Virginia Administrative Code › Title 9 - ENVIRONMENT › Agency 25 - STATE WATER CONTROL BOARD › Chapter 610 - VIRGINIA POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (VPDES) PERMIT REGULATION › Part I - General › Section 9VAC25-610-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
Unless a different meaning is required by the context, the
					 following terms as used in this chapter shall have the following
					 meanings:
"Act" means the Ground Water Management Act of 1992,
					 Chapter 25 (§ 62.1-254 et seq.) of Title 62.1 of the Code of
					 Virginia.
"Adverse impact" means reductions in groundwater levels or
					 changes in groundwater quality that limit the ability of any existing
					 groundwater user lawfully withdrawing or authorized to withdraw groundwater at
					 the time of permit or special exception issuance to continue to withdraw the
					 quantity and quality of groundwater required by the existing use. Existing
					 groundwater users include all those persons who have been granted a groundwater
					 withdrawal permit subject to this chapter and all other persons who are
					 excluded from permit requirements by
					 9VAC25-610-50.
"Agricultural use" means utilizing groundwater for the
					 purpose of agricultural, silvicultural, horticultural, or aquacultural
					 operations. Agricultural use includes withdrawals for turf farm operations, but
					 does not include withdrawals for landscaping activities or turf installment and
					 maintenance associated with landscaping activities.
"Applicant" means a person filing an application to
					 initiate or enlarge a groundwater withdrawal in a groundwater management
					 area.
"Area of impact" means the areal extent of each aquifer
					 where more than one foot of drawdown is predicted to occur due to a proposed
					 withdrawal.
"Beneficial use" includes domestic (including public water
					 supply), agricultural, commercial, and industrial uses.
"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.
"Consumptive use" means the withdrawal of groundwater,
					 without recycle of said waters to their source of origin.
"Controversial permit" means a water permitting action for
					 which a public hearing has been granted pursuant to
					 9VAC25-610-270
					 and 9VAC25-610-275.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental
					 Quality.
"Director" means the Director of the Department of
					 Environmental Quality.
"Draft permit" means a prepared document indicating the
					 department's tentative decision relative to a permit action.
"General permit" means a groundwater withdrawal permit
					 authorizing the withdrawal of groundwater in a groundwater management area
					 under specified conditions, including the size of the withdrawal or the aquifer
					 or confining unit from which the withdrawal is to be made.
"Geophysical investigation" means any hydrogeologic
					 evaluation to define the hydrogeologic framework of an area or determine the
					 hydrogeologic properties of any aquifer or confining unit to the extent that
					 withdrawals associated with such investigations do not result in unmitigated
					 adverse impacts to existing groundwater users. Geophysical investigations
					 include pump tests and aquifer tests.
"Groundwater" means any water, except capillary moisture,
					 beneath the land surface in the zone of saturation or beneath the bed of any
					 stream, lake, reservoir, or other body of surface water wholly or partially
					 within the boundaries of this Commonwealth, whatever the subsurface geologic
					 structure in which such water stands, flows, percolates, or otherwise
					 occurs.
"Human consumption" means the use of water to support human
					 survival and health, including drinking, bathing, showering, cooking,
					 dishwashing, and maintaining hygiene.
"Instream beneficial uses" means uses including the
					 protection of fish and wildlife resources and habitat, maintenance of waste
					 assimilation, recreation, navigation, and cultural and aesthetic values. The
					 preservation of instream flows for purposes of the protection of navigation,
					 maintenance of waste assimilation capacity, the protection of fish and wildlife
					 resources and habitat, recreation, and cultural and aesthetic values is an
					 instream beneficial use of Virginia's waters.
"Mitigate" means to take actions necessary to assure that
					 all existing groundwater users at the time of issuance of a permit or special
					 exception who experience adverse impacts continue to have access to the amount
					 and quality of groundwater needed for existing uses.
"Permit" means a groundwater withdrawal permit issued under
					 the Ground Water Management Act of 1992 permitting the withdrawal of a
					 specified quantity of groundwater under specified conditions in a groundwater
					 management area.
"Permittee" means a person that currently has an effective
					 groundwater withdrawal permit issued under the Ground Water Act of 1992.
"Person" means any and all persons, including individuals,
					 firms, partnerships, associations, public or private institutions,
					 municipalities or political subdivisions, governmental agencies, or private or
					 public corporations organized under the laws of this Commonwealth or any other
					 state or country.
"Practicable" means available and capable of being done
					 after taking into consideration cost, existing technology, and logistics in
					 light of overall project purposes.
"Private well" means, as defined in § 32.1-176.3 of
					 the Code of Virginia, any water well constructed for a person on land that is
					 owned or leased by that person and is usually intended for household,
					 groundwater source heat pump, agricultural use, industrial use, or other
					 nonpublic water well.
"Public hearing" means a fact finding proceeding held to
					 afford interested persons an opportunity to submit factual data, views, and
					 comments to the department.
"Salt water intrusion" means the encroachment of saline
					 waters in any aquifer that creates adverse impacts to existing groundwater
					 users or is counter to the public interest.
"Special exception" means a document issued by the
					 department for withdrawal of groundwater in unusual situations where requiring
					 the user to obtain a groundwater withdrawal permit would be contrary to the
					 purpose of the Ground Water Management Act of 1992. Special exceptions allow
					 the withdrawal of a specified quantity of groundwater under specified
					 conditions in a groundwater management area.
"Supplemental drought relief well" means a well permitted
					 to withdraw a specified amount of groundwater to meet human consumption needs
					 during declared drought conditions after mandatory water use restrictions have
					 been implemented.
"Surface water" means all state waters that are not
					 groundwater as groundwater is defined in § 62.1-255 of the Code of
					 Virginia.
"Surface water and groundwater conjunctive use system"
					 means an integrated water supply system wherein surface water is the primary
					 source and groundwater is a supplemental source that is used to augment the
					 surface water source when the surface water source is not able to produce the
					 amount of water necessary to support the annual water demands of the
					 system.
"Surficial aquifer" means the upper surface of a zone of
					 saturation, where the body of groundwater is not confined by an overlying
					 impermeable zone.
"Water well systems provider" means any individual who is
					 certified by the Board for Contractors in accordance with § 54.1-1128 et
					 seq. of the Code of Virginia and who is engaged in drilling, installation,
					 maintenance, or repair of water wells, water well pumps, ground source heat
					 exchangers, and other equipment associated with the construction, removal, or
					 repair of water wells, water well systems, and ground source heat pump
					 exchangers to the point of connection to the ground source heat pump.
"Well" means any artificial opening or artificially altered
					 natural opening, however made, by which groundwater is sought or through which
					 groundwater flows under natural pressure or is intended to be withdrawn.
"Withdrawal system" means
(i) one or more wells or withdrawal points
				  located on the same or contiguous properties under common ownership for which
				  the withdrawal is applied to the same beneficial use or (ii) two or more
				  connected wells or withdrawal points which are under common ownership but are
				  not necessarily located on contiguous properties.
Statutory Authority: §§ 62.1-256 and 62.1-262.1
						of the Code of Virginia.