New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 20 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Chapter 6 - WATER QUALITY › Part 2 - GROUND AND SURFACE WATER PROTECTION › Section 20.6.2.3105 - EXEMPTIONS FROM DISCHARGE PERMIT REQUIREMENT

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
Sections
				  20.6.2.3104
				  and
				  20.6.2.3106
				  NMAC do not apply to the following:
A.
				Effluent or leachate which conforms to all the standards in Subsections A, B,
				and C of Section
				20.6.2.3103
				NMAC and has a total nitrogen concentration of 10 mg/l or less. To determine
				conformance, samples may be taken by the agency before the effluent or leachate
				is discharged so that it may move directly or indirectly into ground water;
				provided that if the discharge is by seepage through non-natural or altered
				natural materials, the agency may take samples of the solution before or after
				seepage. If for any reason the agency does not have access to obtain the
				appropriate samples, this exemption shall not apply;
B. Effluent which is regulated pursuant to
				20.7.3 NMAC, "Liquid Waste Disposal and Treatment" regulations;
C. Water used for irrigated agriculture, for
				watering of lawns, trees, gardens or shrubs, or for irrigation for a period not
				to exceed five years for the revegetation of any disturbed land area, unless
				that water is received directly from any sewerage system;
D. Discharges resulting from the transport or
				storage of water diverted, provided that the water diverted has not had added
				to it after the point of diversion any effluent received from a sewerage
				system, that the source of the water diverted was not mine workings, and that
				the secretary has not determined that a hazard to public health may
				result;
E. Effluent which is
				discharged to a watercourse which is naturally perennial; discharges to dry
				arroyos and ephemeral streams are not exempt from the discharge permit
				requirement, except as otherwise provided in this section;
F. Those constituents which are subject to
				effective and enforceable effluent limitations in a National Pollutant
				Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, where discharge onto or below the
				surface of the ground so that water contaminants may move directly or
				indirectly into ground water occurs downstream from the outfall where NPDES
				effluent limitations are imposed, unless the secretary determines that a hazard
				to public health may result. For purposes of this subsection, monitoring
				requirements alone do not constitute effluent limitations;
G. Discharges resulting from flood control
				systems;
H. Leachate which results
				from the direct natural infiltration of precipitation through disturbed
				materials, unless the secretary determines that a hazard to public health may
				result;
I. Leachate which results
				entirely from the direct natural infiltration of precipitation through
				undisturbed materials;
J. Natural
				ground water seeping or flowing into conventional mine workings which re-enters
				the ground by natural gravity flow prior to pumping or transporting out of the
				mine and without being used in any mining process; this exemption does not
				apply to solution mining;
K.
				Effluent or leachate discharges resulting from activities regulated by permit
				issued by the mining and minerals division of the energy, minerals and natural
				resources department pursuant to the Surface Mining Act, NMSA 1978, Sections
				69-25A-1 to
				36, provided that this exemption shall not be construed as limiting the
				application of appropriate ground water protection requirements by the mining
				and minerals division and the New Mexico Coal Surface Mining Commission;
				or
L. Discharges resulting from
				activities regulated by the energy conservation and management division of the
				energy, minerals and natural resources department under the authority of the
				Geothermal Resources Development Act, NMSA 1978, Sections
				71-9-1 to
				-11 (2016).