Virginia Administrative Code › Title 12 - HEALTH › Agency 5 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH › Chapter 640 - ALTERNATIVE DISCHARGING SEWAGE TREATMENT REGULATIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL SINGLE FAMILY DWELLINGS › Part I - General Provisions › Article 1 - General Provisions › Section 12VAC5-640-5 - 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.
"All weather stream" means any stream that will, at all
						times, dilute point source discharge effluent from a pipe at least 10:1 as
						measured during a seven consecutive day average of a 10-year low flow
						(7-Q-10).
"Alternative discharging sewage treatment system" or
						"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 such system is regulated by the SWCB pursuant
						to a general VPDES permit issued for an individual single family dwelling with
						flows less than or equal to 1,000 gallons per day on a monthly average.
"Alternative onsite sewage treatment system" means a
						treatment works that is not a conventional onsite sewage system and does not
						result in a point source discharge.
"Biochemical oxygen demand, five day" or
						"BOD5" means the quantitative measure of the amount of
						oxygen consumed by bacteria while stabilizing, digesting, or treating
						biodegradable organic matter under aerobic conditions over a five-day
						incubation period; BOD5 is expressed in milligrams per
						liter (mg/l).
"Biological treatment unit" means a method, technique,
						equipment, or process other than a septic tank or septic tanks that uses
						biological organisms to treat sewage to produce effluent of a specified
						quality.
"Board" means the State Board of Health.
"Combined Application" means a Virginia Department of
						Health Discharging System Application Form for Single Family Dwellings
						Discharging Sewage Less Than or Equal to 1,000 Gallons Per Day and a State
						Water Control Board Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System General
						Permit Registration Statement for Domestic Sewage Discharges Less Than or Equal
						to 1,000 Gallons Per Day.
"Commissioner" means the State Health Commissioner or
						his subordinate who has been delegated powers in accordance with subdivision 2
						of 12VAC5-640-80.
"Conventional onsite sewage system" means a treatment
						works consisting of one or more septic tanks with gravity, pumped, or siphoned
						conveyance to a gravity distributed subsurface drainfield.
"Dechlorination" means a process that neutralizes
						chlorine in the final effluent.
"Department" means the district or local health
						department with jurisdiction over the site or proposed site of the alternative
						discharging sewage treatment system.
"Disinfection" means a process used to destroy or
						inactivate pathogenic microorganisms in wastewater to render them
						noninfectious.
"Disinfection unit" means a separate treatment component
						that disinfects wastewater.
"District health department" means a consolidation of
						local health departments as authorized in § 32.1-31 C of the Code of
						Virginia.
"Division" means the Division of Onsite Sewage, Water
						Services, Environmental Engineering, and Marina Programs.
"Dry ditch" means a naturally occurring swale or channel
						that is topographically connected to an all weather stream. In some cases, a
						dry ditch may have a manmade component that provides a topographical connection
						to an existing, naturally occurring swale or channel. A dry ditch may have
						observable flow during or immediately after a storm event or snow melt. For the
						purposes of this chapter, all dry ditches shall have a well defined natural
						channel with sides that have at least a 1:10 (rise:run) slope.
"Emergency pump and haul" means an emergency condition
						to pump out the treatment systems tanks by a licensed sewage handler as needed
						to not allow a discharge to protect public health and the environment.
"Failing alternative discharging sewage treatment
						system" means any alternative discharging sewage treatment system that
						discharges effluent having a BOD5, total suspended
						solids, pH, chlorine residual, dissolved oxygen, or bacteria value that is out
						of compliance with the General Permit or fails to comply with
						12VAC5-640-430. The failure to
						discharge due to exfiltration may indicate system failure.
"Failing onsite sewage disposal system" means an onsite
						sewage disposal system where the presence of raw or partially treated sewage on
						the ground's surface or in adjacent ditches or waterways or exposure to
						insects, animals, or humans is prima facie evidence of a system failure.
						Pollution of the groundwater or backup of sewage into plumbing fixtures may
						also indicate system failure.
"General approval" means that a treatment unit has been
						evaluated and approved for TL-2 effluent or TL-3 effluent in accordance with
						the requirements of this chapter and 12VAC5-610.
"General Permit" means a Virginia Pollutant Discharge
						Elimination System (VPDES) General Permit for domestic sewage discharges less
						than or equal to 1,000 gallons per day on a monthly average issued by the State
						Water Control Board.
"Intermittent stream" means any stream that will not, at
						all times, dilute point source discharge effluent at least 10:1 as measured
						during a seven consecutive day average of a 10-year low flow (7-Q-10). For the
						purposes of this section, an intermittent stream is identified as a dashed or
						dotted line on a United States Geological Survey 7.5 minute topographic map or
						an all weather stream that provides less than 10:1 dilution of the effluent
						based on 7-Q-10 flow.
"Local health department" means the department
						established in each city and county in accordance with § 32.1-30 of the
						Code of Virginia.
"Maintenance" means performing adjustments to equipment
						and controls and in-kind replacement of normal wear and tear parts such as
						light bulbs, fuses, filters, pumps, motors, or other like components.
						Maintenance includes pumping the tanks or cleaning the building sewer on a
						periodic basis.
"Modify" means to alter a treatment works, excluding
						actions taken to "operate" the treatment works and "maintenance" activities as
						those terms are defined in § 32.1-163 of the Code of Virginia.
"National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System" or
						"NPDES" means the national program for (i) issuing, modifying, revoking and
						reissuing, terminating, monitoring, and enforcing permits and (ii) imposing and
						enforcing pretreatment requirements under §§ 307, 402, 318, and 405
						of the Clean Water Act (33 USC § 1251 et seq.). The term includes an
						approved program.
"Operate" means the act of making a decision on one's
						own volition to (i) place into or take out of service a unit process or unit
						processes or (ii) make or cause adjustments in the operation of a unit process
						at a treatment works.
"Operation" means the biological, chemical, and
						mechanical processes of transforming sewage or wastewater to compounds or
						elements and water that no longer possess an adverse environmental or health
						impact.
"Operation and maintenance contract" means an agreement
						between an owner and a licensed operator that the operator will provide
						services to operate, maintain, monitor, repair, and report on the treatment
						system in accordance with this chapter.
"Owner" means the Commonwealth or any of its political
						subdivisions, including sanitary districts, sanitation district commissions and
						authorities, or any individual, any group of individuals acting individually or
						as a group, or any public or private institution, corporation, company,
						partnership, firm, or association that owns or proposes to own a sewerage
						system or treatment works.
"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 law of this Commonwealth or any other
						state or country.
"Point source discharge" means any discernible,
						confined, and discrete conveyance including, but not limited to, any pipe,
						ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling
						stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection
						system, vessel, or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be
						discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture
						or agricultural stormwater run-off.
"Post-aeration unit" means a treatment component that is
						designed to add oxygen to an effluent.
"Post-filtration unit" means a treatment component that
						physically removes total suspended solids.
"Reliability" means a measure of the ability of a
						component or system to perform its designated function without failure or
						interruption of service. Overflow criteria, such as an allowable period of a
						noncompliant discharge, are utilized solely for the establishment of
						reliability classification for design purposes and are not to be construed as
						authorization for, or defense of, an unpermitted discharge to state waters. The
						reliability classification shall be based on the water quality and public
						health and welfare consequences of a component or system failure.
"Reliability Class I" means a measure of reliability
						that requires a treatment system design to provide continuous satisfactory
						operation during power failures, flooding, peak loads, equipment failure, and
						maintenance shut-down. For the purposes of this chapter, continuous operability
						shall be defined as restoring proper operation or otherwise eliminating the
						out-of-compliance discharge within 24 hours. This class includes design
						features, such as additional electrical power sources, additional flow storage
						capacity, and additional treatment units that provide operation in accordance
						with the issued permit requirements.
"Reliability Class II" means a measure of reliability
						that requires a treatment design that limits out-of-compliance discharges due
						to power failures, flooding, peak loads, equipment failure, and maintenance
						shut-down to less than 36 hours. This class includes design features such as
						alarms with telemetry to the operator, additional treatment units, or
						additional flow storage capacity that provide operation in accordance with the
						issued permit requirements.
"Reliability Class III" means a measure of reliability
						that requires a treatment design that limits out-of-compliance discharges due
						to power failures, flooding, peak loads, equipment failure, and maintenance
						shut-down to less than 48 hours. This class includes design features such as
						onsite alarms and owner initiated operator notification to address the alarm
						condition to provide operation in accordance with the issued permit
						requirements.
"Sanitary survey" means an investigation of any
						condition that may affect public health.
"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.
"Site sketch" means a scale drawing of a proposed site
						for a discharge system, with pertinent distances shown. The scale shall
						typically be 1" = 50' for lots of three acres or less and 1" = 100' for larger
						lots. Site sketches may be made by the homeowner or any agent for the
						homeowner.
"Surface waters" means:
1. All waters that are currently used, were used in the
						past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including
						all waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide;
2. All interstate waters, including interstate
						wetlands;
3. All other waters such as intrastate lakes, rivers,
						streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands,
						sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds and the
						use, degradation, or destruction of which would affect or could affect
						interstate or foreign commerce including any such waters:
a. That are or could be used by interstate or foreign
						travelers for recreational or other purposes;
b. From which fish or shellfish are or could be taken
						and sold in interstate or foreign commerce; or
c. That are used or could be used for industrial
						purposes by industries in interstate commerce;
4. All impoundments of waters otherwise defined as
						surface waters under this definition;
5. Tributaries of waters identified in subdivisions 1
						through 4 of this definition;
6. The territorial sea; and
7. Wetlands adjacent to waters, other than water that
						are themselves wetlands, identified in subdivisions 1 through 6 of this
						definition.
"SWCB" means the State Water Control Board and its
						designees.
"Total residual chlorine" or "TRC" means a measurement
						of the combined available chlorine and the free available chlorine available in
						a sample after a specified contact time.
"Total suspended solids" or "TSS" means solids in
						effluent samples that can be removed readily by standard filtering procedures
						in a laboratory and expressed as mg/l.
"Treatment level 2 effluent" or "TL-2 effluent" means
						effluent that has been treated to produce BOD5 and TSS
						concentrations less than or equal to 30 mg/l each.
"Treatment level 3 effluent" or "TL-3 effluent" means
						effluent that has been treated to produce BOD5 and TSS
						concentrations less than or equal to 10 mg/l each.
"Treatment system" means the combination of treatment
						components that together produce the required quality of effluent.
"Variance" means a conditional waiver of a specific
						regulation that is granted to a specific owner relating to a specific situation
						or facility and may be for a specified time period.
"VPDES permit" means a Virginia Pollutant Discharge
						Elimination System permit issued by the SWCB under the authority of the federal
						NPDES program.
"Water well" or "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. This definition shall not include wells drilled for
						the following purposes:
(i) exploration or production of oil or gas,
(ii) building foundation investigation and construction,
(iii) elevator shafts,
(iv) grounding of electrical apparatus, or
(v) the modification or development of springs.
"Wetlands" means those areas that are inundated or
						saturated by surface water 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: §§ 32.1-12 and 32.1-164
						  of the Code of Virginia.