Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 50, December 13, 2024
Section 46-1-2 - DefinitionsThe following definitions in addition to those set forth in W. Va. Code § 22-11-3, shall apply to these rules unless otherwise specified herein, or unless the context in which used clearly requires a different meaning:
2.1. "Board" is the Environmental Quality Board.2.2. "Chief" is the Chief of the Office of Water Resources of the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection.2.3. "Conventional treatment" is the treatment of water as approved by the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health to assure that the water is safe for human consumption.2.4. "Cumulative" means a pollutant which increases in concentration in an organism by successive additions at different times or in different ways (bio-accumulation).2.5. "Designated uses" are those uses specified in water quality standards for each water body or segment whether or not they are being attained. (See sections 6.2 - 6.6, herein)2.6. "Director" is the Director of the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection.2.7. "Dissolved metal" is operationally defined as that portion of metal which passes through a 0.45 micron filter.2.8. "Existing uses" are those uses actually attained in a water body on or after November 28, 1975, whether or not they are included in the water quality standards.2.9. The "Federal Act" means the Clean Water Act (also known as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act) 33 U.S.C. § 1251 -1387. 2.10. "High quality waters" are those waters whose quality is equal to or better than the minimum levels necessary to achieve the national water quality goal uses.2.11. "Intermittent streams" are streams which have no flow during sustained periods of no precipitation and which do not support aquatic life whose life history requires residence in flowing waters for a continuous period of at least six (6) months.2.12. "Outstanding national resource waters" are those waters whose unique character, ecological or recreational value or pristine nature constitutes a valuable national or State resource.2.13. "Natural" or "naturally occurring" values or "natural temperature" shall mean for all of the waters of the state: 2.13.a. Those water quality values which exist unaffected by -- or unaffected as a consequence of -- any water use by any person; and2.13.b. Those water quality values which exist unaffected by the discharge, or direct or indirect deposit of, any solid, liquid or gaseous substance from any point source or non-point source.2.14. "Non-point source" shall mean any source other than a point source from which pollutants may reach the waters of the state.2.15. "Persistent" shall mean a pollutant and its transformation products which under natural conditions degrade slowly in an aquatic environment.2.16. "Point source" shall mean any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include agricultural stormwater discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture.2.17. "Representative important species of aquatic life" shall mean those species of aquatic life whose protection and propagation will assure the sustained presence of a balanced aquatic community. Such species are representative in the sense that maintenance of water quality criteria will assure both the natural completion of the species' life cycles and the overall protection and sustained propagation of the balanced aquatic community.2.18. The "State Act" or "State Law" shall mean the West Virginia Water Pollution Control Act, W. Va. Code § 22-11-1.2.19. "Total recoverable" refers to the digestion procedure for certain heavy metals as referenced in 40 CFR 136, as amended June 15, 1990, Guidelines Establishing Test Procedures for the Analysis of Pollutants Under the Clean Water Act.2.20. "Trout waters" are streams or stream segments which sustain year-round trout populations. Excluded are those streams or stream segments which receive annual stockings of trout but which do not support year-round trout populations.2.21. "Water of special concern" are those waters occurring in the categories outlined in section 4.1.c. of the antidegradation policy. This designation provides an intermediate level of antidegradation protection between high quality waters and outstanding national resource waters.2.22. "Water quality criteria" shall mean levels of parameters or stream conditions that are required to be maintained by these regulations. Criteria may be expressed as a constituent concentration, levels, or narrative statement, representing a quality of water that supports a designated use or uses.2.23. "Water quality standards" means the combination of water uses to be protected and the water quality criteria to be maintained by these rules.2.24. "Wetlands" are those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas.2.25. "Wet weather streams" are streams that flow only in direct response to precipitation or whose channels are at all times above the water table.