S.C. Code Regs. § § 61-113.B

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 11, November 22, 2024

Section 61-113.B - Definitions

Unless the context otherwise requires, as used in this regulation:

1. "Abandoned well" means a well where the pump has been disconnected for reasons other than repair or replacement and whose use has been discontinued for a period of one year, or has been pronounced as abandoned by the owner or operator.

2. "Annular space" means the space between the well casing and the formation or the space between the outer casing and the inner casing in a well where two or more casings are used.

3. "Aquifer" means a geologic formation, group of these formations, or part of a formation that contains sufficient saturated permeable material to yield significant quantities of groundwater to wells and springs.

4. "Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR)" means a water well which allows potable water to be injected into a subsurface aquifer to be recovered by pumping at a later date.

5. "Artificial filter or gravel-pack" means specially graded filter material that is placed in the annular space to increase the effective diameter of the well and to prevent fine-grained sediments from entering the well.

6. "Artificial-filter or gravel-packed well" means a screened well that is constructed with artificially emplaced filter material in the annular space between the well screen(s) and borehole wall.

7. "Available precipitation" for water use calculations means the annual average precipitation less annual average evapotranspiration.

8. "Bedrock" means the competent parent solid rock formation (crystalline, metamorphic, limestone) underlying weathered rock, soil, and sediments.

9. "Best Management Plan" means a document that supports the design, installation, maintenance, and management of water conveyance systems and/or water withdrawal systems (water supply, commercial, industrial, agricultural, etc.), which promotes water conservation, and protects water quality.

10. "Board" means the Board of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

11. "Capacity Use Area" means an area, designated by the Board, where excessive groundwater withdrawal presents potential adverse effects to the natural resource or poses a threat to public health, safety, or economic welfare or where conditions pose a significant threat to the long-term integrity of a groundwater source, including saltwater intrusion.

12. "Certified Well Driller" means any person duly and currently registered by the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation to practice as a well driller in South Carolina.

13. "Coastal Plain" means:

a. All of Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Berkeley, Calhoun, Charleston, Clarendon, Colleton, Darlington, Dillon, Dorchester, Florence, Georgetown, Hampton, Horry, Jasper, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Orangeburg, Sumter, and Williamsburg counties; and

b. Those portions of Chesterfield, Edgefield, Kershaw, Lexington, Richland, and Saluda counties east or southeast of the fall line as identified on the best available geologic map.

14. "Cone of depression" means the deviation of the hydraulic gradient from the normal path of groundwater flow (potentiometric surface) converging towards a pumping well or system of wells.

15. "Confining bed" means a strata of relatively impermeable material having distinctly lower hydraulic conductivity stratigraphically adjacent to one or more aquifers.

16. "Consumptive use" means any use of withdrawn groundwater other than a non-consumptive use, as defined in this section.

17. "Department" means the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, including personnel thereof authorized and empowered by the Board to act on behalf of the Department or Board.

18. "Dewatering operation" means an operation that is withdrawing groundwater from an aquifer for the purpose of draining an excavation or preventing or retarding groundwater flow into an excavation. This operation includes, but is not limited to, mining, water and sewer line construction, and excavating for a building foundation.

19. "Domestic well" means an individual residential or irrigation well intended to supply water to a single family dwelling for routine household purposes, lawns, or gardens.

20. "Drawdown" means the difference in levels between the static water level in a well and the surface of the depressed water level that occurs when the well is pumped.

21. "Effluent" means water conveyed out of a wastewater treatment facility or other works used for the purpose of treating, stabilizing, or holding wastewater.

22. "Emergency withdrawal" means the withdrawal of groundwater, for a period not exceeding thirty calendar days, for the purpose of fire fighting, hazardous substance or waste spill response, or both, or other emergency withdrawal of groundwater as determined by the Department.

23. "Evapotranspiration" means a collective term that includes water discharged to the atmosphere as a result of evaporation from the soil and surface water bodies and as a result of plant transpiration.

24. "Flowing well" means a well releasing groundwater under such pressure that pumping is not necessary to bring it above the ground surface.

25. "Geophysical log" means a continuous record from an instrument that measures physical, chemical, electrical, or radioactive properties of subsurface geological formations or groundwater contained in these formations.

26. "Groundwater" means subsurface water found in the void spaces of geologic materials within the zone of saturation.

27. "Groundwater withdrawal permit" means a permit issued by the Department to groundwater withdrawers in designated Capacity Use Areas for the withdrawal of groundwater.

28. "Groundwater withdrawer" means a person withdrawing groundwater in excess of three million gallons during any one month from a single well or from multiple wells under common ownership within a one-mile radius from any one existing or proposed well.

29. "Industrial Well" means a well used for supplying water to an industrial or commercial operation or establishment whose ultimate use of the water is for processing, manufacturing, cooling, or similar industrial process.

30. "Irrigation requirement" means the total amount of water required at the field to produce a specific crop or maintain a healthy, functional turf or landscape.

31. "Irrigation well" includes, but is not limited to, a well used for supplying water for agricultural, commercial or aesthetic irrigation, and livestock operations.

32. "Limestone" means a sedimentary formation composed chiefly of calcium carbonate, consolidated or unconsolidated, which may be in the form of shell pieces or calcareous muds or sands.

33. "Marl" means calcareous clays. In South Carolina, the term is mostly applied to the Cooper Marl of Eocene Age, characterized by its dark greenish drab to grayish green color.

34. "Non-consumptive use" means the use of water from an aquifer that is returned to the aquifer from which it was withdrawn, at or near the point from which it was withdrawn, without substantial diminution in quantity or quality.

35. "Permit to construct" means a permit for well construction issued by the Department after consideration of, among other things, proposed well location, depth, rated capacity, withdrawal rate, and existing water withdrawals.

36. "Permittee" means a person having obtained a permit to construct or a groundwater withdrawal permit issued in accordance with these regulations.

37. "Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, public or private institution, municipality or political subdivision, local, state, or federal government agency, department, or instrumentality, public water system, or a private or public corporation organized under the laws of this State or any other state or county.

38. "Public water system" means a water system as defined in the State Safe Drinking Water Act, S.C. Code Ann. Section 44-55-20 (1976 Code of Laws, as amended).

39. "Pumping water level" means the distance, usually measured in feet, from the land surface or other permanent specified datum to the water surface (water level) in a well being pumped.

40. "Rated capacity" means the amount, in gallons per minute (gpm), of groundwater that is withdrawn or capable of being withdrawn from the completed well with the pump installed.

41. "Saltwater" means water containing concentrations of chloride and total dissolved solids in excess of standards as defined in S.C. R.61-58, State Primary Drinking Water Regulation.

42. "Saltwater intrusion" means the movement of saltwater into a freshwater aquifer.

43. "Surface water" means all water that is open to the atmosphere and subject to surface runoff, which includes lakes, streams, ponds, and reservoirs.

44. "Static water level" means the distance, usually measured in feet, from the land surface or other permanent specified datum to the water surface (water level) in a non-pumping well.

45. "Well" means an excavation that is cored, bored, drilled, jetted, dug hole, driven shaft, or otherwise constructed whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension from which water is extracted or injected for the purpose of locating, testing, or withdrawing groundwater or for evaluating, testing, developing, draining, or recharging a groundwater reservoir or aquifer, or that may control, divert, or otherwise cause the movement of groundwater from or into an aquifer. Wells typically fall into one of the following types of construction:

a. Type I, open hole wells completed in crystalline bedrock aquifers;

b. Type II, screened, natural filter wells completed in unconsolidated aquifers;

c. Type III, screened, gravel-packed wells completed in unconsolidated aquifers;

d. Type IV, open hole wells completed in consolidated limestone aquifers; and

e. Type V, bored or dug well having large diameter.

46. "Well interference" means the instance where cones of depression from two or more wells overlap creating an additive drawdown in the affected area.

S.C. Code Regs. § 61-113.B