Rhode Island Code of Regulations › Title 250 - Department of Environmental Management › Chapter 150 - Water Resources › Subchapter 05 - Water Quality › Part 3 - Groundwater Quality Rules › Section 250-RICR-150-05-3.7 - Definitions

Current through June 14, 2024
A. As used in these rules, the following
				  terms shall, where the context permits, be construed as follows:
1. "Annular space seal" means the material
				  placed above the top of the filter pack or the filter pack seal up to the
				  ground surface seal and between the well casing and the adjacent
				  formation.
2. "Aquifer" means a
				  geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that contains
				  sufficient saturated, permeable material to yield significant quantities of
				  water to wells and springs.
3.
				  "Bedrock" means solid rock, commonly called ledge, which forms the earth's
				  crust, including fracture zones within said rock.
4. "Best management practices" means
				  schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and
				  other management practices designed to prevent or reduce the degradation of the
				  state's groundwater to the maximum extent possible.
5. "Community water supply well" means a well
				  that serves a community water system.
6. "Community water system" means a public
				  water system which serves at least 15 service connections used by year-round
				  residents or regularly serves at least 25 year-round residents.
7. "Degradation" means a deterioration or
				  decline in groundwater quality.
8.
				  "Department" means the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management or
				  its successor.
9. "Direct push
				  well" means a well that is advanced into the subsurface without
				  drilling.
10. "Director" means the
				  Director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management or the
				  Director's designee.
11. "Discharge
				  to groundwater" means the intentional, negligent, accidental, or other release
				  of any pollutant onto the land surface in a location where it may enter the
				  groundwater of the state, or such release of any pollutant beneath the land
				  surface.
12. "Effluent" means
				  liquid that is discharged from a facility.
13. "Emergency response" means any action
				  undertaken immediately following the discovery of a release in order to
				  completely or partially contain, clean up or treat the released material to
				  prevent an immediate or substantial threat or risk of acute or chronic adverse
				  effect on human health or to prevent an immediate or substantial significant
				  adverse impact to the environment.
14. "Facility" means any parcel of real
				  estate or a contiguous series or parcels of real estate together with any and
				  all structures, facility components, improvements, fixtures and other
				  appurtenances located therein or thereon which constitutes a distinct
				  geographic unit.
15. "Filter pack"
				  means the sand, gravel, or both placed in direct contact with the well
				  screen.
16. "Filter pack seal"
				  means the sealing material placed in the annular space above the filter pack
				  and below the annular space seal to prevent the migration of annular space
				  sealant into the filter pack.
17.
				  "Groundwater" means water found underground which completely fills the open
				  spaces between particles of sediment and within rock formations.
18. "Groundwater quality classification"
				  means the categorization of groundwater as usable for particular purposes on
				  the basis of its physical, chemical, and hydrogeologic characteristics; also,
				  the particular class (GAA, GA, GB, or GC) assigned to a particular volume of
				  groundwater within specific geographic boundaries.
19. "Groundwater quality standards" means
				  concentrations of specific chemical, biological, and radiological constituents
				  and narrative statements which describe the quality of groundwater which shall
				  be met in a particular groundwater quality classification.
20. "Groundwater reservoirs" means those
				  stratified drift deposits having a saturated thickness greater than or equal to
				  40 feet and a transmissivity greater than or equal to 4000 feet squared per day
				  which have been designated by the Director to be potentially significant
				  sources of water.
21. "Grout" means
				  a low permeability material consisting of bentonite, neat cement or a neat
				  cement-bentonite mixture.
22.
				  "Hazardous waste" means hazardous waste as defined in the Rhode Island
				  Department of Environmental Management Rules and Regulations for Hazardous
				  Waste Management Part 140-10-1 of this Title.
23. "Hydraulic conductivity" means a measure
				  of the ability of an aquifer to transmit a fluid; it is expressed as the volume
				  of water at the existing kinematic viscosity that will move in a unit time
				  under a unit hydraulic gradient through a unit area measured at right angles to
				  the direction of flow.
24.
				  "Licensed solid waste landfill" means any solid waste disposal facility
				  consisting in whole or in part of a landfill, which facility is operating
				  pursuant to a valid department license issued pursuant to a final action of the
				  Director as to which all applicable appeals periods have expired.
25. "Monitoring well" means a well that is
				  specifically located, designed, constructed, and emplaced to sample groundwater
				  quality; the monitoring well may also be used to measure water table
				  elevations.
26. "Monitoring well
				  abandonment" means to remove a monitoring well from service in such a manner
				  that vertical movement of water within the well bore and within the annular
				  space surrounding the well casing is effectively and permanently
				  prevented.
27. "Neat cement" means
				  a mixture of Portland cement (American Society of Testing Materials C150
				  Standard Specification for Portland Cement, incorporated above at §
											3.6(A) of
				  this Part) and water in the proportion of 5 to 6 gallons of clean water per bag
				  (94 pounds or 1 cubic foot).
28.
				  "Neat cement-bentonite mixture" means a mixture of 6 to 7 gallons of water per
				  94-pound bag of Portland cement (American Society of Testing Materials C150
				  Standard Specification for Portland Cement, incorporated above at §
											3.6(A) of
				  this Part) with up to 10% (by dry weight of cement) of unaltered dry bentonite
				  powder added after the initial mixing of cement and water.
29. "Non-aqueous phase liquid" means any
				  pollutant that is present as a separate phase liquid, including, but not
				  limited to sheens.
30.
				  "Non-community water supply well" means a well that serves a noncommunity water
				  system.
31. "Non-community water
				  system" means a public water system that is not a community water
				  system.
32. "Non-transient
				  non-community water supply well" means a well that serves a non-transient
				  non-community water system.
33.
				  "Non-transient non-community water system" means a non-community water system
				  that regularly services at least 25 of the same persons over six months per
				  year.
34. "Onsite wastewater
				  treatment system" means any system of piping, tanks, dispersal areas,
				  alternative toilets or other facilities designed to function as a unit to
				  convey, store, treat or disperse wastewater by means other than discharge into
				  a public sewer system.
35.
				  "Operator" means any person or persons having control or having legal
				  responsibility for operating or maintaining any facility, which is subject to
				  these rules.
36. "Owner" means any
				  person who holds exclusive or joint title to, or lawful possession of real or
				  personal property, which is subject to these rules.
37. "Person" means an individual, trust,
				  firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a quasi-governmental
				  corporation), partnership, association, syndicate, municipality, municipal or
				  state agency, fire district, club, nonprofit agency, or any subdivision,
				  commission, department, bureau, agency or department of state or federal
				  government (including quasi-governmental corporation), or any interstate or
				  international body, or any agent or employee thereof.
38. "Petroleum" means crude oil, any fraction
				  of crude oil, any substance refined or derived from crude oil, or any mixture
				  thereof, including, but not limited to, gasoline, petroleum solvents, kerosene,
				  aviation fuels, diesel oils, fuel oils, waste oils, lubricants, tar and
				  asphalt.
39. "Piezometer" means a
				  well with a short screen that allows measurement of the water level at a
				  particular depth in the aquifer.
40. "Pollutant" means any material or
				  effluent which may alter the chemical, physical, biological, or radiological
				  characteristics and/or integrity of water, including but not limited to,
				  dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage
				  sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive
				  materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, cellar dirt or industrial,
				  municipal, agricultural, or other waste or material, petroleum or petroleum
				  products, including but not limited to oil.
41. "Pollutant discharge zone" means a
				  departmentally designated, threedimensional zone within which the pollutant
				  concentrations resulting from an active discharge to groundwater are allowed to
				  be greater than the groundwater quality standards.
42. "Pollution" means the man-made or
				  man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological
				  integrity of water.
43. "Preventive
				  action limit" means a concentration of a substance that is equal to 50% of the
				  numerical groundwater quality standard.
44. "Private well" means a well that is
				  established to meet all or part of a person's potable water needs provided said
				  well does not supply a public water system.
45. "Public water system" means a system for
				  the provision to the public of piped water for human consumption, provided such
				  a system has at least 15 service connections or regularly serves an average of
				  at least 25 individuals daily at least 60 days out of the year; and shall
				  include all sources and facilities involved in collecting, treating, storing,
				  and distributing the water.
46.
				  "Public well" means a well that serves a public water system.
47. "Recharge area" means the land surface
				  from which water is added to the zone of saturation. The recharge area for a
				  particular well or aquifer, for instance, is that land surface from which water
				  moves to the well or aquifer or may move to the well or aquifer under certain
				  hydraulic conditions.
48. "Release"
				  means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, injecting,
				  escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any pollutant onto or below the
				  land surface. For purposes of these Rules, release also includes any storage,
				  disposal, or abandonment of any substance or material in a manner that presents
				  a substantial threat of release as herein defined.
49. "Remediation" means prevention and
				  control of pollutant migration to, within, or from the groundwater or the
				  removal of a pollutant from the groundwater.
50. "Residual zone" means a departmentally
				  designated, three-dimensional zone within which the pollutant concentrations
				  remaining in the groundwater after remediation activities are allowed to be
				  greater than the groundwater quality standards.
51. "Sanitary sewage" means any human or
				  animal excremental liquid or substance, any putrescible animal or vegetable
				  matter or any garbage and filth, including, but not limited to, any gray water
				  or black water discharged from toilets, washing machines, sinks and dishwashers
				  as well as the content of septic tanks, cesspools, or privies.
52. "Saturated thickness" means the thickness
				  of an aquifer measured from the water table to an essentially impermeable
				  boundary; such boundary is typically taken to be the top of the bedrock
				  surface.
53. "Saturated zone" means
				  the subsurface zone in which all open spaces are filled with water.
54. "Sludge" means residue, whether partially
				  solid or solid, treated or untreated, resulting from the treatment of sewage,
				  including, without limitation, such residues from the cleaning of sewers, by
				  processes, such as settling, flotation, filtration and centrifugation, and
				  shall not meet the criteria for a hazardous waste as found in the Rhode Island
				  Department of Environmental Management Rules and Regulations for Hazardous
				  Waste Management, Part 140-10-1 of this Title.
55. "Sole source aquifer" means an aquifer
				  designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as the sole or
				  principal source of drinking water for the area above the aquifer and including
				  those lands where the population served by the aquifer live; that is, an
				  aquifer which is needed to supply 50% or more of the drinking water for that
				  area and for which there are no reasonably available alternative sources should
				  the aquifer become polluted.
56.
				  "Solid waste" means solid waste as defined in the Rhode Island Department of
				  Environmental Management Solid Waste Regulations No.1 through No.8 Parts
				  140-05-1 through 8 of this Title; and which shall include garbage, refuse and
				  other discarded solid materials generated by residential, institutional,
				  commercial, industrial and agricultural sources but does not include solids or
				  dissolved materials in domestic sewage or sewage sludge, nor does it include
				  hazardous waste. Solid waste shall also include non-hazardous liquid,
				  semi-solid, and containerized gaseous waste.
57. "Static water table" means the water
				  table under natural, non-pumping conditions.
58. "Stratified drift" means predominantly
				  sorted sediments deposited in layers by meltwater from a glacier.
59. "Till" means predominantly unsorted,
				  unstratified sediments deposited directly by a glacier.
60. "Transient non-community water supply
				  well" means a well that serves a transient non-community water
				  system.
61. "Transient
				  non-community water system" means a non-community water system that does not
				  regularly serve at least 25 of the same persons over 6 months per
				  year.
62. "Transmissivity" means a
				  measure of the ability of an aquifer to transmit a fluid through a unit volume
				  of the aquifer. It can be quantified as the hydraulic conductivity multiplied
				  by the saturated thickness.
63.
				  "Unconfined aquifer" means an aquifer that is not under pressure beneath a
				  relatively impermeable layer. The groundwater in an unconfined aquifer is under
				  atmospheric pressure, and its upper surface is the water table.
64. "Watercourse" means any river, stream,
				  brook, pond, lake, swamp, marsh, bog, fen, wet meadow, area subject to storm
				  flowage, or any other standing or flowing body of water, including such
				  watercourses that may be affected by the tides.
65. "Water table" means the upper surface of
				  the saturated zone in an unconfined aquifer.
66. "Well" means a bored, drilled, or driven
				  shaft or a dug hole, with a depth that is greater than its largest surface
				  dimension, through which groundwater flows, has flowed, or may flow under
				  natural or induced pressure.
67.
				  "Wellhead protection area" means the critical portion of a three dimensional
				  zone surrounding a public well or wellfield through which water will move
				  toward and reach such well or wellfield as designated by the
				  Director.