Code of Maryland Regulations › Title 26 - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT › Part 2 - SUBTITLES 08-12 › Subtitle 08 - WATER POLLUTION › Chapter 26.08.11 - Maryland Water Quality Trading Program › Section 26.08.11.03 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 51, No. 14, July 12, 2024
A. In this chapter,
				  the following terms have the meanings indicated.
B. Terms Defined.
(1) "303(d) list" means the list of impaired
				  waters maintained by the State pursuant to
				  33 U.S.C. §
												1313(d).
(2) "Aggregator" means a person that funds,
				  generates, owns, or assembles credits resulting from a number of point or
				  nonpoint sources to resell them.
(3) "Agricultural land" has the meaning
				  stated in COMAR 15.20.12.02.
(4)
				  "Agricultural nonpoint source " means a nonpoint source that is an agricultural
				  operation.
(5) "Agricultural
				  operation" has the meaning stated in COMAR 15.20.12.02.
(6) "Allocation" means the share of the total
				  amount of pollutants that impaired waters can receive from a specific source
				  discharger.
(7) "Baseline" means
				  the practices, actions, or levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, or sediment
				  reductions that must be achieved before a credit seller becomes eligible to
				  generate credits, enter the trading market, and trade credits.
(8) "Bay Restoration Fund (BRF) " means the
				  fund established by Environment Article, §
											9-1605.2, Annotated Code
				  of Maryland.
(9) Best Management
				  Practice (BMP).
(a) "Best management practice
				  (BMP)" means a practice, or combination of practices, that is determined by the
				  Chesapeake Bay Program to be an effective and practicable method of preventing
				  or reducing pollutants generated by point or nonpoint sources so as to minimize
				  the movement of those pollutants into or remove those pollutants from waters of
				  the State, or mitigate flooding.
(b) "Best management practice (BMP)" includes
				  structural and nonstructural pollution controls, operations, and maintenance
				  procedures and practices that prevent or reduce pollutants.
(10) "Broker" means a person that
				  connects a credit seller and a credit buyer and helps to negotiate a trade
				  between them.
(11) "Cap" means a
				  legally enforceable aggregate mass load limit contained in a discharge
				  permit.
(12) "Certification" means
				  the process in which credits are quantified by the Department or the Department
				  of Agriculture and placed on the Registry, or the result of this
				  process.
(13) "Chesapeake Bay
				  Program (CBP) " means the regional partnership of federal and state agencies,
				  local governments, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions that
				  leads and directs Chesapeake Bay restoration and protection.
(14) "Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model (CBWM) "
				  means the latest model adopted by the Chesapeake Bay Program used to simulate
				  loading and transport of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from pollutant
				  sources throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed and provide estimates of
				  watershed nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads resulting from various
				  management scenarios.
(15) "Credit"
				  means a unit of load reduction below baseline of 1 pound of nitrogen,
				  phosphorus, or sediment.
(16)
				  "Department" means the Maryland Department of the Environment.
(17) "Edge of tide (EoT) factor" means a
				  numeric adjustment that reflects the rate at which pollutants are reduced
				  through natural processes, such as hydrolysis, oxidation, and biodegradation,
				  and manmade structures, such as dams, on their way through nontidal tributaries
				  to the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay or its tidal tributaries.
(18) "Edge of tide (EoT) ratio" means a
				  numeric adjustment applied to a trade to compensate for different EoT factors
				  in the segmentshed where the credit is generated and the segmentshed where the
				  credit is used.
(19) "Enhanced
				  nutrient removal (ENR)" has the meaning stated in Environment Article, §
											9-1601, Annotated Code of
				  Maryland.
(20) "Floating cap" means
				  a permitted effluent limitation applicable to an ENR facility, funded by the
				  Bay Restoration Fund, which is calculated at the end of each calendar year
				  using the end of the calendar year annual cumulative flow for the facility,
				  multiplied by the applicable nitrogen or phosphorus concentration, and then
				  converted to units of pounds per year.
(21) "Generator" means the original source of
				  pollution reductions embodied in a credit, regardless of subsequent buyers and
				  sellers of the credit.
(22)
				  "Impaired waters" means waters included on the 303(d) list for nitrogen,
				  phosphorus, or sediment.
(23) Load.
(a) "Load" means a pound or pounds of
				  nitrogen or phosphorus or a pound, pounds, ton, or tons of sediment discharged
				  by a point or nonpoint source per unit of time.
(b) "Load" is calculated or estimated using
				  pollutant concentrations and flow and converting them to pounds or
				  tons.
(24) "Load
				  allocation (LA) " means the portion of a receiving water's loading capacity
				  that is attributed to one of either its existing or future nonpoint
				  sources.
(25) "Local water quality
				  impairment" means conditions in a nontidal river, stream or impoundment that
				  would cause the nontidal river, stream or impoundment to be listed on the
				  303(d) list for nitrogen, phosphorus, or sediment.
(26) "Marketplace " means an online system
				  where information is exchanged between credit owners or their representatives
				  and credit buyers.
(27) "Maryland
				  Nutrient Tracking Tool (MNTT) " means an online performance-based calculation
				  system that enables users to analyze agricultural parcels and their management
				  to determine eligibility and credit generation potential for participation in
				  the Maryland Water Quality Trading Program.
(28) "Maryland Water Quality Trading Program
				  (Program) " means the Program under this chapter that establishes the policies
				  and procedures to support market-based trading activities to enhance water
				  quality and to certify, verify, and register nonagricultural point and nonpoint
				  source nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment credits.
(29) "MS4 Permittee " means a person that has
				  been issued a Phase IMS4 permit or a Phase II MS4 permit as defined in
				  40 CFR §
												122.26.
(30) "Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System
				  (MS4) " has the meaning stated in
				  40 CFR §
												122.26.
(31) "National Pollutant Discharge
				  Elimination System (NPDES) permit program " means the national system for
				  issuing permits as designated by
				  33 U.S.C. §
												1251 et seq., its amendments, and all
				  regulations and rules adopted under the federal Clean Water Act and State law.
(32) "Nonregulated source" means
				  a point source or nonpoint source that the Department has determined is not
				  required to obtain an NPDES or State discharge permit and that is not an
				  agricultural operation.
(33)
				  "Nonpoint source " means a source of pollution that is not from a discernible,
				  confined, and discrete conveyance, or other point source, as point source is
				  defined in 33 U.S.C. §
												1362.
(34) "On-site sewage disposal system " means
				  a sewage system that discharges treated effluent into the ground, such as a
				  septic system.
(35)
				  "Performance-based benchmark" means a wastewater point source annual effluent
				  load which is calculated at the end of each calendar year using the end of the
				  calendar year annual cumulative flow for the facility, multiplied by the
				  applicable assigned nitrogen or phosphorus performance concentration converted
				  to units of pounds per year, where:
(a) A
				  sewage treatment facility with a design capacity greater than or equal to 0.5
				  million gallons per day has an assigned performance concentration:
(i) Equal to or less than 3.0 mg/l for
				  nitrogen or .3 mg/l for phosphorus; and
(ii) If applicable, equal to or less than the
				  concentration basis of the permit's required floating cap; and
(b) All other wastewater point
				  sources have an assigned performance concentration established on a
				  case-by-case basis, with the resulting benchmark at least as stringent as the
				  baseline required under Regulation . 05 of this chapter.
(36) "Person " has the meaning stated in
				  COMAR 26.08.01.01.
(37) "Point
				  source" has the meaning stated in
				  33 U.S.C. §
												1362.
(38) "Public funding " means federal or State
				  grant funding.
(39) "Registration "
				  means the recordation of a credit or trade in the Registry.
(40) "Registry" means a publicly accessible online
				  database system used by the Department and the Department of Agriculture to
				  administer the Maryland Water Quality Trading Program by tracking
				  credit-generating BMPs, verification activities, credits, trades, and credit
				  usage records.
(41) "Reserve pool"
				  means a pool of certified credits created by the application of the reserve
				  ratio that can be used by the State as stated in Regulation .08 of this
				  chapter.
(42) "Reserve ratio "
				  means a 5 percent reduction in the total number of generated credits, the
				  result rounded down to the next whole number, placed in the reserve pool at the
				  time of certification.
(43)
				  "Sector" means each of the following groups of persons:
(a) Agricultural dischargers;
(b) Stormwater dischargers;
(c) Sewage treatment and industrial
				  wastewater dischargers; and
(d)
				  Persons having on-site sewage disposal systems
(44) "Segmentshed" means a discrete land area
				  that drains into one of the Chesapeake Bay Program tidal segments for which a
				  TMDL is established in the Chesapeake Bay TMDL.
(45) "Source discharger" means a:
(a) Point source regulated under an NPDES or
				  State discharge permit that has received an individual or aggregate wasteload
				  allocation; or
(b) Nonpoint source
				  that is assigned a share of the aggregate load allocation for an entire
				  sector.
(46)
				  "Stormwater" has the meaning stated in COMAR 26.17.02.02.
(47) "Stormwater point source" means a regulated
				  stormwater discharger such as a MS4 permittee, or an NPDES industrial
				  stormwater permittee.
(48)
				  "Technology-based effluent limitation (TBEL) " means a permit limit for a
				  pollutant that is based on the capability of a treatment method to reduce the
				  pollutant to a certain concentration or loading.
(49) "Total maximum daily load (TMDL) " means
				  a calculation for an impaired water body of the maximum amount of a pollutant
				  the water body can receive and still meet applicable water quality standards in
				  accordance with federal Clean Water Act requirements.
(50) "Trade" or "trading" means a
				  transaction, sale, or other exchange of credit through a contractual agreement
				  between a credit generator or owner and a credit buyer.
(51) "Uncertainty ratio" means a numeric
				  adjustment to a trade to compensate for possible discrepancies in estimated
				  pollutant reductions resulting from inaccuracy in credit estimation methodology
				  or variability in project performance, or to provide a margin of safety in the
				  achievement of water quality goals.
(52) "Wasteload allocation (WLA) " has the
				  meaning stated in COMAR 26.08.01.01.
(53) "Wastewater" has the meaning stated in
				  COMAR 26.08.01.01.
(54)
				  Wastewater Point Source.
(a) "Wastewater
				  point source" means a sewage treatment discharger, an industrial wastewater
				  discharger, or any other point source that has applied for and received an
				  NPDES or State discharge permit issued pursuant to COMAR 26.08.04.
(b) "Wastewater point source" does not
				  include stormwaterpoint sources.
(55) "Watershed" means an area of land that
				  drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet such as the outflow of a
				  reservoir, mouth of a bay, or any point along a stream channel.