"Best management practices" or "BMPs" means schedules of
				  activities, prohibitions or designations of practices, maintenance procedures,
				  and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of state
				  waters. Best management practices also include treatment requirements,
				  operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or
				  leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
"BLNR" means the board of land and natural resources.
"Buffer area" or "buffer strip" means a designated area
				  around a stream or waterbody, or a strip between a stream or waterbody and an
				  area of disturbance, of sufficient width to control sediment and/or minimize
				  entrance of forestry chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, and fire retardants)
				  into the waterbody.
"Cable yarding" means a system of transporting logs from
				  stump to landing by means of steel cables and winch.
"Channel" means a natural or constructed waterway that
				  continuously or periodically passes water.
"Commercial forestry" means forestry conducted for a
				  commercial purpose.
"Commercial harvesting" means harvesting conducted for a
				  commercial purpose.
"Commercial purpose" means those land uses which entail or
				  comprise the exchange or buying and selling of commodities, or the providing of
				  services, or relating to or connected with trade, traffic in goods and
				  services, or commerce in general. The use of land for regulated public utility
				  purposes shall not be considered a commercial purpose.
"Commercial species" means tree species grown for a
				  commercial purpose.
"Contaminated runoff" means runoff which comes into contact
				  with any raw materials, products, waste, or byproducts such that pollutants are
				  transported within the storm water.
"Department" means the department of health unless explicitly
				  qualified as another state or federal department.
"Developed/Urban" means those areas where the presence of
				  man-made impervious surfaces results in increased peak runoff volumes and
				  pollutant loadings that permanently alter one or more of the following: stream
				  channels, natural drainageways, and in-stream and adjacent riparian habitat, so
				  that predevelopment aquatic flora and fauna are eliminated or reduced to
				  unsustainable levels and predevelopment water quality has been degraded.
				  Increased bank cutting, streambed scouring, siltation damaging to aquatic flora
				  and fauna, increases in water temperature, decreases in dissolved oxygen,
				  changes to the natural structure and flow of the stream or river, and the
				  presence of anthropogenic pollutants that are not generated from agricultural
				  activities, in general, are indications of development and/or
				  urbanization.
"Developed/Urban activity" means an activity located in a
				  developed or urban area or primarily involved with a developed or urban
				  area.
"Director" means the director of health or the director's
				  duly authorized agent.
"Discharge" when used without qualification, means the
				  "discharge of a water pollutant" including, but not limited to, causing or
				  contributing to water pollution of State waters by way of runoff, drainage,
				  seepage, escape, disposal, spilling, leaking, pumping, emitting, emptying,
				  precipitation, atmospheric deposition, or hydrologic modification.
"Disturbed areas" means localized areas within harvest units
				  or road systems where mineral soil is exposed or agitated. Disturbed areas
				  include, but are not limited to, road cuts, fill slopes, landing surfaces,
				  cable corridors, or skid trail ruts.
"DLNR" means the state department of land and natural
				  resources.
"DOFAW" means the DLNR division of forestry and
				  wildlife.
"Drainage ditch" means a manmade structure designed to carry
				  storm water runoff only, not sanitary sewage.
"Dump station" means a type of pumpout facility which
				  receives vessel sewage from portable marine sanitation devices and from which
				  sewage is delivered or transferred to an approved sewage disposal
				  facility.
"eFOTG" means the electronic Field Office Technical Guide
				  published by the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources
				  Conservation Service (NRCS), Pacific Islands Area Field Office.
"EPA" means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"Erosion" means wearing away of the land surface by water,
				  ice, wind, gravity, or other natural or anthropogenic agents.
"Existing activity" means an activity subject to regulation
				  under this chapter that was in operation as of [JUN 25 2021].
"Existing animal feeding operation" means a facility that
				  meets the definition of "animal feeding operation" in this chapter and that was
				  in operation as of [JUN 25 2021].
"Facility" means any facility, physical operation, collection
				  of buildings, parcel or parcels, of farm operated as a single unit (including
				  land or appurtenances thereto), that is subject to regulation under this
				  chapter.
"Felling" means the process of cutting down standing
				  trees.
"Fertilizer" means any organic or inorganic material of
				  natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply elements
				  essential to plant growth.
"Fireline" means a barrier used to stop the spread of fire
				  constructed by removing fuel or rendering fuel inflammable by use of fire
				  retardants.
"Fish waste" means organic materials resulting from
				  commercial or recreational fish cleaning or processing operations. Fish waste
				  may include, but is not limited to, particles of flesh, skin, bones, entrails,
				  or liquid stick water.
"Floodplain" means the area of land flooded at measurable
				  recurrence intervals of ten, fifty, one hundred, or five hundred years or the
				  area of land that is periodically inundated (often annually) by the overflow of
				  rivers or streams.
"Forest" or "forest land" means land at least one hundred
				  twenty feet (thirty-seven meters) wide and at least one acre (0.4 hectare) in
				  size that contains at least ten per cent tree crown cover, or that formerly
				  contained such cover and will be naturally or artificially restored. Forest
				  land does not include land that is predominantly used for agricultural
				  activities or predominantly under urban land use; tree-covered areas in
				  agricultural production settings, such as fruit orchards, or tree-covered areas
				  in urban settings, such as city parks, are not considered forest land.
"Forest product" means any saleable item made from wood that
				  is taken and/or harvested from forest trees.
"Forestry" means the art, science, and practice of managing
				  forests.
"Forestry activity" means an activity primarily involved with
				  forestry.
"General permit" means an NPDES permit issued as a rule or
				  document that authorizes a category of discharges into State waters from a
				  category of sources within a geographical area.
"Groundskidding" means trailing or dragging trees along the
				  ground.
"Habitat" means the place where an organism naturally lives
				  or grows.
"HAR" means Hawaii Administrative Rules.
"Harvesting" means the felling, skidding, processing,
				  loading, and transporting of forest products.
"Harvest unit" means an area of forest vegetation that has
				  been harvested as a cohesive unit and generally has uniform distribution of
				  retained vegetation.
"HRS" means Hawaii Revised Statutes.
"Hull" means the frame or body of a vessel, including its
				  deck, but exclusive of the masts, sails, yards, and rigging.
"Hull maintenance area" means areas whose primary function is
				  to provide a place for boats during the scraping, sanding, and painting of
				  their bottoms.
"Hydromodification" means alteration of the hydrologic
				  characteristics of coastal and non-coastal waters, which in turn could cause
				  degradation of water resources. Any alteration to a stream or coastal waters,
				  whether a diversion, channel, dam, or levee is considered a
				  hydromodification.
"Hydromodification activity" means an activity primarily
				  involved with hydromodification.
"Integrated pest management" or "IPM" means a pest population
				  management system that anticipates and prevents pests from reaching damaging
				  levels by using all suitable tactics including natural enemies, pest-resistant
				  plants, cultural management, and the judicious use of pesticides, leading to an
				  economically and environmentally safe agriculture.
"Intermittent stream" means a stream that carries water most
				  of the time but ceases to flow occasionally because evaporation or seepage into
				  its bed and banks exceed the available streamflow. Intermittent streams may
				  also include ephemeral streams that carry water only after rains and
				  interrupted streams that carry water generally through their length but may
				  have sections with dry streambeds.
"Landing" means a place in or near the forest where logs are
				  gathered for further processing, sorting, or transport. Also known as a log
				  deck.
"Load allocation" means the portion of a receiving water's
				  loading capacity that is attributed either to one of its existing or future
				  nonpoint sources of pollution or to natural background sources. Load
				  allocations are best estimates of the loading, which may range from reasonably
				  accurate estimates to gross allotments, depending on the availability of data
				  and appropriate techniques for predicting the loading. Wherever possible,
				  natural and nonpoint source loads should be distinguished.
"Management measures" means economically achievable measures
				  for control of the addition of pollutants from existing and new categories and
				  classes of nonpoint sources of pollution which reflect the greatest degree of
				  pollutant reduction achievable through the application of the best available
				  nonpoint pollution control practices, technologies, processes, siting criteria,
				  operating methods, or other alternatives.
"Marinas" means facilities and their associated shore-based
				  services that support recreational boats and boats for hire.
"Marine sanitation device" means any equipment for
				  installation on board a vessel which is designed to receive, retain, treat, or
				  discharge sewage, and any process to treat such sewage.
"National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System" or "NPDES"
				  means the national program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing,
				  terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits, and imposing and enforcing
				  pretreatment requirements under Sections 307, 402, 318, and 405 of the Clean
				  Water Act.
"New activity" means an activity subject to regulation under
				  this chapter which commenced regulated activities after [25 2021].
"New animal feeding operation" means a facility that meets
				  the definition of "animal feeding operation" in this chapter and that began
				  operation after [JUN 25 2021].
"Nonpoint source pollution" means water pollution that does
				  not originate from a point source. Nonpoint source pollution may include
				  pollution from sources exempt from regulation as point sources, including but
				  not limited to facilities or activities related to agriculture, forestry,
				  developed areas, marinas and recreational boating, hydromodification, and
				  wetlands, riparian areas, and vegetated treatment systems. Nonpoint source
				  pollution may be delivered to State waters through processes including but not
				  limited to discharges, land runoff, precipitation, atmospheric deposition,
				  drainage, seepage, or hydrologic modification.
"Notice of general permit coverage" or "NGPC" means an
				  authorization issued to the owner or operator by the department to comply with
				  the NPDES general permit.
"NPDES permit" means an authorization, license, or equivalent
				  control document issued by the EPA or the director to implement the
				  requirements of 40 CFR Parts 122, 123, and 124. NPDES permit includes an NPDES
				  general permit according to
				  40
				  CFR §
										122.28 and a notice of general
				  permit coverage (NGPC), as the context requires. NPDES permit does not include
				  any permit which has not yet been the subject of final agency action, such as a
				  draft permit.
"Party" means each person or agency named as a party or
				  properly entitled to be a party in any agency or court proceeding.
"Pasture" means lands that are primarily used for the
				  production of forage plants for livestock. Pasture includes lands that have
				  been seeded with forage plants for livestock and lands that are intensively
				  managed using agronomy practices for the production or control of
				  livestock.
"Perennial stream" means a stream that carries water all the
				  time.
"Person" means any individual, partnership, firm,
				  association, public or private corporation, federal agency, the State or any of
				  its political subdivisions including the several counties and any public
				  agencies thereof and any legally organized districts therein, trust, estate, or
				  any other legal entity. "Person" includes the plural where appropriate and
				  needed.
"Pesticide" means any substance or mixture of substances used
				  for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest or intended for
				  use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant.
"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 any other floating craft, from which pollutants
				  are or may be discharged. Point source does not include agricultural storm
				  water discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture.
"Pollution" means water pollution.
"Precommercial thinning" means cutting trees from a young
				  stand so that the remaining trees will have more room to grow to marketable
				  size. Trees cut in a precommercial thinning have no commercial value and
				  normally none of the felled trees are removed for utilization. The primary
				  intent is to improve growth potential for the trees left after thinning.
"Privately-owned agricultural land" means agricultural land
				  owned by an individual or nongovernmental, private party.
"Privately-owned entity" means an entity owned by an
				  individual or non-governmental, private party.
"Privately-owned forest land" means land owned by an
				  individual or non-governmental, private party, which is used principally for
				  silvicultural activities.
"Publicly-owned agricultural land" means agricultural land
				  owned by a federal, state, or local government agency, authority, or
				  subdivision.
"Publicly-owned entity" means an entity that is owned by a
				  federal, state or local government including government agencies or
				  departments.
"Publicly-owned forest land" means land owned by a federal,
				  state, or local government agency, authority, or subdivision, which is used
				  principally for silvicultural activities.
"Pumpout" means a mechanical device which is temporarily
				  connected to a vessel for the purpose of removing vessel sewage from its
				  holding tank or head to an approved sewage disposal facility.
"Range" means land that support a cover of herbaceous or
				  shrubby vegetation suitable for grazing or browsing by livestock.
"Regeneration" means the process of replacing older trees
				  removed by harvest or disaster with young trees.
"Riparian areas" means vegetated ecosystems along a waterbody
				  through which energy, materials, and water pass. Riparian areas
				  characteristically have a high water table and are subject to periodic flooding
				  and influence from the adjacent waterbody. These systems encompass wetlands,
				  uplands, or some combination of these two land forms; they will not in all
				  cases have all of the characteristics necessary for them to be classified as
				  wetlands.
"Runoff" means the portion of rainfall, snow melt, or
				  irrigation water that drains off the land into State waters.
"Shoreline" means the upper reaches of the wash of the waves,
				  other than storm and seismic waves, at high tide during the season of the year
				  in which the highest wash of the waves occurs, usually evidenced by the edge of
				  vegetation growth, or the upper limit of debris left by the wash of the
				  waves.
"Shoreline erosion" means erosion that occurs at the
				  shoreline in in the State's domain.
"Silviculture" means the art and science of controlling the
				  establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests to meet the
				  diverse needs and values of landowners and society on a sustainable basis.
				  Silviculture includes the theory and practice of planting, thinning, pruning,
				  growing, and harvesting of trees.
"Skid trail" means a temporary, nonstructural pathway over
				  forest soils used to drag felled trees or logs to the landing.
"Solid waste" means garbage, refuse, and other discarded
				  materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous materials
				  resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations,
				  sludge from waste treatment plants and water supply treatment plants, and
				  residues from air pollution control facilities and community activities, but
				  does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, irrigation
				  return flows, or industrial discharges which are subject to permit under
				  chapter
				  342D.
"State waters" means all waters, fresh, brackish, or salt,
				  around and within the State including, but not limited to, coastal waters,
				  wetlands, streams, rivers, drainage ditches, ponds, reservoirs, canals,
				  groundwaters, lakes, and Hawaiian fishponds (
loko i 'a;
as
				  defined in §
									183B-1, HRS);
				  provided that drainage ditches, canals, ponds, wetlands, and reservoirs
				  required as a part of a water pollution control system or an irrigation system
				  are excluded.
"Storm water" means storm water runoff, snow melt runoff, and
				  surface runoff and drainage.
"Stream" means any natural water course in which water
				  usually flows in a defined bed or channel. The flow can be constant, uniform,
				  or uninterrupted, regardless of whether the stream has been altered or
				  channelized.
"Streamside Management Zone" or "SMZ" means a designated area
				  that consists of the stream itself and an adjacent area of varying width that
				  mitigates the movement of sediment, nutrients, and other chemicals generated
				  from forestry activities into streams. The SMZ is not an area of exclusion, but
				  an area of closely managed activity.
"Timber land" means forest land that is capable of producing
				  crops of industrial wood and not withdrawn from timber utilization by statute
				  or administrative regulation.
"Total maximum daily load" or "TMDL" is a calculation of the
				  maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet
				  water quality standards, and an allocation of that amount to the pollutant's
				  sources. A TMDL includes wasteload allocations (WLAs) for point source
				  discharges, load allocations (LAs) for nonpoint sources and/or natural
				  background, and must include a margin of safety (MOS) and account for seasonal
				  variations.
"Total suspended solids" or "TSS" means the very fine soil
				  particles that remain in suspension in water for a considerable period of
				  time.
"Tree" means a woody plant having a more or less erect
				  perennial stem capable of achieving at least 3 inches (in) (7.6 centimeters
				  [cm]) in diameter at breast height, or 5 in (12.7 cm) diameter at root collar,
				  and a height of 16.4 ft (5 m) at maturity in situ.
"Tree farm" means any publicly-owned or privately-owned
				  forest land that is capable of sustaining commercial tree species.
"Vessel" means every description of watercraft or other
				  artificial contrivance being used as a means of transportation on waters of the
				  U.S.
"Waste" means sewage, industrial and agricultural matter, and
				  all other liquid, gaseous, or solid substance, including radioactive substance,
				  whether treated or not, which may pollute or tend to pollute state
				  waters.
"Wastewater" means any liquid waste, including
				  waste-contaminated storm water runoff, whether treated or not, and whether
				  animal, mineral, or vegetable, including agricultural, industrial, and thermal
				  wastes. Specific to Appendix A of this chapter (Nonpoint Source Pollution
				  Control Requirements for Agriculture), "wastewater" means water directly or
				  indirectly used in the operation of the animal feeding operation for any or all
				  of the following: spillage or overflow from animal or poultry watering systems;
				  washing, cleaning, or flushing pens, barns, manure pits, or other associated
				  facilities; direct contact swimming, washing, or spray cooling of animals; or
				  dust control. Wastewater also includes any water which comes into contact with
				  any raw materials, products, or byproducts including manure, litter, feed,
				  milk, eggs or bedding.
"Water pollutant" or "pollutant" means, but is not limited
				  to, dredged spoil, solid refuse, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage
				  sludge, munitions, chemical waste, biological materials, radioactive materials,
				  heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, soil, sediment, and
				  industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste.
"Water pollution" means:
(1) Such contamination or other alteration of the physical,
				  chemical, or biological properties of any State waters, including change in
				  temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of the waters, or
(2) Such addition of any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive,
				  or other substances into any State waters, as will or is likely to create a
				  nuisance or render such waters unreasonably harmful, detrimental, or injurious
				  to public health, safety, or welfare, including harm, detriment, or injury to
				  public water supplies, fish and aquatic life and wildlife, recreational
				  purposes and agricultural and industrial research and scientific uses of such
				  waters or as will or is likely to violate any water quality standards, effluent
				  standards, treatment and pretreatment standards, or standards of performance
				  for new sources adopted by the department.
"Water pollution control system" means a system designed and
				  constructed specifically for the purpose of collecting, handling, storing,
				  treating, or disposing of domestic wastewater and industrial wastewater, to
				  prevent water pollution.
"Watershed" means a geographically defined land area that
				  drains to a common waterbody, such as a stream, lake, estuary, wetland, or the
				  ocean.
"Watershed plan" means a document developed to guide the
				  implementation of practices and activities in a watershed to protect, maintain,
				  and restore the quality of State waters. A watershed plan provides assessment
				  and management information for a geographically defined watershed, including
				  the analyses, actions, participants, and resources related to development and
				  implementation of the plan.
"Wetland" means land that is transitional between terrestrial
				  and aquatic ecosystems where the water table is usually at or near the surface
				  or the land is covered by shallow water. A wetland shall have one or more of
				  the following attributes:
(1) At least periodically, the land supports predominantly
				  hydrophytic vegetation;
(2) The substratum is predominantly undrained hydric soil;
				  or
(3) The substratum is nonsoil (gravel or rocks) and is at
				  least periodically saturated with water or covered by shallow water.
Wetlands may be fresh, brackish, or saline and generally
				  include swamps, marshes, bogs, and associated ponds and pools, mud flats,
				  isolated seasonal ponds, littoral zones of standing water bodies, and alluvial
				  floodplains.
"Yarding" means a method of transport of felled trees from
				  harvest area to storage landing.