Rhode Island Code of Regulations › Title 250 - Department of Environmental Management › Chapter 150 - Water Resources › Subchapter 10 - Wastewater And Storm Water › Part 3 - Rules and Regulations for Sewage Sludge Management (250-RICR-150-10-3) › Section 250-RICR-150-10-3.5 - Definitions

Current through June 14, 2024
A. For the purposes of these rules and
				  regulations, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
1. "Abutter" means any person who owns
				  property adjacent to, or across a road, railroad, or stream from a proposed
				  facility or site.
2. "Agricultural
				  lands" means those lands utilized for or having the potential for the
				  production of food crops, feed crops or fiber crops.
3. "Agronomic rate" means the sludge
				  application rate that is designed to provide the amount of nitrogen or other
				  nutrient(s) needed by the crop or vegetation and minimize the amount of
				  nitrogen that passes below the root zone of the crop or the vegetation to the
				  groundwater.
4. "Aquifer" means a
				  geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation capable of
				  yielding a significant amount of groundwater to wells and springs.
5. "Applicant" means a person who applies for
				  an Order of Approval or the Director's approval pursuant to these rules and
				  regulations.
6. "Beneficial use"
				  means taking advantage of the nutrient content and/or soil conditioning
				  properties of sludge by supplying agronomic or soil conditioning benefits such
				  as nitrogen, phosphorus, micronutrients, or organic matter needs for crops,
				  silviculture or establishing a vegetative cover for reclamation sites.
7. "Bulk distribution" means the
				  distribution of Class A Biosolids in a container greater than 100
				  pounds.
8. "Bulking agent" means
				  material such as sawdust, woodchips or yard trimmings which is added to the
				  sludge to provide structure, lower total moisture content, allow air to reach
				  and be held in small pockets by preventing settling and compaction of the
				  sludge, and in some cases to act as a carbon source for composting
				  operations.
9. "Class A biosolids"
				  means any treated sludge that meets the metals and pathogen limits established
				  in §
											3.32 of this
				  Part.
10. "Class B biosolids" means
				  any treated sludge that does not meet the metals limits established in §
											3.32 of this Part but meets
				  the metals limits established in §
											3.33 of this
				  Part.
11. "Class C biosolids" means
				  any treated sludge that does not meet the metals limits established in §
											3.33 of this
				  Part.
12. "Closure" means the
				  procedures used to cease the use of a facility, or a portion thereof, in a
				  manner that will minimize future risks of environmental damage, and includes
				  all post-closure inspection, monitoring, and maintenance activities.
13. "Composting" means the biological method
				  of stabilizing organic residues through an aerobic, self-heating
				  process.
14. "Cover" means soil or
				  other approved material placed over sewage sludge in a land disposal site or
				  sewage sludge or solid waste in a solid waste landfill.
15. "Department" means the Rhode Island
				  Department of Environmental Management.
16. "Director" means the Director of the
				  Department of Environmental Management or any designee to whom the Director
				  delegates any powers and duties vested in that office.
17. "Disposal" means the final discharge,
				  deposit, injection, dumping, mixing, spilling, leaking, incinerating, or
				  placing of sludge into or onto any land so that such sludge or any constituent
				  thereof may enter the environment, be emitted into the air or be discharged
				  into any surface water or groundwater.
18. "Distributor" means any person who
				  distributes or markets Class A Biosolids. Any person that receives and
				  distributes or markets packaged Class A Biosolids exclusively is not considered
				  a distributor.
19. "Facility" means
				  any building, structure and operation, including land or appurtenances thereto,
				  on one contiguous site used for the generation, processing or management of
				  sludge. A facility includes, but is not limited to a publicly or privately
				  owned treatment works, sludge treatment facility, sludge-only landfill (or
				  monofill), sludge incinerator and site where sludge is treated, stockpiled or
				  mixed with other sludge or other material for shipment off-site.
20. "Feed crops" means crops grown for
				  consumption by animals.
21. "Fiber
				  crops" means crops, such as flax or cotton that are cultivated for their fiber
				  content and are not consumed by humans or by animals intended for human
				  consumption.
22. "Flood plain"
				  means that land area adjacent to a river which is, on the average, likely to be
				  covered with flood water resulting from a 100 year frequency storm, and shall
				  be that land so designated as flood plain on the U.S. Department of Housing and
				  Urban Development Federal Insurance Administration Flood Hazard Boundary Map,
				  currently administered by FEMA.
23.
				  "Food crops" means crops, including tobacco, consumed by humans.
24. "Generator" means the person who holds
				  title to a publicly owned treatment works or privately owned treatment works
				  located in Rhode Island that produces sewage sludge or the facility or site
				  located in Rhode Island where sludge is mixed or treated to produce another
				  material.
25. "Groundwater" means
				  water found underground which completely fills the open spaces between
				  particles of soil and spaces within rock formations.
26. "Hazardous waste" means any waste as
				  defined in accordance with R.I. Gen. Laws Chapters 23-19.1 and 23-19.4, and
				  regulations adopted pursuant thereto.
27. "Incorporated into the soil" means the
				  injection of liquid sludge beneath the surface of the soil or the mixing of
				  sludge with the surface soil for beneficial use.
28. "Land application" or "land-applied"
				  means the spraying or spreading of sludge onto the land surface; the injection
				  of sludge below the land surface; or the incorporation of sludge into the soil
				  so that the sludge can either condition the soil or fertilize crops or
				  vegetation grown in the soil.
29.
				  "Land disposal" or "land-disposed" means the burial of sludge in a sludge-only
				  landfill (or monofill). Burial of sludge in a solid waste landfill is not
				  considered land disposal.
30. "Lead
				  free" means any sludge having no lead present or having lead present in amounts
				  less than the standards established in the Rhode Island Department of Health
				  "Rules and Regulations for Lead Poisoning Prevention".
31. "Lead safe" means any sludge, which
				  pursuant to the Rhode Island Department of Health "Rules and Regulations for
				  Lead Poisoning Prevention," poses no significant environmental lead exposure
				  hazard despite having a lead concentration above that required for a
				  designation as "lead free" (see §
											3.5(A)(30) 
				  of this Part above).
32.
				  "Management" or "manage" means the supervising, controlling, or undertaking of
				  any sludge activity(ies) regulated under these rules and regulations including
				  transporting, processing, land applying, disposing, stockpiling, treating or
				  distributing of sludge.
33.
				  "Monitoring well" means a cased and screened well that intercepts the
				  groundwater and can be used to detect the presence of groundwater
				  contamination. All monitoring wells are to be designed based on criteria
				  established by the Department.
34.
				  "Office of water resources" means the Office of Water Resources of the
				  Department of Environmental Management.
35. "Operator" means the person in control of
				  or having responsibility for managing the sludge activity(ies) at a facility,
				  site or publicly or privately owned wastewater treatment facility.
36. "Order of approval" means a written
				  document issued by the department, which authorizes the holder to manage a site
				  or facility or transport sludge according to the terms of the
				  document.
37. "Owner" means the
				  person named on the Federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
				  (NPDES) or the Rhode Island Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (RIPDES)
				  permit issued for a facility or the applicant named on the Order of Approval or
				  the person holding title to a facility or site where sludge is generated and/or
				  managed or is proposed to be generated and/or managed.
38. "Pathogen" means disease-causing
				  organisms including, but not limited to, certain bacteria, protozoa, viruses,
				  and viable helminth ova.
39.
				  "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,
				  non-profit agency or any subdivision, commission, department, bureau, agency or
				  department of state or federal government (including any quasi-governmental
				  corporation) or of any interstate body.
40. "pH" means the logarithm of the
				  reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration (base 10).
41. "Pollutant" means any dredged material,
				  solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, sediment,
				  filter backwash, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive
				  materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt,
				  industrial or municipal or agricultural waste or effluent, petroleum or
				  petroleum products, including but not limited to oil; or any material which
				  will likely alter the physical, chemical, biological or radiological
				  characteristics and/or integrity of water.
42. "Private drinking water supply well"
				  means any well established for the purpose of meeting all or part of a person's
				  potable water needs provided said well does not supply a public drinking water
				  supply.
43. "Privately owned
				  treatment works" means any facility which is owned by a private individual or
				  private party or corporation or other private entity and is used for the
				  treatment of pollutants. This definition includes sewers, pipes if they convey
				  wastewater to a privately owned treatment works as well as any equipment,
				  buildings or machinery used in the treatment operation.
44. "Processing" means any activity that
				  reduces the quantity of sludge or alters its chemical, biological, or physical
				  state.
45. "Processes to
				  significantly reduce pathogens" or "PSRPs" and "processes to further reduce
				  pathogens" or "PFRPs" means the processes listed in §§
											3.28 and
				  3.29 of this Part,
				  respectively, which will reduce pathogens in sludge.
46. "Public drinking water supply well" means
				  any well supplying a water system with piped water for human consumption,
				  provided that such a system has at least 15 service connections or regularly
				  serves an average of at least 25 individuals daily at least 60 days of the
				  year.
47. "Publicly owned treatment
				  works" means any facility which is used for the treatment of pollutants and is
				  owned by the state or any political subdivision thereof, municipality, or other
				  public entity, including any quasi-governmental corporation. This definition
				  includes sewers, pipes if they convey wastewater to a publicly owned treatment
				  works and any equipment, buildings or machinery used in the treatment
				  operation.
48. "Reclamation" means
				  the addition of organic matter and nutrients to improve and/or promote
				  establishment of vegetation on soils which have been severely disturbed or
				  which are in a poor vegetative state.
49. "Septage" means either liquid or solid
				  material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet, marine
				  sanitation device, or similar treatment works that receives only domestic
				  sewage.
50. "Sewage" or
				  "wastewater" means human waste, or wastes from toilets and other receptacles
				  intended to receive or retain body waste, and any wastes, including wastes from
				  human households, commercial establishments, and industries.
51. "Silviculture" means the growing or
				  cultivation of forests.
52. "Site"
				  means contiguous land areas owned by the same person(s) on which sludge is
				  managed even if the land area is divided by a highway, railroad, water body, or
				  boundary of a political subdivision.
53. "Sludge" or "sewage sludge" means
				  residue, partially solid, or solid, treated or untreated, resulting from the
				  treatment of sewage, including such residues from the cleaning of sewers, by
				  processes, such as settling, flotation, filtration and centrifugation, that
				  does not meet the criteria for a hazardous waste. Domestic septage is not
				  considered sludge.
54. "Solid waste
				  regulations" means the "Rules and Regulations for Solid Waste Management
				  Facilities", Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Subchapter 05
				  Part 1 of this Chapter.
55.
				  "Stockpiling" means the storage of sludge.
56. "Surface water" means any waters of the
				  State that are not groundwaters.
57. "Toxicity characteristic leachate
				  procedure" or "TCLP" means a quantitative analysis to determine hazardous
				  characteristics as described in
				  40 C.F.R. §
												261, Appendix II.
58. "Transporter" means any person engaged in
				  the removal or transporting of sludge.
59. "Treated sludge" means sewage sludge that
				  is treated by one or more of the methods listed in §
											3.29 of this
				  Part.
60. "Vector" means a carrier
				  that is capable of transmitting a pathogen from one organism to another,
				  including but not limited to flies and other insects, rodents, birds and other
				  vermin.
61. "Waters of the state"
				  or "the waters" means all surface water and groundwater of the State of Rhode
				  Island, including all tidewaters, territorial seas, wetlands, land masses
				  partially or wholly submerged in water, and both inter- and intra-state bodies
				  of water which are, have been or will be used in commerce, by industry, for the
				  harvesting of fish and shellfish or for recreational purposes.
62. "Well" means a bored, drilled or driven
				  shaft or a dug hole, with a depth greater than its largest surface dimension,
				  through which groundwater flows under natural or induced pressure.
63. "Wellhead protection area" means that
				  portion of the ground surface and subsurface area surrounding a public well or
				  wellfield through which water will move toward and reach such well or wellfield
				  as designated by the Director in accordance with the Rhode Island Wellhead
				  Protection Program.
64. "Wetlands"
				  means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface 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. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs
				  and similar areas. For freshwaters, wetlands are determined by the Office of
				  Water Resources using the Rules and Regulations Governing the Enforcement and
				  Administration of the Freshwater Wetlands Act, Subchapter 15 Part 1 of this
				  Chapter. Coastal wetlands are determined by rules and regulations under the
				  jurisdiction of the Coastal Resources Management Council.