Virginia Administrative Code › Title 12 - HEALTH › Agency 5 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH › Chapter 620 - REGULATIONS GOVERNING FEES FOR ONSITE SEWAGE DISPOSAL SYSTEMS, ALTERNATIVE DISCHARGE SYSTEMS, AND PRIVATE WELLS › Part I - Definitions › Section 12VAC5-620-10 - 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:
"Agent" means a legally authorized representative of the
					 owner.
"Alternative discharging system" means any device or
					 system that results in a point source discharge of treated sewage for which the
					 board may issue a permit authorizing construction and operation when the system
					 is regulated by the State Water Control Board pursuant to a general Virginia
					 Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for an individual single family
					 dwelling with flows less than or equal to 1,000 gallons per day.
"Board" means the State Board of Health.
"Certification letter" means a letter issued by the
					 commissioner in lieu of a construction permit, which identifies a specific site
					 and recognizes the appropriateness of the site for an onsite wastewater
					 disposal system.
"Commissioner" means the State Health Commissioner.
"Construction of private wells" means acts necessary to
					 construct private wells, including the location of private wells, the boring,
					 digging, drilling, or otherwise excavating a well hole and installing casing
					 with or without well screens, or well curbing.
"Decommission" means to permanently seal an existing
					 private well in accordance with the requirements of the Private Well
					 Regulations (12VAC5-630).
"Department" means the Virginia Department of
					 Health.
"Dewatering well" means a driven well constructed for the
					 sole purpose of lowering the water table and kept in operation for a period of
					 60 days or less. Dewatering wells are used to allow construction in areas where
					 a high water table hinders or prohibits construction and are always temporary
					 in nature.
"Family" means the economic unit which shall include the
					 owner, the spouse of the owner, and any other person actually and properly
					 dependent upon or contributing to the family's income for subsistence. A
					 husband and wife who have been separated and are not living together, and who
					 are not dependent on each other for support, shall be considered separate
					 family units. The family unit, which is based on cohabitation, is considered to
					 be a separate family unit for determining if an application fee may be waived.
					 The cohabiting partners and any children shall be considered a family
					 unit.
"Fee schedule" means a listing by item of the fees to be
					 charged by the department for processing applications and for other services
					 rendered by the department.
"Income" means total cash receipts of the family before
					 taxes from all sources. These include money wages and salaries before any
					 deductions, but do not include food or rent in lieu of wages. These receipts
					 include net receipts from nonfarm or farm self-employment (e.g., receipts from
					 the family's own business or farm after deductions for business or farm
					 expenses.) They include regular payments from public assistance (including
					 Supplemental Security Income), social security or railroad retirement,
					 unemployment and worker's compensation, strike benefits from union funds,
					 veterans' benefits, training stipends, alimony, child support, and military
					 family allotments or other regular support from an absent family member or
					 someone not living in the household; private pensions, government employee
					 pensions, and regular insurance or annuity payment; and income from dividends,
					 interest, rents, royalties, or periodic receipts from estates or trusts. These
					 receipts further include funds obtained through college work study programs,
					 scholarships, and grants to the extent said funds are used for current living
					 costs. Income does not include the value of food stamps, WIC checks, fuel
					 assistance, money borrowed, tax refunds, gifts, lump sum settlements,
					 inheritances or insurance payments, withdrawal of bank deposits, earnings of
					 minor children, money received from the sale of property. Income also does not
					 include funds derived from college work study programs, scholarships, loans, or
					 grants to the extent such funds are not used for current living costs.
"Minor modification of an existing sewage disposal system"
					 means an alteration that is not a repair , voluntary upgrade, or routine
					 maintenance, does not result in an increase in treatment level or volume of the
					 system, and does not require evaluation of the soil conditions prior to
					 issuance of a permit. Minor modifications include but are not limited to
					 relocation of a system component or an additional plumbing connection to the
					 system that does not increase the actual or estimated flow of the
					 system.
"Onsite sewage disposal system" means a sewerage system or
					 treatment works designed not to result in a point source discharge.
"Owner" means any person who owns, leases, or proposes to
					 own or lease a private well , an onsite sewage disposal system, or an
					 alternative discharging system.
"Person" means the Commonwealth or any of its political
					 subdivisions, including sanitary districts, sanitation district commissions and
					 authorities, any individual, any group of individuals acting individually or as
					 a group, or any public or private institution, corporation, company,
					 partnership, firm or association which owns or proposes to own a sewerage
					 system, treatment works or private well.
"Principal place of residence" means the dwelling unit,
					 single family dwelling, or mobile home where the owner lives.
"Private well" means any water well constructed for a
					 person on land which is owned or leased by that person and is usually intended
					 for household, groundwater source heat pump, agricultural use, industrial use,
					 use as an observation or monitoring well, or other nonpublic water well. A
					 dewatering well, for the purposes of this chapter, is not a private
					 well.
"Repair" means the construction or replacement of all or
					 parts of a sewage disposal system or private well to correct a failing,
					 damaged, or improperly functioning system or well when such construction or
					 replacement is required by the board's regulations.
"Replacement of a private well" means the construction of
					 a private well to be used in lieu of an existing private well.
"Review Board" means the State Sewage Handling and
					 Disposal Appeals Review Board.
"Sewage" means water-carried and nonwater-carried human
					 excrement, kitchen, laundry, shower, bath or lavatory wastes separately or
					 together with such underground, surface, storm and other water and liquid
					 industrial wastes as may be present from residences, buildings, vehicles,
					 industrial establishments or other places.
"Sewerage system" means pipelines or conduits, pumping
					 stations and force mains and all other construction, devices and appliances
					 appurtenant thereto, used for the collection and conveyance of sewage to a
					 treatment works or point of ultimate disposal.
"Treatment works" means any device or system used in the
					 storage, treatment, disposal or reclamation of sewage or combinations of sewage
					 and industrial wastes, including but not limited to pumping, power and other
					 equipment and appurtenances, septic tanks and any works, including land, that
					 are or will be (i) an integral part of the treatment process or (ii) used for
					 ultimate disposal of residues or effluents resulting from such
					 treatment.
"Voluntary upgrade" means an improvement to an existing
					 onsite sewage disposal system or alternative discharging system that (i) is not
					 required for compliance with any law or regulation and (ii) results in no net
					 increase in the permitted volume or strength of sewage dispersed by the system
					 .
"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
					 artificially drawn; provided this definition shall not include wells drilled
					 for the purpose of exploration or production of oil or gas, for building
					 foundation investigation and construction, elevator shafts, grounding of
					 electrical apparatus, or the modification or development of
					 springs.
Statutory Authority: §§ 32.1-12, 32.1-164, and
						32.1-176.4 of the Code of Virginia.