Section 490-RICR-00-00-2.6 - DefinitionsA. For the purposes of these regulations, the following terms shall have the following meanings: 1. "Abandoned water supply sources" means the sources that are no longer used or maintained, such as permanently disconnected surface waters or wells.2. "Act" means the Water Supply Systems Management Act, R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 46-15.3.3. "Active water supply sources" means RI Department of Health approved sources of supply connected to a water supply system and available for distribution; these sources may be surface waters or wells, residential or other uses.4. "Aquifer" means a geological formation, groups of formations, or part of a formation capable of yielding a significant amount of groundwater to wells, springs, or surface water.5. "Available water" means the maximum amount of water that can dependably be supplied, taking into account limitations imposed by hydraulic or other considerations. In determining the available water, estimates of the safe yield of surface reservoirs and/or well capacity of groundwater sources shall be utilized as appropriate. Water committed by another water supplier through interconnections may be included in the determination of available water. Once accounted for in a water system's calculation of available water, the same volume of water may not be accounted for in another supplier's calculation of available water. Temporarily inactive, abandoned, and emergency water supply sources shall not be included unless approved by the Board. System storage shall not be included in the calculation of available water.6. "Board" means the Rhode Island Water Resources Board as established by R.I. Gen. Laws Chapters 46-15 and 46-15.1. 7. "Commercial agriculture producers" means producers with gross income from sale of agricultural commodities of $2,500.00 or more during a calendar year.8. "Commission" means Public Utilities Commission.9. "Comprehensive plans" means local comprehensive plans as required by R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 45-22.2.10. "Conservation" means methods, procedures, and devices designed to promote efficient use of water and to eliminate waste of water.11. "Consumption" means all water delivered by water suppliers for its intended use for industrial, commercial, agricultural, residential or other uses.12. "Demand, average daily" means the total volume of water supplied to the system including changes in storage over the representative period divided by the number of days in that representative period. The most recent representative period of record shall be utilized and shall not be affected by unusual demand conditions such as drought or a significant temporary increase in demand.13. "Demand management" means any conscious effort to modify water use for efficient utilization of available supply.14. "Demand, maximum daily" means the maximum one-day rate of water supplied to the system including changes in storage experienced over the most recent year not affected by unusual demand conditions, such as drought or a significant temporary increase in demand.15. "Demand, peak hourly" means the maximum one-hour rate of water supplied to the system including changes in storage experienced over the most recent year.16. "Distribution facilities" means the pipes and appurtenant facilities employed specifically to deliver, to dispense, to render or to circulate potable water directly to the consumer.17. "Drought" means a condition of dryness due to lower than normal precipitation. For water supply purposes drought is associated with safe yield especially for conditions where a system cannot be replenished and failure is anticipated.18. "Eligible expenditure" means the acquisition of a fee simple interest or of a conservation restriction, as that term is defined in R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-39-2(a). or other interest in watershed lands including, but not limited to, costs and expenses relating to the improvement of such lands or interests therein, maintenance of the lands or roads or interests therein, and taxes thereon, and the costs of preparation of Water Quality Protection Plan (WQPP) components and updates, and related property surveys and appraisals, or the funding of the construction of physical improvements that directly protect water supply. Watershed lands eligible for protection may be located in or out of state. No funds shall be used to extend service lines or expand system capacity.19. "Emergency water supply sources" means not regular sources of supply but supplies held in reserve for use in emergencies. The use of emergency water supply sources must be approved by the RI Department of Health; these may be surface waters or wells.20. "Fund" means the Water Quality Protection Fund according to R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 46-15.3-5 and 46-15.3-9.21. "Groundwater recharge" means the process of addition of water to the zone of saturation, that is, the zone beneath the water table.22. "Institutional water supplier" means any public water system as defined in the rules and regulations pertaining to public drinking water under R.I. Gen. Laws § 46-13-2 which does not sell water but supplies more than 50 million gallons per year of drinking water and is governmental or quasigovernmental in nature.23. "Major user" means any public or private organization or entity using more than 3 million gallons of water per year (a water system may define a major user using less than 3 million gallons of water per year).24. "Master meter" means a meter that measures water from a source of supply or from other water suppliers.25. "Metered supply" means the quantity of water measured at the points of entry into the transmission and distribution system.26. "Non-account water" means the difference between the metered supply and the metered consumption for a specific period including an allowance for firefighting.27. "Raw water" means water in its natural state prior to any treatment.28. "Recharge area" means the land surface from which water is added to the zone of saturation. The recharge area for a particular well or aquifer, for instance, is that land surface from which water moves to the well or aquifer or may move to the well or aquifer under certain hydraulic conditions.29. "Safe Drinking Water Act" or "SDWA" means the Safe Drinking Water Act, Pub. Law 93-523, 88 Stat. 1660 (1974) and Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, Pub. Law 104-182, 110 Stat. 1613 (1996), which establish standards for drinking water safety. 30. "Safe yield (surface water)" means a sustainable withdrawal that can be continuously supplied from a surface water supply source without adverse effects throughout a critical dry period with a 1% chance of occurrence, or one that is equivalent to the drought of record, whichever is more severe.31. "Safe yield (aquifer or well)" means the rate at which groundwater can be withdrawn without producing unacceptable or undesirable effects such as drawdowns or changes in water quality.32. "Saturated thickness" means the thickness of an aquifer measured from the water table to an essentially impermeable boundary; such boundary is typically taken to be the top of the bedrock surface.33. "Service area" means the geographic boundary within which service connections to customers of a water supply system are committed by charter of the water commission, board, or authority.34. "Source" means the raw water upon which a public water supply system depends, and refers to both groundwater and surface water.35. "Specific capacity" means the discharge of a well per unit of drawdown.36. "State guide plan" means the goals, policies, and plans or plan elements for the physical, economic, and social development of the State, adopted by the State Planning Council in accordance with R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-11-10. 37. "Susceptibility determination" means an analysis of the potential for a water supplier to draw water contaminated by inventoried sources at concentrations that would pose concern. Such a determination, therefore, would likely take into account hydrologic and hydrogeologic factors, inherent characteristics of the contaminants (e.g., toxicity, environmental fate and transport); and characteristics of the potential source of the contaminant (location, likelihood of release, effectiveness of mitigation measures). In small source water protection areas, where differences in distances between sources and intake are small, and hydrologic and hydrogeologic factors are relatively constant, susceptibility of a water supply is related to the likelihood of a significant release and the inherent characteristics of the source (e.g., toxicity, fate and transport, etc.).38. "Total reservoir storage capacity" means the reservoir volume at the normal full pool level or spillway elevation.39. "Transmission facilities" means the pipes, pumping stations, and storage facilities required to carry high volumes of potable water from a water source to distribution facilities, or throughout an area for the purpose of supplying water to the general population, or wholesale customers.40. "Transmissivity" means a measure of the ability of an aquifer to transmit a fluid. It can be quantified as the hydraulic conductivity multiplied by the saturated thickness.41. "Useable reservoir storage capacity" means the difference between the total reservoir storage capacity and the volume at the minimum reservoir storage level as determined by the intake pipe elevation or the water elevation below which water cannot be treated to meet water quality standards.42. "User category" means metered single-family residential, multi-residential, commercial, industrial, or wholesale purchaser (for example, another water supplier), metered water system usage, water used for firefighting purposes and non-account water. a. Multi-Residential shall include apartments, condominiums, nursing homes, college dormitories, correctional facilities and any other commercial or institutional entity, which provides nontransitory housing and are not metered separately. b. Commercial shall include non-governmental institutions and entities identified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), published by the Executive Office of the President through the Office of Management and Budget.c. Non-account water may include unmetered water usage, leaks, theft, etc.43. "Watershed" means those land areas, which because of their topography, subsurface characteristics, and drainage patterns, act as collectors of raw water, which replenish or recharge surface and ground water supply sources.44. "Water supplier" means any municipality, municipal department, agency, district, authority, or other entity engaged in or authorized to engage in the supply, treatment, transmission or distribution of drinking water on a wholesale or retail sales basis.45. "Water supply emergency" shall include, but not be limited to, one or a combination of the following situations: a. Mechanical failure or similar type of emergency including loss of power, loss of pumping capacity, loss of storage capability or major breaks or leaks which result in an inability to meet average daily or maximum daily demand for water.b. Water quality emergencies due to contamination of the water supply, the distribution system or storage tanks which result in an inability to meet average daily and maximum daily demand with remaining public water supplies.c. Seasonal water shortages or inadequacy of source, distribution system or storage capacity to meet water supply needs.46. "Water supply sources temporarily inactive" means seasonal sources of supply or sources temporarily not in use due to mechanical or quality problems or lack of demand. These sources may be surface waters or wells and, depending upon the reason for the "temporarily inactive" status, have RI Department of Health approval or must be approved by the RI Department of Health prior to use.47. "Water system" means any combination of interconnected sources and facilities used for supplying potable water. Water systems are owned and operated by water suppliers.48. "Wellhead protection area" or "WPA" means the surface and subsurface area surrounding a public drinking water well through which contaminants are reasonably likely to move toward and reach the wellhead. Commonly called "well field" or "recharge area".490 R.I. Code R. 490-RICR-00-00-2.6