Section 214.03. Definitions.

  The following definitions are applicable to terms used in this chapter. Definitions of other terms and meanings of abbreviations are in ch. NR 205 .

(1)  "Alternate concentration limit" means the concentration of a substance in groundwater established for a site by the department to replace a preventive action limit or an enforcement standard, or both from s. NR 140.10 or 140.12 , when an exemption is granted in accordance with s. NR 140.28 .

(2)  "ASTM" means the American Society for Testing and Materials. Copies of ASTM standards referenced in this chapter are available for inspection at the offices of the department of natural resources, the secretary of state's office and the legislative reference bureau. ASTM standards may be obtained from the American Society for Testing and Materials, 1916 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

(3)  "Bedrock" means rock that is exposed at the earth's surface or underlies soil material and is encountered when weathered in-place consolidated material, larger than 2 mm in size, is greater than 50% by volume.

(4)  "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.

(5)  "Cation-exchange capacity" means the sum total of exchangeable cations that a soil can absorb, expressed in milliequivalents per 100 grams of oven dry soil.

(6)  "Community public water supply system" means a water supply system having at least 15 service connections used by year-round residents or regularly serving at least 25 year-round residents. Any water supply system serving 7 or more homes, 10 or more mobile homes, 10 or more apartment units, or 10 or more condominium units shall be considered a community public water supply system unless information is available to indicate that 25 year-round residents will not be served.

(7)  "Composting facility" means a facility where organic material is biologically degraded to produce a stabilized end product.

(8)  "Department", when used without qualification, means the department of natural resources.

(9)  "Design management zone" means a 3 dimensional boundary surrounding each regulated facility, practice or activity established under s. NR 140.22 (3) .

(10)  "Detrimental effect" means contamination of the lands or waters of the state, or making the same injurious to public health, harmful for commercial or agricultural use, or deleterious to animal or plant life.

(11)  "Enforcement standard" or "ES" means a numerical value expressing the concentration of a substance in groundwater which is adopted under ss. 160.07 and 160.09 , Stats., and ss. NR 140.10 and 140.12 .

(12)  "Environmental pollution" has the meaning specified under s. 283.01 (6m) , Stats.

(13)  "Floodplain" means the land which has been or may be covered by flood water during the regional flood as specified under s. NR 116.03 (16) .

(14)  "Floodway" means the portion of a river or stream required to carry the regional flood as specified under s. NR 116.03 (22) .

(15)  "Food-chain crop" means a crop grown for human consumption or pasture, forage and feed grains for animals whose products are consumed by humans. Tobacco is considered a crop grown for human consumption.

(16)  "Groundwater" means any of the waters of the state, as defined in s. 280.01 (2) , Stats., occurring in a saturated subsurface geological formation of rock or soil.

(17)  "Groundwater monitoring" means measuring the groundwater level and analyzing samples of water taken from the ground.

(18)  "Hazardous wastes" has the meaning specified under s. NR 660.10 (52) .

(19)  "Hydraulic application rate" means the volume of liquid waste evenly spread over a designated acreage of the land treatment system divided by a period of time as specified in the WPDES permit. The rate is calculated by dividing the volume discharged during the waste loading period by the acreage of land loaded and then dividing by the total time in the load/rest cycle.

(20)  "Incinerator" has the meaning specified under s. NR 500.03 (65) .

(21)  "Infiltration rate" means the rate of liquid movement through the soil surface into the ground.

(22)  "Incorporation" means the mixing of a waste with topsoil by injecting, discing, moldboard plowing, chisel plowing or rotary tilling to a minimum depth of 4 inches.

(23)  "Intensity of application" means the instantaneous rate, reported as inches per hour, at which liquid waste is applied to land.

(24)  "Land treatment system" means a system that utilizes the physical, chemical and biological abilities of the soil to decompose pollutants in the wastes. Land treatment systems include:

(a) Absorption or seepage pond systems,

(b) Ridge and furrow systems,

(c) Spray irrigation systems,

(d) Overland flow systems,

(e) Subsurface absorption field systems,

(f) Landspreading systems for liquid wastes or organic by-product solids,

(g) Sludge spreading systems, and

(h) Any other land area receiving liquid wastes, by-product solids or sludge discharges.

(25)  "Landfill" has the meaning specified under s. NR 500.03 (120) .

(26)  "Landspreading system" means a system where a controlled quantity of liquid waste or by-product solid is uniformly applied onto, or incorporated into, the soil surface of designated sites by means of a vehicle with a spreader bar, spray gun or subsurface injector. The wastes are to be applied for the benefit of the vegetative cover. Landspreading systems also include those systems where liquid wastes are occasionally applied through temporary irrigation piping at a frequency similar to that of application by vehicles.

(27)  "Liquid waste" means process wastewater and waste liquid products, including silage leachate, whey, whey permeate, whey filtrate, contact cooling water, cooling or boiler water containing water treatment additives, and wash water generated in industrial, commercial and agricultural operations which result in a point source discharge to a land treatment system.

(28)  "Load/rest cycle" means a schedule of operation in which a certain volume of waste is loaded on a portion of the treatment system and then that portion is rested to allow the soil to reaerate and the soil micro-organisms to break down the waste material.

(29)  "Nested well system" means a group of 2 or more wells installed within 10 feet of each other at the ground surface and constructed to varying depths.

(30)  "Overland flow system" means a land treatment system in which the applied wastewater flows uniformly down grassy sloped terrain having very low permeability soils and is collected at the bottom of the slope for subsequent discharge.

(31)  "Permeability" means the rate of liquid movement through a porous medium.

(32)  "Potable water supply well" means a well supplying water for human consumption, sanitary use or food product preparation.

(33)  "Preventive action limit" or "PAL" means a numerical value expressing the concentration of a substance in groundwater which is adopted under s. 160.15 , Stats., and s. NR 140.10 , 140.12 or 140.20 .

(34)  "Sludge" means the accumulated solids generated during the biological, physical or chemical treatment, coagulation or sedimentation of water or wastewater.

(35)  "Soil" means the unconsolidated material that overlies bedrock and has been physically and chemically derived from organic material or bedrock by nature.

(36)  "Soil moisture holding capacity" means the volume of water available for plant growth in a unit depth of soil. It is measured by the difference in water volume retained in a unit depth of soil between the pore pressures of field capacity (1/10 to P atmospheres) and the wilting point (15 atmospheres).

(37)  "Unsaturated zone" means the zone between the land surface and the water table in which the pore spaces contain water at less than atmospheric pressure, as well as air and other gases.

(38)  "Wetland" as defined in s. 23.32 (1) , Stats., means an area where water is at, near or above the land surface long enough to be capable of supporting aquatic or hydrophytic vegetation and which has soils indicative of wet conditions.

History: Cr. Register, June, 1990, No. 414 , eff. 7-1-90; corrections in (2), (9), (16) and (18) made under s. 13.92 (4) (b) 6. and 7. , Stats., Register July 2010 No. 655 .