Wisconsin Administrative Code › Department of Natural Resources › NR 800 - Environmental Protection - Water Supply › Chapter NR 815 - Injection Wells › Subchapter I - General › Section NR 815.03 - Definitions

Current through June 24, 2024
In this chapter:
(1) "Approval" means any of the following:
				  authorization by administrative rule, written letter of authorization or
				  issuance of a permit.
(2) "Aquifer"
				  means a geological layer consisting of unconsolidated material, usually sand or
				  gravel or both, or bedrock lying below the ground surface that is entirely or
				  partially saturated with water and permeable enough to allow water to be
				  extracted, as from a well.
(3)
				  "Backfill" means a substance containing, but not limited to, any of the
				  following: sand, gravel, cement, mill tailings, mill refuse, fly ash or other
				  solids used as part of the mining process or for the purpose of closing a mine
				  shaft or reclaiming an area subjected to mining activities.
(4) "Bedrock" means any naturally formed
				  consolidated or coherent material of the earth's crust, composed of one or more
				  minerals, rock fragments or organic material that underlies any soil or other
				  unconsolidated surficial material or is exposed at the surface. Bedrock
				  includes, but is not limited to limestone, dolomite, sandstone, shale and
				  igneous and metamorphic crystalline rock, including granite, rhyolite,
				  quartzite, gabbro, basalt, gneiss, schist, diorite and greenstone.
(5) "Borehole" means a circular hole that is
				  deeper than it is wide, constructed in earth material for the purpose of either
				  installing a well or obtaining geologic or groundwater related data.
Note
The department recognizes a borehole to
					 be a type of a drillhole.
(6) "By-product solids" means waste materials
				  from the animal product or food processing industry including, but not limited
				  to remains of butchered animals, paunch manure and vegetable waste materials
				  such as leaves, cuttings, peelings and actively fermenting sweet corn
				  silage.
(7) "Cesspool" means a
				  drywell that solely receives untreated sanitary waste and which sometimes has
				  an open bottom or perforated sides or both.
Note
As used in this chapter, the term
					 includes those excavations that are defined as cesspools in s.
					 SPS
					 381.01(53).
(8) "Closure" means ceasing the discharge of
				  a fluid to a well.
(9) "Conversion"
				  means a change in the operation of an injection well that results in a change
				  in the existing classification of the injection well or results in a change in
				  the injection well's type designation within a specific class of injection
				  wells.
(10) "Department" means the
				  department of natural resources.
(11) "Discharge" has the meaning given in s.
				  292.01(3),
				  Stats.
Note
"Discharge" in s.
					 292.01(3),
					 Stats., means, but is not limited to, any of the following: spilling, leaking,
					 pumping, pouring, placing, emitting, emptying or dumping.
(12) "Domestic wastewater" means the
				  wastewater normally discharged from plumbing facilities in private dwellings or
				  commercial domestic establishments and includes, but is not limited to
				  sanitary, bath, laundry, dishwashing, garbage disposal and cleaning wastes.
Note:
A commercial domestic establishment is
					 a business providing lodging facilities such as, but not limited to, a motel,
					 hotel, boarding house or assisted-living center.
(13) "Drillhole" means an excavation, opening
				  or driven point well deeper than it is wide that extends more than 10 feet
				  below the ground surface.
(14)
				  "Drywell" means a well, other than an improved sinkhole or subsurface fluid
				  distribution system, that is completed above the water table so that its bottom
				  or sides are typically dry except when receiving or draining fluids.
(15) "Dwelling" means a structure, or that
				  part of a structure, which is used or intended to be used as a home, residence
				  or sleeping place by one person or by 2 or more persons maintaining a common
				  household, to the exclusion of all others.
(16) "Endangerment" means the movement of a
				  fluid containing any substance into an underground source of drinking water, if
				  the presence of the substance may cause a violation of a primary drinking water
				  maximum contaminant level established in 40 CFR part 142 or otherwise adversely
				  affect the health of persons.
Note
Endangerment, as it applies to Class V
					 injection wells that are not prohibited under subchapter III, is any exceedance
					 of an enforcement standard established under ch. 160, Stats., when measured at
					 a point of standards application as defined in s.
					 160.01(5),
					 Stats.
(17) "Existing
				  injection well" means any injection well constructed or in use prior to
				  November 1, 2004.
(18) "Fluid"
				  means any material or substance that flows or moves whether a semisolid,
				  liquid, sludge, gas or any other form or state.
(19) "Formation" means a body of consolidated
				  or unconsolidated geologic materials characterized by a degree of lithologic
				  homogeneity that is prevailingly, but not necessarily, tabular and may be
				  mapped on the earth's surface or traced in the subsurface.
(20) "Generator" means the person responsible
				  for an act or process that produces hazardous waste.
(21) "Groundwater" has the meaning given in
				  s.
				  160.01(4),
				  Stats.
Note
"Groundwater" in s.
					 160.01(4),
					 Stats., means any of the waters of the state, as defined in s.
					 281.01(18),
					 Stats., occurring in a saturated subsurface geological formation of rock or
					 soil.
(22) "Hazardous
				  waste" has the meaning given in s.
				  291.01(7),
				  Stats.
Note
"Hazardous waste" in s.
					 291.01(7),
					 Stats., means any solid waste identified by the department as hazardous waste
					 under s.
					 291.05(1), (2) or
					 (4), Stats.
(23) "Hazardous waste facility" has the
				  meaning given in s.
				  291.01(8),
				  Stats.
Note
"Hazardous waste facility" in s.
					 291.01(8),
					 Stats., means a site or structure for the treatment, storage or disposal of
					 hazardous waste and includes all of the contiguous property under common
					 ownership or control surrounding the site or structure.
(24) "Improved sinkhole" means a naturally
				  occurring karst depression or opening, or any other natural crevice found in
				  volcanic terrain or other geologic settings, that has been modified by a person
				  for the purpose of dispersing or otherwise discharging fluids into the
				  subsurface.
(25) "Injection well"
				  means a well that is used to place a fluid underground.
(26) "Injection zone" means a geological
				  formation, a portion of a formation or a group of formations that is
				  intersected by a well and that receives or may receive a fluid from an
				  injection well.
(27) "Land disposal
				  system" means a facility for disposing of liquid wastes consisting of any of
				  the following:
(a) An absorption or seepage
				  pond system.
(b) A ridge and furrow
				  system.
(c) A spray irrigation
				  system.
(d) A subsurface soil
				  absorption system or mound system.
(e) An overland flow system.
(f) Any other land area receiving liquid
				  waste discharges.