Virginia Administrative Code › Title 9 - ENVIRONMENT › Agency 25 - STATE WATER CONTROL BOARD › Chapter 190 - VIRGINIA POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (VPDES) GENERAL PERMIT REGULATION FOR NONMETALLIC MINERAL MINING › Section 9VAC25-190-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
The words and terms used in this chapter shall have the
				  meanings defined in the State Water Control Law Chapter 3.1 (§ 62.1-44.2
				  et seq.) of Title 62.1 of the Code of Virginia and the Virginia Pollutant
				  Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) Permit Regulation (9VAC25-31) unless the
				  context clearly indicates otherwise. Additionally, for the purposes of this
				  chapter:
"Best management practices" or "BMPs" means schedules of
				  activities, practices (and prohibitions of practices), structures, vegetation,
				  maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the
				  discharge of pollutants to surface waters. BMPs also include treatment
				  requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff,
				  spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material
				  storage.
"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.
"Colocated facility" means an industrial activity other than
				  mineral mining operating on a site where the primary industrial activity is
				  mineral mining. Such an activity must have wastewater characteristics similar
				  to those of the mineral mine and be located within the permitted mining area.
				  The term refers to activities that are commonly found at mining sites such as
				  manufacturing of ready-mix concrete (SIC Code 3273, NAICS Code 327320),
				  concrete products (SIC Codes 3271 and 3272, NAICS Codes 327331, 327332, and
				  327390), and asphalt paving materials (SIC Code 2951, NAICS Code 324121) except
				  asphalt emulsion manufacturing. It does not mean industrial activity that is
				  specifically excluded from this permit.
"Control measure" means any best management practice or other
				  method (including effluent limitations) used to prevent or reduce the discharge
				  of pollutants to surface waters.
"Department" or "DEQ" means the Department of Environmental
				  Quality.
"Inactive mining operations" means mining sites that are not
				  being actively mined, but which have an identifiable owner or operator;
				  inactive mining sites do not include sites where mining claims are being
				  maintained prior to disturbances associated with the extraction, beneficiation,
				  or processing of mined materials, nor sites where minimal activities are
				  undertaken for the sole purpose of maintaining a mining claim.
"Industrial activity" means activity associated with mineral
				  mining facilities generally identified by SIC Major Group 14 including active
				  or inactive mining operations that discharge stormwater that has come into
				  contact with any overburden, raw material, intermediate products, finished
				  products, by-products or waste products located on the site of such operations.
				  This includes activity at facilities or those portions of a facility where the
				  primary purpose is classified as:
1.
				North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 212311 - Dimension
				Stone Mining and Quarrying, and Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code
				1411 - Dimension Stone;
2. NAICS
				Code 212312 - Crushed and Broken Limestone Mining and Quarrying, and SIC Code
				1422 Crushed and Broken Limestone;
3. NAICS Code 212313 - Crushed and Broken
				Granite Mining and Quarrying, and SIC Code 1423 -Crushed and Broken
				Granite;
4. NAICS Code 212319 -
				Crushed and Broken Stone not elsewhere classified (NEC), and SIC Code 1429
				Crushed and Broken Stone NEC;
5.
				NAICS Code 212321 - Construction Sand and Gravel, and SIC Code 1442 -
				Construction Sand and Gravel;
6.
				NAICS Code 212324 - Kaolin and Ball Clay Mining, and SIC Code 1455 - Kaolin and
				Ball Clay;
7. NAICS Code 212325 -
				Clay and Ceramic and Refractory Minerals Mining, and SIC Code 1459 -Clay and
				Related Minerals, NEC (excluding for purposes of both NAICS and SIC bentonite
				and magnesite mines);
8. NAICS Code
				212392 - Phosphate Rock Mining, and SIC Code 1475 - Phosphate Rock;
				and
9. NAICS Codes 212399 - All
				Other Nonmetallic Mineral Mining, and SIC Code 1499 - Miscellaneous Nonmetallic
				Minerals, except fuels (excluding for purposes of both NAICS and SIC gypsum,
				graphite, asbestos, diatomite, jade, novaculite, wollastonite, Tripoli, or
				asphaltic mineral mines).
Industrial activity also includes facilities classified under
				  other SIC codes that may be colocated within the mineral mine permit area,
				  unless they are expressly excluded by this general permit.
"Minimize" means reduce or eliminate to the extent achievable
				  using control measures, including best management practices, that are
				  technologically available and economically practicable and achievable in light
				  of best industry practice.
"Municipal separate storm sewer system" or "MS4" means a
				  conveyance or system of conveyances, including roads with drainage systems,
				  municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or
				  storm drains (i) owned or operated by a state, city, town, county, district,
				  association, or other public body (created by or pursuant to state law) having
				  jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, stormwater, or other
				  wastes, including special districts under state law such as a sewer district,
				  flood control district or drainage district, or similar entity, or an Indian
				  tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organization, or a designated and approved
				  management agency under § 208 of the Clean Water Act that discharges to
				  surface waters of the state; (ii) designed or used for collecting or conveying
				  stormwater; (iii) that is not a combined sewer; and (iv) that is not part of a
				  publicly owned treatment works (POTW).
"NAICS" means North American Industry Classification System,
				  U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2017.
"Permittee" means the owner of a nonmetallic mineral mine
				  covered under this general permit.
"Process wastewater" means any wastewater used in the slurry
				  transport of mined material, air emissions control, or processing exclusive of
				  mining, and any other water that becomes commingled with such wastewater in a
				  pit, pond, lagoon, mine, or other facility used for treatment of such
				  wastewater. It includes mine pit dewatering, water used in the process of
				  washing stone, noncontact cooling water, wastewater from vehicle or equipment
				  degreasing activities, vehicle washing and return water from operations where
				  mined material is dredged and miscellaneous plant cleanup wastewaters.
"Runoff coefficient" means the fraction of total rainfall
				  that will appear at the conveyance as runoff.
"SIC" means the Standard Industrial Classification Code or
				  Industrial Grouping from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Standard
				  Industrial Classification Manual, 1987 Edition.
"Significant materials" includes raw materials; fuels;
				  materials such as solvents, detergents, and plastic pellets; finished
				  materials; hazardous substances designated under § 101(14) of the
				  Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
				  (42
				  USC §
										9601 et seq.); any chemical the
				  owner is required to report pursuant to § 313 of the Emergency Planning
				  and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) (42
				  USC §
										11001 et seq.); fertilizers;
				  pesticides; and waste products such as ashes, slag and sludge (including pond
				  sediments) that have the potential to be released with stormwater
				  discharges.
"Significant spills" includes releases of oil or hazardous
				  substances in excess of reportable quantities under § 311 of the Clean
				  Water Act (see 40 CFR 110.10 and 40 CFR 117.21) or § 102 of the
				  Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
				  (42
				  USC §
										9601 et seq.) (see
				  40 CFR
				  302.4) .
"Stormwater" means stormwater runoff, snow melt runoff, and
				  surface runoff and drainage.
"Stormwater discharge associated with industrial activity"
				  means the discharge from any conveyance that is used for collecting and
				  conveying stormwater and that is directly related to manufacturing, processing
				  or raw materials storage areas at an industrial plant. The term does not
				  include discharges from facilities or activities excluded from the VPDES
				  program under 9VAC25-31. For the categories of industries identified in the
				  "industrial activity" definition, the term includes stormwater discharges from
				  industrial plant yards; immediate access roads and rail lines used or traveled
				  by carriers of raw materials, manufactured products, waste material, or
				  by-products used or created by the mineral mine; material handling sites;
				  refuse sites; sites used for the application or disposal of process
				  wastewaters; sites used for the storage and maintenance of material handling
				  equipment; sites used for residual treatment, storage, or disposal; shipping
				  and receiving areas; manufacturing buildings; storage areas (including tank
				  farms) for raw materials, and intermediate and finished products; and areas
				  where industrial activity has taken place in the past and significant materials
				  remain and are exposed to stormwater. For the purposes of this paragraph,
				  material handling activities include the storage, loading and unloading,
				  transportation, or conveyance of any raw material, intermediate product,
				  finished product, by-product or waste product. The term excludes areas located
				  on plant lands separate from the plant's industrial activities, such as office
				  buildings and accompanying parking lots as long as the drainage from the
				  excluded areas is not mixed with stormwater drained from the above described
				  areas.
"Temporarily inactive mineral mining facility" means a site
				  or portion of a site where nonmetallic mineral mining or milling occurred in
				  the past but currently is not being actively undertaken, and the facility is
				  covered by an active mining permit issued by the applicable state or federal
				  agency.
"Total maximum daily load" or "TMDL" means a calculation of
				  the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet
				  water quality standards and an allocation of that amount to the pollutant's
				  sources. A TMDL includes wasteload allocations (WLAs) for point source
				  discharges, and load allocations (LAs) for nonpoint sources or natural
				  background or both, and must include a margin of safety (MOS) and account for
				  seasonal variations.
"Twenty-five-year, 24-hour storm event" means the maximum
				  24-hour precipitation event with a probable recurrence interval of once in 25
				  years as established by the National Weather Service or appropriate regional or
				  state rainfall probability information.
"Virginia Environmental Excellence Program" or "VEEP" means a
				  voluntary program established by the department to provide public recognition
				  and regulatory incentives to encourage higher levels of environmental
				  performance for program participants that develop and implement environmental
				  management systems (EMSs). The program is based on the use of EMSs that improve
				  compliance, prevent pollution, and utilize other measures to improve
				  environmental performance.
Statutory Authority: § 62.1-44.15 of the Code of
					 Virginia; § 402 of the federal Clean Water Act; 40 CFR Parts 122, 123, and
					 124.