New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 7 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Chapter 9C - GROUND WATER QUALITY STANDARDS › Subchapter 1 - GROUND WATER QUALITY STANDARDS › Section 7:9C-1.4 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter,
				  have the following meanings:
"ACL" means alternative concentration limit.
"Agricultural water" means water used for crop production,
				  livestock, horticulture and silviculture.
"Alternative concentration limit" or "ACL" means a
				  constituent standard or narrative description of actions, discharge controls
				  and water quality requirements that is less stringent than the ground water
				  quality requirements of
				  7:9C-1.7, 1.8 and 1.9 due to a
				  Departmental decision pursuant to NJPDES regulations (7:14A-10.8(b)  ).
				  In order to approve an ACL, the Department must find that the relevant
				  constituent standard(s) cannot be achieved through technologically practicable
				  means.
"Applicable regulatory program" means any of the Department's
				  programs which implement the regulations issued pursuant to the statutes cited
				  in 7:9C-1.1(b)  or in
				  any other regulations that specifically cite this chapter.
"Aquifer" means a saturated geologic formation(s) or unit(s)
				  which is sufficiently permeable to transmit water to a pumping well in usable
				  and economic quantities. The upper level of an unconfined aquifer may vary over
				  time; "aquifer" applies to the full saturated zone at any time.
"Aquitard" means a hydrogeologic confining unit(s) that
				  exhibits limited permeability, bounding one or more aquifers, that does not
				  readily yield water to wells or springs, but may serve as a storage unit for
				  ground water and may release this water to adjacent ground water units or
				  surface waters. Such confining units are further defined and listed in
				  7:9C-1.5(f)1  or
				  may be established through reclassification under
				  7:9C-1.10.
"Background water quality" means the concentration of
				  constituents in ground water which is determined to exist directly upgradient
				  of a discharge but not influenced by the discharge, or is otherwise
				  representative of such concentration of constituents as determined using
				  methods and analyses consistent with the requirements of
				  7:14A-10.11(g).
"Carcinogen" means a constituent capable of inducing a cancer
				  response, including Group A (Human Carcinogen), Group B (Probable Human
				  Carcinogen) or Group C (Possible Human Carcinogen) categorized in accordance
				  with the USEPA Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, 51 Fed. Reg. 33932,
				  1986, incorporated herein by reference, as amended or supplemented.
"Classification area" means the geographic extent (lateral
				  and vertical) of a geologic formation(s) or unit(s) wherein ground water is
				  classified for designated uses, as described in N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.5.
"Classification exception area" means an area within which
				  one or more constituent standards and designated uses are suspended in
				  accordance with
				  7:9C-1.6.
"Conservation restriction" means the restricting of
				  development on property as that term is defined under the New Jersey
				  Conservation Restriction and Historic Preservation Restriction Act,
				  13:8B-1 et seq.
"Constituent" means a specific chemical substance (that is,
				  element or compound) or water quality parameter (for example, temperature,
				  odor, color).
"Constituent standard" means the required maximum level or
				  concentration or the required range of levels or concentrations (as applicable)
				  for a constituent in a classification area, as established in N.J.A.C.
				  7:9C-1.7, 1.8 and 1.9(a) and (b). The constituent standards shall be the basis
				  for the Department's regulation of ground water quality effects of past,
				  present or future discharges to ground water or the land surface, pursuant to
				  applicable authorities as defined in N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.1.
"Conventional water supply treatment" means the chemical and
				  physical treatment of ground water supplies for microbiological contaminants
				  and undesirable naturally occurring substances resulting in treated water that
				  meets all the primary and secondary standards for those constituents stipulated
				  by the New Jersey Safe Drinking Water Act regulations (N.J.A.C. 7:10-12
				  ).
"Criteria" means ground water quality criteria.
"Department" means the New Jersey Department of Environmental
				  Protection.
"Designated use" means a present or potential use of ground
				  water which is to be maintained, restored and enhanced within a ground water
				  classification area, as determined by N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.5. Designated uses may
				  include any human withdrawal of ground water (for example, for potable,
				  agricultural and industrial water), the discharge of ground water to surface
				  waters of the State which support human use or ecological systems, or the
				  direct support of ecological systems.
"Discharge" means an intentional or unintentional action or
				  omission resulting in the releasing, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring,
				  emitting, emptying or dumping of a pollutant at any time into the waters of the
				  State, onto land or into wells from which it might flow or drain into said
				  waters, or into waters or onto lands outside the jurisdiction of the State,
				  which pollutant enters the waters of the State. "Discharge" includes, without
				  limitation, the release of any pollutant into a municipal treatment
				  works.
"Discharger" means any person, corporation, municipality,
				  government agency or authority or other legal entity, who causes or allows a
				  discharge, either through action or omission.
"Extensive exceedance," as used in N.J.A.C. 7:9C-1.10, means
				  a condition where ground water quality in an area exceeds the criteria of
				  7:9C-1.7 for one or more
				  constituents over the vast majority subject area for such constituent(s) and
				  that such exceedances are not attributable to the past or present discharges of
				  a single discharger or any group of active NJPDES permitted discharges.
"FW1" means those surface fresh waters defined as such in the
				  Surface Water Quality Standards, N.J.A.C. 7:9B, and shown on maps maintained by
				  the Department.
"Ground water" means the portion of water beneath the land
				  surface that is within the saturated zone.
"Ground water quality criteria" means the designated levels
				  or concentrations of constituents that, when exceeded, will prohibit or
				  significantly impair a designated use of water. Criteria may be "specific"
				  (listed for each constituent in Appendix Table 1), "interim specific" (derived
				  using a standard method, for constituents not listed in Appendix Table 1), or
				  "interim generic" (as listed for carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic Synthetic
				  Organic Chemicals in Appendix Table 2).
"Hazardous pollutant" means:
1. Any toxic pollutant;
2. Any substance regulated as a pesticide under the Federal
				  Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, Pub.L. 92-516 (
				  7
				  U.S.C. §
										136 et seq.);
3. Any substance the use or manufacture of which is
				  prohibited under the Federal Toxic Substances Control Act, Pub.L. 94-469 (
				  15 U.S.C. §
										2601 et seq.);
4. Any substance identified as a known carcinogen by the
				  International Agency for Research on Cancer;
5. Any hazardous waste as designated pursuant to section 3 of
				  P.L. 1981, c.279 (13:1E-51 ) or the "Resource
				  Conservation and Recovery Act," Pub.L. 94-580 (
				  42 U.S.C. §
										6901 et seq.); or
6. Any hazardous substance as defined pursuant to section 3
				  of P.L. 1976, c.141 (N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.1 1b).
"HUC 11" or "hydrologic unit code 11" means an area within
				  which water drains to a particular receiving surface water body, also known as
				  a watershed, which is identified by an 11 - digit hydrologic unit boundary
				  designation, delineated within New Jersey by the United States Geological
				  Survey.
"Industrial water" means water used for processing, heating
				  or cooling in a manufacturing process.
"Natural Area" means an area of land or water, designated by
				  the Department under
				  7:5A-1.13 and shown on maps
				  maintained by the Office of Natural Lands Management, Division of Parks and
				  Forestry, of the Department, which is owned in fee simple or in which a
				  conservation restriction is held by the Department.
"Natural quality" means the concentration or level of
				  constituents which occurs in ground water of a hydrologic unit without the
				  influence of human activity, other than the effects of regional precipitation
				  of air pollutants (for example, acid precipitation). The natural quality for
				  SOCs is established as zero (0.0) except where the SOCs are the result of air
				  transport from outside the State, enter the State from ground water transport
				  of pollutants having their origins in other states, or are created entirely by
				  natural processes. Where natural quality for other constituents is not
				  ascertainable from generally acceptable scientific studies, the lowest
				  concentrations known to exist within the same or a similar hydrologic unit and
				  setting (that is, depth) within the classification area shall be used to
				  represent the natural quality, provided, however, that for pH, corrosivity and
				  hardness, the most representative concentration shall be used.
"NJPDES" means the New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination
				  System (N.J.A.C. 7:14A).
"NJPDES permit action" means a draft or final NJPDES permit,
				  a permit equivalent, or a decision that a discharge is not to be regulated by
				  NJPDES, as determined pursuant to the NJPDES regulations.
"Non-carcinogen" means a constituent not categorized as a
				  carcinogen, including Group D (Not Classifiable as to Human Carcinogenicity) or
				  Group E (Evidence of Non-Carcinogenicity for Humans) categorized in accordance
				  with the USEPA Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, 51 Fed. Reg. 33932,
				  1986, incorporated herein by reference, as amended or supplemented.
"Organoleptic effect" means an offensive taste, foul odor or
				  other adverse aesthetic consequence caused by pollutants in a water supply and
				  rendering the water supply unfit for potable use.
"PQL" means practical quantitation level.
"Pollutant" means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator
				  residue, sewage, garbage, refuse, oil, grease, sewage sludge, munitions,
				  chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive substance, thermal waste,
				  wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial,
				  municipal or agricultural or other residue discharged into the waters of the
				  State. "Pollutant" includes both hazardous and nonhazardous pollutants.
				  "Industrial, municipal or agricultural or other residue" specifically includes,
				  without limitation, constituents that are not considered wastes (that is,
				  process chemicals) prior to discharge, but which are discharged and may or do
				  degrade natural or existing ground water quality.
"Potable water" means water suitable for household
				  consumption, primarily as drinking water, based upon human health, welfare and
				  aesthetic considerations.
"Practical quantitation level" (PQL) means the lowest
				  concentration of a constituent that can be reliably achieved among laboratories
				  within specified limits of precision and accuracy during routine laboratory
				  operating conditions. "Specified limits of precision and accuracy" are the
				  criteria which have been included in applicable regulations including, but not
				  limited to, those regulations listed at
				  7:9C-1.9 or are listed in the
				  calibration specifications or quality control specifications of an analytical
				  method.
"Saturated zone" means the zone in which all the subsurface
				  voids in the rock or soil are filled with water.
"SOC" means Synthetic Organic Chemical.
"Soils" means any naturally occurring or man-made
				  unconsolidated mineral and organic matter on the surface of the earth that has
				  been subjected to and influenced by geologic and environmental factors. "Soils"
				  also includes fill or overburden.
"Source water" means the supply source of water (for example,
				  private wells, public water supply) to a discharger, where the source water
				  becomes part of a discharge.
"Surface waters" means water at or above the land's surface
				  which is neither ground water nor contained within the unsaturated zone,
				  including, but not limited to, the ocean and its tributaries, all springs,
				  streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and artificial waterbodies.
"Synthetic organic chemicals" (SOCs) means any compounds that
				  contain at least one carbon atom and that result from purposeful chemical
				  synthesis, whether as products, by-products, or waste, or from the purposeful
				  refinement of naturally occurring substances. Where a chemical substance is
				  sometimes found in nature and sometimes synthesized, it shall be considered an
				  SOC only to the extent or in the proportion produced or isolated by human
				  activity. Naturally occurring organic chemicals in their natural location are
				  not considered a pollutant pursuant to the Ground Water Quality Standards. An
				  SOC may be considered to be in its natural location, if, by background sampling
				  and modeling, it is shown that such SOC has migrated to that point from the
				  place it naturally occurred.
"Technologically practicable means" means the best available
				  treatment or remedial technology, from an engineering perspective; "best" means
				  that technology which achieves the most stringent numerical values attainable
				  for a constituent at a contaminated site or for a NJPDES-regulated discharge;
				  "available" means field-demonstrated technology although such technology need
				  not be in common commercial use.
"Toxic pollutant" means any pollutant identified pursuant to
				  the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 ( Pub.L. 92-500,
				  33 U.S.C. §
										1251 et seq.), or any pollutant or
				  combination of pollutants, including disease causing agents, which after
				  discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation into any
				  organism, either directly or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will,
				  on the basis of information available to the Department, cause death, disease,
				  behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological
				  malfunctions, including malfunctions in reproduction, or physical deformation,
				  in such organisms or their offspring.
"USEPA" means the United States Environmental Protection
				  Agency.
"Unsaturated zone" (vadose zone) means the subsurface volume
				  between the land's surface and the top of a saturated zone.
"Waters of the State" means the ocean and its estuaries, all
				  springs, streams and bodies of surface or ground water, whether natural or
				  artificial, within the boundaries of this State or subject to its
				  jurisdiction.
"Zone of Contribution" means the volume of a geologic
				  formation or unit that directly contributes ground water to a pumping well over
				  time, or a Well Head Protection Area as defined by the Department pursuant to
				  the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, Amendments of 1986.