Oregon Administrative Rules › Chapter 340 - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY › Division 71 - ONSITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS › Section 340-071-0100 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 7, July 1, 2024
As used in OAR 340, divisions 71 and 73, unless otherwise
				specified:
(1) "Absorption Area" means
			 the entire area used for underground dispersion of the liquid portion of sewage
			 including the area designated for a future replacement system. It may consist
			 of a seepage pit, absorption field, or combination of the two. It may also
			 consist of a cesspool, seepage bed, bottomless sand filter, or
			 evapotranspiration-absorption system.
(2) "Absorption Facility" means a system of
			 open-jointed or perforated piping, alternative distribution units, or other
			 seepage systems for receiving the flow from septic tanks or other treatment
			 facilities that are designed to distribute effluent for oxidation and
			 absorption by the soil within the zone of aeration.
(3) "Absorption Field" means a system of
			 absorption trenches, a seepage trench, or a system of seepage trenches.
(4) "Absorption Trench" means a
			 ditch or a trench installed into soil, permeable saprolite, or diggable
			 bedrock, with vertical sides and a substantially flat bottom.
(5) "Active Sand Dune" means wind-drifted
			 ridges and intervening valleys, pockets, and swales of sand adjacent to the
			 beach. The sand is grayish-brown with little or no horizon, color, or textural
			 difference. Active dunes are either bare of vegetation or lack sufficient
			 vegetation to prevent blowing of sand.
(6) "Aerobic Sewage Treatment Facility" means
			 a sewage treatment plant that incorporates a means of introducing air and
			 oxygen into the sewage to provide aerobic biochemical stabilization during a
			 detention period. Aerobic sewage treatment facilities may include anaerobic
			 processes as part of the treatment system.
(7) "Aerobic System" means an alternative
			 system that incorporates a septic tank or other treatment facility, an aerobic
			 sewage treatment facility, and an absorption facility to provide treatment
			 before dispersal.
(8) "Agent" means
			 the director or person authorized to act on the Director's behalf, frequently
			 referring to DEQ or contract county staff performing onsite permitting
			 activities.
(9) "Alteration" means
			 expansion or change in location of an existing system or any part of it. Major
			 alteration is the expansion or change in location of the soil absorption
			 facility, treatment unit, or any part of it. Minor alteration is the
			 replacement or relocation of a septic tank or other components of the system
			 other than the soil absorption facility, or a change in distribution technique
			 or method.
(10) "Alternative
			 System" means any onsite wastewater treatment system DEQ or the Commission
			 approves for use in lieu of the standard subsurface system.
(11) "Alternative Treatment Technologies"
			 means an alternative system that incorporates aerobic and other treatment
			 technologies or units not specifically described elsewhere in this division.
(12) "Approved Material" means
			 construction items that DEQ approved for use.
(13) "Approved Criteria" means methods of
			 design or construction that DEQ approved for use.
(14) "ASTM" means American Society of Testing
			 Materials.
(15) "Authorization
			 Notice" means a written document issued by an agent establishing that an
			 existing onsite wastewater treatment system appears adequate for its intended
			 use.
(16) "Authorized
			 Representative" means a person with written authorization to act as another
			 person's delegate.
(17) "Automatic
			 Siphon" means a hydraulic device designed to rapidly discharge the contents of
			 a dosing tank between predetermined liquid levels.
(18) "Bedroom" means any room within a
			 dwelling accepted as a bedroom by state or local building departments.
(19) "Biochemical Oxygen Demand"
			 (BOD5) means the quantity of oxygen used in the biochemical oxidation of
			 organic matter in five days at 20 degrees centigrade under specified conditions
			 and reported as milligrams per liter (mg/L).
(20) "Black Waste" means human body wastes
			 including feces, urine, other substances of body origin, and toilet paper.
(21) "Capping Fill System" means
			 an alternative system that incorporates an absorption trench with an effective
			 sidewall installed a minimum of 12 inches into the natural soil below a soil
			 cap of specified depth and texture.
(22) "Carbonaceous Biochemical Oxygen Demand"
			 (CBOD5) means BOD minus the nitrogenous oxygen demand, typically measured in
			 mg/L.
(23) "Cesspool" means a lined
			 pit that receives raw sewage, allows separation of solids and liquids, retains
			 the solids, and allows liquids to seep into the surrounding soil through
			 perforations in the lining.
(24)
			 "Chemical Recirculating Toilet Facility" means a toilet facility in which black
			 wastes are deposited and carried from a bowl by a combination of chemically
			 treated and filtered liquid waste and water.
(25) "Chemical Toilet Facility" means a
			 nonflushing, nonrecirculating toilet facility in which black wastes are
			 deposited directly into a chamber containing a solution of water and
			 chemical.
(26) "Clayey Soil" means
			 mineral soil with over 40 percent clay that shrinks and develops wide cracks
			 when dry and swells and shears when wet, forming slickensides and wedge-shaped
			 structure. Clayey soil is very hard or extremely hard when dry, very firm when
			 moist, and very sticky and very plastic when wet.
(27) "Claypan" means a dense, compact clay
			 layer in the subsoil. It has a much lower permeability than the overlying soil
			 horizon from which it is separated by an abrupt boundary. Claypans are hard
			 when dry and very sticky and very plastic when wet and impede movement of
			 water, air, and growth of plant roots.
(28) "Combustion Toilet Facility" means a
			 toilet facility wherein black wastes are deposited directly into a combination
			 chamber for incineration.
(29)
			 "Commercial Facility" means any structure or building or portion of one other
			 than a single-family dwelling.
(30)
			 "Commission" means the Environmental Quality Commission.
(31) "Community System" means an onsite
			 system that serves more than one lot or parcel, more than one condominium unit,
			 or more than one unit of a planned unit development.
(32) "Completed Application" means an
			 application form that is completed in full, is signed by the owner or owner's
			 authorized representative or, for WPCF permits, by the applicant or applicant's
			 authorized representative, and is accompanied by all required exhibits and
			 fees.
(33) "Conditions Associated
			 with Saturation" means soil morphological properties that may indicate the
			 presence of a water table that persists long enough to impair system function
			 and create a potential health hazard. These conditions include depleted matrix
			 chromas caused by saturation and not a relict or parent material feature, and
			 the following:
(a) High chroma matrix with
			 iron depletions. Soil horizons whose matrix chroma is 3 or more in which there
			 are some visible iron depletions having a value 4 or more and a chroma of 2 or
			 less. Iron-manganese concentrations as soft masses or pore linings may be
			 present but are not diagnostic of conditions associated with
			 saturation.
(b) Depleted matrix
			 with iron concentrations. Soil horizons whose matrix color has a value of 4 or
			 more and a chroma of 2 or less as a result of removal of iron and manganese
			 oxides. Some visible zones of iron concentration are present as soft masses or
			 pore linings.
(c) Depleted matrix
			 without iron concentrations. Soil horizons whose color is more or less uniform
			 with a value of 4 or more and a chroma of 2 or less as a result of removing
			 iron and manganese oxides. These horizons lack visible iron concentrations as
			 soft masses or pore linings.
(d)
			 Reduced matrix. Soil horizons whose color has a value of 4 or more and a chroma
			 of 2 or less with hues that are often, but not exclusively, on the grey pages
			 of the Munsell Color Book. On exposure to air, yellow colors form within 24
			 hours as some of the ferrous iron oxidizes.
(e) Dark colored soils with organic matter
			 accumulation. Mineral soils with a high amount of decomposed organic matter in
			 the saturated zone, a value of 3 or less, and a chroma of 1 or less. Included
			 in this category are organic soils with a minor amount of mineral matter.
(f) Soils with a dark surface. The
			 upper surface layer has a dark color with a value of 3 or less and a chroma of
			 1 or less immediately underlain by a layer with a chroma of 2 or less.
(g) Iron stripping and staining in
			 sandy soils. Soil horizons in which iron/manganese oxides or organic matter or
			 both have been stripped from the matrix, exposing the primary base color of
			 soil materials. The stripped areas and trans-located oxides or organic matter
			 form a diffuse splotchy pattern of two or more colors.
(h) Salt-affected soils. Soils in arid and
			 semi-arid areas that have visible accumulations of soluble salts at or near the
			 ground surface.
(i) Dark colored
			 shrink-swell soils. Vertisols whose colors have values of 3 or less and chromas
			 of 1 or less. Iron concentrations may be present but are not diagnostic of
			 conditions associated with saturation.
(j) Other soils that lack the diagnostic
			 value and chroma as described in this section but remain saturated long enough
			 to impair system function and have a high water table under OAR
			 340-071-0130(23).