Pennsylvania Code › Title 25 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Part I - Department of Environmental Protection › Subpart D - Environmental Health and Safety › Article VIII - Municipal Waste › Chapter 271 - MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT-GENERAL PROVISIONS › Subchapter J - BENEFICIAL USE OF SEWAGE SLUDGE BY LAND APPLICATION › GENERAL › Section 271.907 - Special definitions

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
The following words and terms have the following
							 meanings and apply only to this subchapter; other definitions may be found in
							 §
													271.1 (relating to
							 definitions):
Agricultural land
-Land on which a
							 food crop, a feed crop, a fiber crop, a silvicultural crop or a horticultural
							 crop is grown. The term includes range land and land used as pasture.
Agronomic rate
-The annual whole
							 sludge application rate (dry weight basis) designed to do the following:
(1) Provide the amount of nitrogen needed by
						  the food crop, feed crop, fiber crop, silvicultural crop, cover crop,
						  horticultural crop or vegetation grown on the land.
(2) Minimize the amount of nitrogen in the
						  sewage sludge that passes below the root zone of the crop or vegetation grown
						  on the land to the groundwater.
Annual whole sludge application
							 rate
-The maximum amount of sewage sludge (dry weight basis) that can
							 be applied to a unit area of land during a 365-day period.
Apply sewage sludge
or
sewage sludge applied to the land
or
land
							 apply
-Land application of sewage sludge.
Bag or other container
-Either an
							 open or closed receptacle. The term includes, but is not limited to, a bag,
							 bucket, box, container, vehicle or trailer, with a load capacity of 1.1 tons
							 (or 1.0 metric ton) or less.
Cover crop
-A small grain crop, such
							 as oats, wheat or barley, not grown for harvest.
Cumulative pollutant loading
							 rate
-The maximum amount of a pollutant that can be applied to an area
							 of land.
Domestic sewage
-Waste and wastewater
							 from humans or household operations that is discharged to or otherwise enters a
							 treatment works.
Dry weight basis
-Calculated on the
							 basis of having been dried at 221°F (or 105°C) until reaching a
							 constant mass (that is, essentially 100% solids content).
Feed crops
-Crops produced primarily
							 for consumption by animals.
Fiber crops
-Crops such as flax and
							 cotton.
Food crops
-Crops consumed by humans.
							 The term includes, but is not limited to, fruits, vegetables and
							 tobacco.
Forest
-A tract of land thick with
							 trees and underbrush.
Frozen ground
-Ground frozen to a
							 depth of at least 2 inches for a period of 72-consecutive hours.
Industrial wastewater
-Wastewater
							 generated in a commercial or industrial process.
Land application
-The spraying or
							 spreading of sewage sludge onto the land surface for beneficial use; the
							 injection of sewage sludge below the land surface for beneficial use; or the
							 incorporation of sewage sludge into the soil for beneficial use so that the
							 sewage sludge can either condition the soil or fertilize crops for vegetation
							 grown in the soil.
Land application of sewage sludge general
							 permit
-A regionwide or Statewide land application of sewage sludge
							 permit that is issued by the Department under the procedures and requirements
							 in Chapters 91 and 92 (relating to general provisions; and National Pollutant
							 Discharge Elimination System permitting, monitoring and compliance) and this
							 subchapter, as applicable, for a clearly described category of activities which
							 may involve a discharge to surface or groundwaters, when the activities are
							 substantially similar in nature and do not have the potential to cause
							 significant adverse environmental impact.
Land application of sewage sludge
							 permit
-A permit that is issued for an activity related to the land
							 application of sewage sludge which may result in a discharge of pollutants to
							 waters of this Commonwealth.
Municipality
-A city, town, borough,
							 county, township or an authority created by any of the foregoing under State
							 law, including an intermunicipal agency of two or more of the foregoing
							 entities.
Pasture
-Land on which animals feed
							 directly on feed crops such as legumes, grasses, grain stubble or
							 stover.
Person
-An individual, corporation,
							 partnership, association, municipality, political subdivision or an
							 instrumentality of State, Federal or local government, or an agent or employe
							 thereof; or any other legal entity.
Person who prepares sewage
							 sludge
-Either the person who generates sewage sludge during the
							 treatment or processing of domestic sewage in a treatment works or the person
							 who derives a material from sewage sludge. The term includes a composting
							 facility that composts sewage sludge.
Pollutant
-An organic substance, an
							 inorganic substance, a combination of organic substances, a pathogenic organism
							 or another substance identified by the Department that, after discharge and
							 upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation into an organism either
							 directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through the food
							 chain, could, on the basis of information available to the Department cause
							 death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations,
							 physiological malfunctions (including malfunction in reproduction), or physical
							 deformations in either organisms or offspring of the organisms.
Pollutant limit
-A numerical value
							 that describes the amount of a pollutant allowed per unit amount of sewage
							 sludge (for example, milligrams per kilogram of total solids); the amount of a
							 pollutant that can be applied to a unit area of land (for example, pounds per
							 acre or kilograms per hectare); or the volume of a material that can be applied
							 to a unit area of land (for example, gallons per acre or liters per
							 hectare).
Public contact site
-Land with a high
							 potential for contact by the public. The term includes, but is not limited to,
							 public parks, ball fields, cemeteries, plant nurseries, turf farms and golf
							 courses.
Range land
-Open land with indigenous
							 vegetation.
Reclamation site
-Drastically
							 disturbed land that is reclaimed using sewage sludge. The term includes, but is
							 not limited to, active and abandoned coal and noncoal surface mines and
							 construction sites.
Residential septage
-Liquid or solid
							 material removed from a septic tank, cesspool or similar treatment works that
							 receives only waste or wastewater from humans or household operations. The term
							 includes processed residential septage from a residential septage treatment
							 facility. The term does not include liquid or solid material removed from a
							 septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet, Type III Marine Sanitation Device or
							 similar treatment works, that receives either commercial wastewater or
							 industrial wastewater, and does not include grease removed from grease traps at
							 a restaurant.
Runoff
-Rainwater, leachate or other
							 liquid that drains overland on any part of a land surface and runs off of the
							 land surface.
Treat or treatment of sewage
							 sludge
-The preparation of sewage sludge for land application. The term
							 includes, but is not limited to, thickening, stabilization and dewatering of
							 sewage sludge. The term does not include storage of sewage sludge.
Treatment works
-Either a Federally
							 owned, publicly owned or privately owned device or system used to treat
							 (including recycle and reclaim) either domestic sewage or a combination of
							 domestic sewage and industrial waste of a liquid nature.
Wetlands
-Those areas that are
							 inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and
							 duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support,
							 a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil
							 conditions including swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas.
This section cited in 25 Pa. Code §
															271.821 (relating to application
								for general permit).