Wyoming Administrative Code › Agency 020 - Environmental Quality, Dept. of › Sub-Agency 0011 - Water Quality › Chapter 16 - INJECTION WELLS › Section 16-2 - Definitions

Current through July 13, 2024
The following definitions supplement those definitions
				  contained in Section
										35-11-103 of the Wyoming
				  Environmental Quality Act.
(a)
				"Aquifer" means a zone, stratum or group of strata that can store and transmit
				water in sufficient quantities for a specific use.
(b) "Area of review" means the area for which
				information and analyses shall be submitted as part of an underground injection
				control permit application, and reviewed for issuance of a permit. The area of
				review must include all portions of an aquifer which will be affected in a
				measurable way within ten (10) years of the granting of a permit, assuming that
				the permit is complied with.
(c)
				"Background" means the constituents or parameters and the concentrations or
				measurements which describe water quality and water quality variability prior
				to the subsurface discharge.
(d)
				"Cesspool" means a drywell that receives solely untreated domestic sewage, and
				which sometimes has an open bottom and/or perforated sides.
(e) "Class V facility" means any property
				which contains an injection well, drywell, or subsurface fluid distribution
				system which is not defined as a Class I, II, III, or IV well in Chapter 13,
				Water Quality Rules and Regulations. The Class V facility includes all systems
				of collection, treatment, and control which are associated with the subsurface
				disposal. Appendix A of this chapter contains a list of Class V
				facilities.
(f) "Domestic sewage"
				means liquids or solid wastes obtained from humans and domestic activities
				including wastewater from activities such as showers, toilets, human wash
				basins, food preparation, clothes washing, and dishwashers.
(g) "Draft permit" means a document
				indicating the tentative decision by the department to issue or deny, modify,
				revoke and reissue, or terminate a permit. A notice of intent to terminate a
				permit and a notice of intent to deny a permit are types of draft permits. A
				denial of a request for modification, revocation and reissuance, or termination
				is not a draft permit. A draft permit for issuance shall contain all conditions
				and content, compliance schedules and monitoring requirements required by this
				chapter.
(h) "Drywell" means a
				well, other than an improved sinkhole or subsurface distribution system,
				completed above the water table so that its bottom and sides are typically dry,
				except when receiving fluids.
(i)
				"Duly authorized representative" means a specific individual or a position
				having responsibility for the overall operation of the regulated facility or
				activity. The authorization shall be made in writing by a responsible corporate
				officer and shall be submitted to the administrator.
(j) "Fact sheet" means a document briefly
				setting forth the principal facts and the significant factual, legal,
				methodological, and policy questions considered in preparing the draft permit.
				Fact sheets for Class I wells are incorporated into the public
				notice.
(k) "Fluid" means any
				material which flows or moves, whether semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas or any
				other form or state.
(l) "General
				permit" means a permit issued to a class of operators, all of which inject
				similar types of fluids for similar purposes. General permits require less
				information to be submitted by the applicant than individual permits and do not
				require public notice for a facility to be included under the authorization of
				a general permit.
(m) "Groundwater"
				means subsurface water that fills available openings in rock or soil materials
				such that they may be considered water saturated under hydrostatic
				pressure.
(n) "Groundwaters of the
				state" are all bodies of underground water which are wholly or partially within
				the boundaries of the state.
(o)
				"Hazardous waste" means a hazardous waste as defined in Chapter 2, Section
				1(c), Wyoming Hazardous
				Waste Rules and Regulations.
(p)
				"Improved sinkhole" means a naturally occurring karst depression which has been
				modified by man for the purpose of directing and emplacing fluids into the
				subsurface.
(q) "Individual permit"
				means a permit issued for a specific facility operated by an individual
				operator, company, municipality, or agency. An individual permit may be
				established as an area permit and include multiple points of discharge that are
				all operated by the same person.
(r) "Injectate" means the wastewater being
				disposed of through any underground injection facility after it has received
				whatever pretreatment is done.
(s)
				"Lithology" means the description of rocks on the basis of their physical and
				chemical characteristics.
(t)
				"Permit" means a Wyoming Underground Injection Control permit, unless otherwise
				specified.
(u) "Permit by rule"
				means an authorization included in these rules which does not require either an
				individual permit or a general permit. A facility which is permitted by rule
				must meet the requirements found in this chapter, but is not required to apply
				for and obtain a permit to construct and operate the facility.
(v) "Permittee" means the named permit
				holder.
(w) "Point of compliance"
				means a point at which the permittee shall meet class of use standards for the
				receiver.
(x) "Point of injection"
				means the last accessible sampling point prior to waste fluids being released
				into the subsurface environment through a Class V injection well. For example
				the 'point of injection' of a Class V septic system might be the distribution
				box - the last accessible sampling point before the waste fluids drain into the
				underlying soils. For a dry well, it is likely to be the well bore
				itself.
(y) "Public hearing" means
				a non-adversary hearing held by the administrator or director of the
				department. The hearing is conducted pursuant to Chapter 3 of the Wyoming
				Department of Environmental Quality Rules of Practice and Procedure.
(z) "Radioactive waste" means any waste which
				contains radioactive material in concentrations which exceed those listed in 10
				CFR Part 20, Appendix B, Table II, Column 2 as of December 22, 1993.
(aa) "Receiver" means any zone, interval,
				formation or unit in the subsurface into which fluids and pollutants are
				discharged.
(bb) "Responsible
				corporate officer" means a president, secretary, treasurer, or vice president
				of the corporation in charge of a principal business function, or any other
				person who performs similar policy- or decision-making functions for the
				corporation.
(cc) "Secondarily
				affected aquifer" means any aquifer affected by migration of fluids from an
				injection facility, when the aquifer is not directly discharged into.
(dd) "Septic system" means a facility that is
				used solely to emplace domestic sewage below the surface and is comprised of a
				septic tank and subsurface fluid distribution system.
(ee) "Source water protection area" means the
				area delineated for the protection of ground and surface water sources for a
				public water supply under a department approved plan developed pursuant to
				Section 1453 of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
(ff) "Subsurface fluid distribution system"
				means an assemblage of perforated pipes or drain tiles used to distribute
				fluids below the surface of the ground. Subsurface fluid distribution systems
				include but are not limited to drain fields, leach fields, mounded leach
				fields, leach lines, bed type distribution systems, and gravel-less chamber
				type distribution systems.
(gg)
				"Vadose Zone" means the unsaturated zone in the earth, between the land surface
				and the top of the first saturated aquifer. The vadose zone contains water at
				less than saturated conditions.
(hh) "Underground source of drinking water"
				means those aquifers or portions thereof which have a total dissolved solids
				content of less than 10,000 mg/l, and are classified as either Class I, II,
				III, IV (a), or Special (A), pursuant to Chapter 8, Quality Standards for
				Wyoming Groundwaters, Water Quality Rules and Regulations.
(ii) "Water quality management area" means
				the area delineated for the protection of water quality under a department
				approved plan developed under Sections 303, 208 and/or 201 of the Federal Clean
				Water Act, as amended.
(jj) "Well"
				means a bored, drilled, or driven shaft; a hole dug whose depth is greater than
				the largest surface dimension; an improved sinkhole; or a subsurface fluid
				distribution system.
(kk) "Wellhead
				protection area" means the area delineated for the protection of a public water
				supply utilizing a groundwater source under a department approved plan
				developed pursuant to Section 1428 of the federal Safe Drinking Water
				Act.