Virginia Administrative Code › Title 9 - ENVIRONMENT › Agency 25 - STATE WATER CONTROL BOARD › Chapter 900 - CERTIFICATION OF NONPOINT SOURCE NUTRIENT CREDITS › Part I - Definitions › Section 9VAC25-900-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms when used in this chapter
					 shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates
					 otherwise:
"300 animal units" means the term as defined in
					 9VAC25-192-10.
"Act" means the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Nutrient Credit
					 Exchange Program, Article 4.02 (§ 62.1-44.19:12 et seq.) of Chapter 3.1 of
					 Title 62.1 of the Code of Virginia.
"Animal feeding operation" means the term as defined by
					 9VAC25-31-10.
"Applicant" means the person who submits an application to
					 the department for nutrient credit certification pursuant to this
					 chapter.
"Bankfull event" means the storm event that corresponds
					 with the stream stage at its incipient point of flooding. The bankfull
					 discharge associated with the bankfull event is the flow that transports the
					 majority of a stream's sediment load over time and thereby forms and maintains
					 the channel dimension, pattern, and profile.
"Baseline" means the practices, actions, or levels of
					 reductions that must be in place before credits can be generated. The best
					 management practices to be implemented for achieving baseline are provided in
					 9VAC25-900-100.
"Best management practice," "practice," or "BMP" means a
					 structural practice, nonstructural practice, or other management practice used
					 to prevent or reduce nutrient loads reaching surface waters or the adverse
					 effects thereof.
"Board" means the State Water Control Board. When used
					 outside the context of the promulgation of regulations, including regulations
					 to establish general permits, "Board" means the Department of Environmental
					 Quality.
"Certification of nutrient credits" or "nutrient credit
					 certification" means the approval of nutrient credits issued by the department
					 as specified in
					 9VAC25-900-80.
					 Nutrient credit certification does not include the certification of point
					 source credits generated by point sources regulated under the Watershed General
					 Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit issued pursuant to
					 § 62.1-44.19:14 of the State Water Control Law.
"Chesapeake Bay Watershed" means the land areas draining to
					 the following Virginia river basins: the Potomac River Basin, the James River
					 Basin, the Rappahannock River Basin, the Chesapeake Bay and small coastal
					 basins, or the York River Basin.
"Concentrated animal feeding operation" means the term as
					 defined by
					 9VAC25-31-10.
"Cropland" means land that is used for the production of
					 grain, oilseeds, silage or industrial crops not defined as hay or
					 pasture.
"DCR" means the Department of Conservation and
					 Recreation.
"Delivery factor" means the estimated percentage of a total
					 nitrogen or total phosphorus load delivered to tidal waters as determined by
					 the specific geographic location of the nutrient source. For point source
					 discharges the delivery factor accounts for attenuation that occurs during
					 riverine transport between the point of discharge and tidal waters. For
					 nonpoint source loads the delivery factor accounts for attenuation that occurs
					 during riverine transport as well as attenuation between the nutrient source
					 and the edge of the nearest stream. Delivery factors values shall be as
					 specified by the department. In the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, the Chesapeake
					 Bay Program Partnership's approved delivery factors shall be used.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental
					 Quality.
"Director" means the Director of the Department of
					 Environmental Quality or his designee.
"Exchange" means the transaction in which a person acquires
					 released nutrient credits produced by a nutrient credit-generating
					 project.
"Field office technical guide" or "FOTG" means technical
					 guides about conservation of soil, water, air, and related plant and animal
					 resources and are the primary scientific reference for the U.S. Department of
					 Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service. These guides are used in
					 each field office and are localized so that they apply specifically to the
					 geographic area for which they are prepared.
"Hayland" means land that is used to grow a grass, legume,
					 or other plants such as clover or alfalfa, which is cut and dried for
					 feed.
"Highly erodible soils" means land that is defined as
					 highly erodible by the Sodbuster, Conservation Reserve, and Conservation
					 Compliance parts of the Food Security Act of 1985 ( P.L. 99-198 ) and the Food,
					 Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (
					 P.L.
					 101-624 ). Lists of highly erodible and potential
					 highly erodible map units are maintained in NRCS field office technical
					 guide.
"HUC" means the hydrologic unit code.
"Impaired waters" means those waters identified as impaired
					 in the 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report prepared
					 pursuant to § 62.1-44.19:5 of the State Water Control Law.
"Implementation plan" means a plan that has been developed
					 to meet the requirements of
					 9VAC25-900-120
					 and is submitted as part of the application.
"Invasive plant species" means non-native plant species
					 that are contained on DCR's Virginia Invasive Plant Species List.
"Innovative practice" means practices or BMPs not approved
					 by the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership or the Virginia Stormwater BMP
					 Clearinghouse. Nutrient credits generated by innovative practices may only be
					 certified as term credits.
"Landowner" means any person or group of persons acting
					 individually or as a group that owns the parcel on which a nutrient
					 credit-generating project is sited including:
(i) the Commonwealth or any of its political
				  subdivisions, including localities, commissions, and authorities; (ii) any
				  public or private institution, corporation, association, firm, or company
				  organized or existing under the laws of this or any other state or country; or
				  (iii) any officer or agency of the United States.
"Land use controls" means legal measures or instruments
					 that restrict the activity, use, and access to property.
"Land use conversion" means a change from a more intensive
					 to less intensive land use resulting in nutrient reductions.
"Management area" means all contiguous parcels deeded to
					 the same landowner that includes the site of the nutrient credit-generating
					 project within its boundaries. The term contiguous means the same or adjacent
					 parcels that may be divided by public or private right-of-way. For a public
					 entity that owns or operates an MS4 and generates credits within the MS4
					 service area, the management area is the MS4 service area.
"Mitigation" means sequentially avoiding and minimizing
					 impacts to the maximum extent practicable and then compensating for remaining
					 unavoidable impacts of a proposed action.
"Mitigation bank" means a site providing off-site,
					 consolidated compensatory mitigation that is developed and approved in
					 accordance with all applicable federal and state laws or regulations for the
					 establishment, use and operation of mitigation banks and is operating under a
					 signed mitigation banking instrument.
"Mitigation banking instrument" means the legal document
					 for the establishment, operation, and use of a stream or wetland mitigation
					 bank.
"MS4" means a municipal separate storm sewer system as
					 defined in
					 9VAC25-870-10.
"MS4 service area" means
(i) for Phase I MS4 permittees, the service
				  area delineated in accordance with the permit issued pursuant to
				  9VAC25-870-380
				  A 3; and (ii) for Phase II MS4 permittees, the term as described in 9VAC25-890.
"Non-land use conversion" means practices, except for land
					 use conversion, that are used by a nutrient credit-generating project to
					 produce nutrient reductions.
"Nonpoint source pollution" or "nonpoint source" means
					 pollution such as sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, hydrocarbons, heavy metals,
					 and toxics whose sources cannot be pinpointed but rather are washed from the
					 land surface in a diffuse manner by stormwater runoff.
"NRCS" mean the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural
					 Resource Conservation Service.
"Nutrient credit" or "credit" means a nonpoint source
					 nutrient reduction that is certified pursuant to this chapter and expressed in
					 pounds of phosphorus and nitrogen either (i) delivered to tidal waters when the
					 credit is generated within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed or (ii) as otherwise
					 specified when generated in the Southern Rivers watersheds. Nutrient credit
					 does not include point source nitrogen credits or point source phosphorus
					 credits as defined in § 62.1-44.19:13 of the Code of Virginia.
"Nutrient credit-generating entity" means an entity that
					 implements practices for the generation of nonpoint source nutrient
					 credits.
"Nutrient credit-generating project" or "project" means a
					 project developed to reduce the load of nitrogen and phosphorous nonpoint
					 source pollution in order to generate nutrient credits for certification
					 pursuant to this chapter.
"Nutrient reductions" means the reduction in the load of
					 nitrogen and phosphorous nonpoint source pollution.
"Owner" means the Commonwealth or any of its political
					 subdivisions, including sanitation district commissions and authorities and any
					 public or private institution, corporation, association, firm, or company
					 organized or existing under the laws of this or any other state or country, or
					 any officer or agency of the United States, or any person or group of persons
					 acting individually or as a group that owns, operates, charters, rents, or
					 otherwise exercises control over or is responsible for any nutrient
					 credit-generating project.
"Pasture" means land that supports the grazing of
					 domesticated animals for forages.
"Performance standards" means the minimum objectives or
					 specifications required of a particular management practice by the department
					 in order to assure predicted nutrient reductions will be achieved.
"Perpetual nutrient credits" or "perpetual credits" mean
					 credits that are generated by practices that result in permanent nutrient
					 reductions from baseline and certified as permanent in accordance with this
					 chapter.
"Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership,
					 association, state, municipality, commission, or political subdivision of a
					 state, governmental body, including a federal, state, or local entity as
					 applicable, any interstate body or any other legal entity.
"Potential nutrient credits" means the possible credits
					 generated by a nutrient credit-generating project as calculated pursuant to
					 9VAC25-900-110.
					 These potential nutrient credits shall be expressed in terms of the estimated
					 number of phosphorus and nitrogen credits generated.
"Redevelopment" means a project that includes new
					 development on previously developed land.
"Registry" means the online Virginia Nutrient Credit
					 Registry established and maintained by the department in accordance with §
					 62.1-44.1.19:20 D of the Code of Virginia.
"Released nutrient credit" means credits that the
					 department has determined to be eligible for placement on the Virginia Nutrient
					 Credit Registry.
"Restoration" means the reestablishment of a wetland,
					 stream, or other aquatic resource in an area where it previously existed.
					 Wetland restoration means the reestablishment of wetland hydrology, soils, and
					 vegetation in an area where a wetland previously existed. Stream restoration
					 means the process of converting an unstable, altered, or degraded stream
					 corridor, including adjacent areas and floodplains, to its natural
					 conditions.
"Retrofit" means a project that provides improved nutrient
					 reductions to previously developed land through the implementation of new BMPs
					 or upgrades to existing BMPs.
"Site" means the physical location within the management
					 area where the nutrient credit-generating project and its associated practices,
					 both baseline and credit-generating, are located.
"Site protection instrument" means a deed restriction,
					 conservation easement, or other legal mechanism approved by the department that
					 provides assurance that the credits will be maintained in accordance with this
					 chapter and the certification requirements.
"Southern Rivers watersheds" means the land areas draining
					 to the following river basins: the Albemarle Sound, Coastal; the Atlantic
					 Ocean, Coastal; the Big Sandy River Basin; the Chowan River Basin; the
					 Clinch-Powell River Basin; the New Holston River Basin (Upper Tennessee); the
					 New River Basin; the Roanoke River Basin; or the Yadkin River Basin.
"State waters" means all water, on the surface and under
					 the ground, wholly or partially within or bordering the Commonwealth or within
					 its jurisdiction, including wetlands.
"Steward" or "long-term steward" means any person who is
					 responsible for implementation of the long-term management plan of a perpetual
					 nutrient credit-generating project.
"Structural BMPs" means any man-made stormwater control
					 measure or feature that requires routine maintenance in order to function or
					 provide the hydrologic, hydraulic, or water quality benefit as designed.
					 Structural practices include bioretention, infiltration facilities, wet ponds,
					 extended detention, wet and dry swales, permeable pavement, rainwater
					 harvesting, vegetated roofs, underground or surface chambers or filters, and
					 other manufactured treatment devices (MTDs).
"T" means the soil loss tolerance rate as defined by the
					 NRCS.
"Term nutrient credit" or "term credit" means nutrient
					 reduction activities that generate credits for a determined and finite period
					 of at least one year but no greater than five years.
"Total maximum daily load" or "TMDL" means the sum of the
					 individual wasteload allocations (WLAs) for point sources, load allocations
					 (LAs) for nonpoint sources, natural background loading, and a margin of safety.
					 TMDLs can be expressed in terms of either mass per time, toxicity, or other
					 appropriate measure. The TMDL process provides for point versus nonpoint source
					 trade-offs. TMDLs in Virginia are expressed as both a daily load and an annual
					 load. For nutrient trading, annual loads are most often utilized.
"Tributary" means those river basins for which separate
					 tributary strategies were prepared pursuant to § 2.2-218 of the Code of
					 Virginia and includes the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James River basins,
					 and the Eastern Coastal Basin, which encompasses the creeks and rivers of the
					 Eastern Shore of Virginia that are west of Route 13 and drain into the
					 Chesapeake Bay. For areas outside of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, "tributary"
					 includes the following watersheds: Albemarle Sound, Coastal; Atlantic Ocean,
					 Coastal; Big Sandy; Chowan; Clinch-Powell; New Holston (Upper Tennessee); New
					 River; Roanoke; and Yadkin.
"Urban lands" means lands characterized by developed areas
					 with buildings, asphalt, concrete, suburban gardens, and a systematic street
					 pattern. Classes of urban development include residential, commercial,
					 industrial, institutional, transportation, communications, utilities, and mixed
					 urban. Undeveloped land surrounded by developed areas, such as cemeteries, golf
					 courses, and urban parks is recognized as urban lands.
"VACS BMP Manual" means the Virginia Agricultural Cost
					 Share BMP Manual.
"Virginia Chesapeake Bay TMDL Watershed Implementation
					 Plan," "Watershed Implementation Plan," or "WIP" means the Phase I watershed
					 implementation plan strategy submitted by Virginia and approved by the U.S.
					 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 2010 to meet the nutrient and
					 sediment allocations prescribed in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed TMDL or any
					 subsequent revision approved of EPA.
"Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit" or
					 "VPDES permit" means a document issued by the department pursuant to the State
					 Water Control Law authorizing, under prescribed conditions, the potential or
					 actual discharge of pollutants from a point source to surface waters and the
					 use or disposal of sewage sludge.
"Virginia Stormwater Management Program" or "VSMP" means a
					 program to manage the quality and quantity of runoff resulting from
					 land-disturbing activities and includes such items as local ordinances, rules,
					 permit requirements, annual standards and specifications, policies and
					 guidelines, technical materials, and requirements for plan review, inspection,
					 and enforcement, where authorized in the Stormwater Management Act and pursuant
					 to 9VAC25-870, 9VAC25-880, or 9VAC25-890.
"Virginia Water Protection permit" or "VWP permit" means an
					 individual or general permit issued by the department under §
					 62.1-44.15:20 of the Code of Virginia that authorizes activities otherwise
					 unlawful under § 62.1-44.5 of the Code of Virginia or otherwise serves as
					 Virginia's Section 401 certification.
"VPA" means Virginia Pollution Abatement.
"VPDES" means Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination
					 System.
"VSMP authority" means a Virginia stormwater management
					 program authority as defined in
					 9VAC25-870-10.
"VWP" means Virginia Water Protection.
"Water body with perennial flow" means a body of water that
					 flows in a natural or man-made channel year-round during a year of normal
					 precipitation as a result of groundwater discharge or surface runoff. Such
					 water bodies exhibit the typical biological, hydrological, and physical
					 characteristics commonly associated with the continuous conveyance of
					 water.
"Water Quality Guide" means Virginia's Forestry Best
					 Management Practices for Water Quality.
"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.
Statutory Authority: § 62.1-44.19:20 of the Code of
						Virginia.