Wisconsin Administrative Code › Department of Natural Resources › NR 100-199 - Environmental Protection - General › Chapter NR 102 - Water Quality Standards For Wisconsin Surface Waters › Subchapter I - General › Section NR 102.03 - Definitions

Current through June 24, 2024
In this chapter, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Ambient temperature" means the typical
				  existing temperature of a surface water outside the direct influence of any
				  point source discharge, which may include daily and seasonal changes.
(1c) "Benthic" means relating to the
				  ecological zone at the bottom of a body of water, including the sediment
				  surface and subsurface layers.
(1e)
				  "Biological assessment threshold" means a numeric value or condition
				  description used to measure the quality of a waterbody's biological community
				  and to determine attainment of its designated uses.
(1g) "Chlorophyll
a
" means a
				  green pigment present in all green plants and in cyanobacteria, responsible for
				  the absorption of light to provide energy for photosynthesis.
(1i) "Clean Water Act" means the federal
				  Clean Water Act of 1972 and amendments.
(1k) "Confidence interval" means a range
				  within which the true value of a parameter is likely to occur, with a specified
				  level of confidence.
(1m) "Diatom"
				  means a common and diverse group of unicellular algae of the phylum
				  Chrysophyta, having cell walls containing silica.
(1o) "Drainage lake" means a lake with an
				  outlet stream that continually flows under average summer conditions based on
				  the past 30 years.
(1q) "Impounded
				  flowing water" means a waterbody impounded by a constructed outlet structure on
				  a river or stream that is not a reservoir as defined in sub. (4s).
(1v) "Macrophyte" means an aquatic plant
				  large enough to be seen without the use of a microscope.
(2) "Mixing zone" means a region in which a
				  discharge of different characteristics than the receiving water is in transit
				  and progressively diluted from the source to the receiving system.
(3) "Natural conditions" means the normal
				  daily and seasonal variations in climatic and atmospheric conditions, and the
				  existing physical and chemical characteristics of a water or the course in
				  which it flows.
(4) "Natural
				  temperature" means the normal existing temperature of a surface water including
				  daily and seasonal changes outside the zone of influence of any artificial
				  inputs.
(4e) "PFOA" means
				  perfluorooctanoic acid in its anionic, cationic, and acidic forms as well as
				  any salts of perfluorooctanoic acid.
(4m) "PFOS" means perfluorooctane sulfonate,
				  including its anionic, cationic, and acidic forms as well as any salts of
				  perfluorooctane sulfonate.
(4s)
				  "Reservoir" means a waterbody with a constructed outlet structure intended to
				  impound water and raise the depth of the water by more than two times relative
				  to the conditions prior to construction of the dam, and that has a mean water
				  residence time of 14 days or more under summer mean flow conditions using
				  information collected over or derived for a 30 year period.
(5) "Resource management" means the
				  application of control techniques to enhance or preserve a surface water in
				  accordance with statutory provisions and in the general public
				  interest.
(6) "Section 303 (d)
				  list" means a list of waters that do not attain water quality standards and
				  require a total maximum daily load analysis, as specified under section 303 (d)
				  of the Clean Water Act,
				  33 USC
				  1313(d).
(6e) "Seepage lake" means a lake that does
				  not have an outlet stream that continually flows under average summer
				  conditions based on the past 30 years.
(6m) "Stratified lake or reservoir" means a
				  lake or reservoir where sufficient field data demonstrate that the lake is
				  dimictic or, in absence of sufficient field data, the following equation
				  results in a value of greater than 3.8:
Maximum Depth (meters) - 0.1
Log10Lake Area
					 (hectares)
(6s) "Stratified
				  two-story fishery lake" or "two-story fishery lake" means a lake greater than 5
				  acres in size that is typically stratified in the summer, with the potential
				  for an oxygenated hypolimnion, that has documentation at any time since 1975 of
				  a population of cold water fish species such as cisco, whitefish, or trout that
				  is sustained through natural reproduction or long-term active stocking with
				  year-to-year survival.
Note:
A list of two-story fishery lakes that
					 contain naturally reproducing lake trout, whitefish, or cisco, or are stocked
					 and managed by the department for brook, brown, rainbow, or lake trout, is
					 available on the department's designated uses website at
https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/SurfaceWater/usedesignations.html
.
(7) "Surface waters" means all natural and
				  artificial named and unnamed lakes and all naturally flowing streams within the
				  boundaries of the state, but not including cooling lakes, farm ponds and
				  facilities constructed for the treatment of wastewaters (the term waters as
				  used in this chapter means surface waters).
(7m) "Total phosphorus" means all of the
				  phosphorus in a water sample analyzed using the methods identified under the
				  provisions of s. NR 219.04 (1).
(8)
				  "Unauthorized concentrations of substances" means pollutants or other chemicals
				  introduced into surface waters without prior permit or knowledge of the
				  department, but not including accidental or unintentional spills.
(9) "U.S. EPA" means the United States
				  environmental protection agency.