Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 33 - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY › Part IX - Water Quality › Subpart 2 - The Louisiana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (LPDES) Program › Chapter 47 - Criteria Applicable to Cooling Water Intake Structures under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act › Subchapter A - Requirements Applicable to Cooling Water Intake Structures for New Facilities under Section 316(b) of the Act › Section IX-4707 - What special definitions apply to this Subchapter?

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
Annual Mean Flow
-the average of daily
						flows over a calendar year. Historical data (up to 10 years) must be used where
						available.
Closed-Cycle Recirculating System
-a
						system designed, using minimized makeup and blowdown flows, to withdraw water
						from a natural or other water source to support contact and/or noncontact
						cooling uses within a facility. The water is usually sent to a cooling canal or
						channel, lake, pond, or tower to allow waste heat to be dissipated to the
						atmosphere and then is returned to the system. (Some facilities divert the
						waste heat to other process operations.) New source water (makeup water) is
						added to the system to replenish losses that have occurred due to blowdown,
						drift, and evaporation.
Cooling Water
-water used for contact or
						noncontact cooling, including water used for equipment cooling, evaporative
						cooling tower makeup, and dilution of effluent heat content. The intended use
						of the cooling water is to absorb waste heat rejected from the process or
						processes used or from auxiliary operations on the facility's premises. Cooling
						water that is used in a manufacturing process, either before or after it is
						used for cooling, is considered process water for the purposes of calculating
						the percentage of a new facility's intake flow that is used for cooling
						purposes in LAC 33:IX.4713.C.
Cooling Water Intake Structure
-the
						total physical structure and any associated constructed waterways used to
						withdraw cooling water from waters of the state. The cooling water intake
						structure extends from the point at which water is withdrawn from the surface
						water source up to, and including, the intake pumps.
Design Intake Flow
-the value assigned
						(during the facility's design) to the total volume of water withdrawn from a
						source water body over a specific time period.
Design Intake Velocity
-the value
						assigned (during the design of a cooling water intake structure) to the average
						speed at which intake water passes through the open area of the intake screen
						(or other device) against which organisms might be impinged or through which
						they might be entrained.
Entrainment
-the incorporation of all
						life stages of fish and shellfish with intake water flow entering and passing
						through a cooling water intake structure and into a cooling water
						system.
Estuary
-a semi-enclosed body of water
						that has a free connection with open seas and within which the seawater is
						measurably diluted with fresh water derived from land drainage. The salinity of
						an estuary exceeds 0.5 parts per thousand (by mass), but is typically less than
						30 parts per thousand (by mass).
Existing Facility
-any facility that is
						not a new facility.
Freshwater
River
or Stream
-a lotic (free-flowing) system that does not receive
						significant inflows of water from oceans or bays due to tidal action. For the
						purposes of these regulations, a flow-through reservoir with a retention time
						of seven days or less will be considered a freshwater river or stream.
Hydraulic Zone of Influence
-that
						portion of the source water body hydraulically affected by the cooling water
						intake structure withdrawal of water.
Impingement
-the entrapment of all life
						stages of fish and shellfish on the outer part of an intake structure or
						against a screening device during periods of intake water withdrawal.
Lake
or
Reservoir
-any
						inland body of open water with some minimum surface area free of rooted
						vegetation and with an average hydraulic retention time of more than seven
						days. Lakes or reservoirs might be natural water bodies or impounded streams,
						usually fresh, surrounded by land or by land and a manmade retainer (e.g., a
						dam). Lakes or reservoirs might be fed by rivers, streams, springs, and/or
						local precipitation. Flow-through reservoirs with an average hydraulic
						retention time of seven days or less should be considered a freshwater river or
						stream.
Maximize
-to increase to the greatest
						amount, extent, or degree reasonably possible.
Minimize
-to reduce to the smallest
						amount, extent, or degree reasonably possible.
Natural Thermal Stratification
-the
						naturally-occurring division of a water body into horizontal layers of
						differing densities as a result of variations in temperature at different
						depths.
New Facility
-any building, structure,
						facility, or installation that meets the definition of a
new
						source
or
new discharger
in
						40 CFR
						122.29(b)(1), (2), and (4)
						and LAC 33:IX.2313 and is a
greenfield
or
stand-alone
						facility
(as defined below), commences construction after January 17,
						2002, and uses either a newly constructed cooling water intake structure or an
						existing cooling water intake structure whose design capacity is increased to
						accommodate the intake of additional cooling water. New facilities include only
						greenfield and stand-alone facilities. A greenfield facility is a facility that
						is constructed at a site at which no other source is located or that totally
						replaces the process or production equipment at an existing facility [see
						40 CFR
						122.29(b)(1)(i) and (ii)].
						A stand-alone facility is a new, separate facility that is constructed on
						property where an existing facility is located and whose processes are
						substantially independent of the existing facility at the same site [see
						40 CFR
						122.29(b)(1)(iii)]. New
						facility does not include new units that are added to a facility for purposes
						of the same general industrial operation (e.g., a new peaking unit at an
						electrical generating station).
1. Examples of new facilities include, but are not
						limited to, the following scenarios.
a. A new facility is constructed on a site that has never
						been used for industrial or commercial activity. It has a new cooling water
						intake structure for its own use.
b. A facility is demolished and another facility is
						constructed in its place. The newly-constructed facility uses the original
						facility's cooling water intake structure, but modifies it to increase the
						design capacity to accommodate the intake of additional cooling water.
c. A facility is constructed on the same property as an
						existing facility, but is a separate and independent industrial operation. The
						cooling water intake structure used by the original facility is modified by
						constructing a new intake bay for the use of the newly constructed facility or
						is otherwise modified to increase the intake capacity for the new
						facility.
2. Examples of facilities that would not be considered
						new facilities include, but are not limited to, the following scenarios.
a. A facility in commercial or industrial operation is
						modified and either continues to use its original cooling water intake
						structure or uses a new or modified cooling water intake structure.
b. A facility has an existing intake structure. Another
						facility (a separate and independent industrial operation) is constructed on
						the same property and connects to the facility's cooling water intake structure
						behind the intake pumps and the design capacity of the cooling water intake
						structure has not been increased. This facility would not be considered a new
						facility even if routine maintenance or repairs that do not increase the design
						capacity were performed on the intake structure.
Ocean
-marine open coastal waters with a
						salinity greater than or equal to 30 parts per thousand (by mass).
Source Wate
r-the water body (waters of
						the state) from which the cooling water is withdrawn.
Thermocline
-the middle layer of a
						thermally stratified lake or reservoir. In this layer there is a rapid decrease
						in temperatures.
Tidal Excursion
-the horizontal distance
						along the estuary or tidal river that a particle moves during one tidal cycle
						of ebb and flow.
Tidal River
-the most seaward reach of a
						river or stream where the salinity is typically less than or equal to 0.5 parts
						per thousand (by mass) at a time of annual low flow and whose surface elevation
						responds to the effects of coastal lunar tides.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
						Promulgated in accordance with
						R.S.
						30:2001 et seq., and in particular Section
						2074(B)(3) and (B)(4)