Code of Massachusetts Regulations
314 CMR - DIVISION OF WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
Title 314 CMR 3.00 - Surface Water Discharge Permit Program
Section 3.02 - Definitions
Administrator - the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or an authorized representative.
Best Management Practices or BMPs - schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the Commonwealth. BMPs include treatment requirements, operating procedures, structures, devices, and/or practices to control plant site runoff, spillage, or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
Biological Monitoring - any test which includes the use of aquatic algal, bacterial, invertebrate, or vertebrate species to measure acute or chronic toxicity, and any biological or chemical measure of bioaccumulation.
Bypass - the intentional diversion of wastes from any portion of a treatment works.
Coastal Waters - all waters of the Commonwealth assigned SA, SB, or SC classifications in 314 CMR 4.00: Massachusetts Surface Water Quality Standards,.
Combined Sewer Overflows or CSO - any intermittent overflow, bypass or other discharge from a municipal combined sewer system which results from a flow in excess of the dry weather carrying capacity of the system.
Combined Sewer System - a sewer system which, by design, collects and conveys both wastewater and storm water runoff.
Commissioner - the Commissioner of the Department.
Contact Cooling Water - water used to reduce temperature which comes into contact with a raw material, intermediate product, waste product (other than heat), or finished product.
Contiguous Zone - the entire zone established by the United States under article 24 of the convention of the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone.
Control Measure - as the term is used in connection with general permits issued by the Department pursuant to 314 CMR 3.06, refers to any best management practice, (BMP) or other method, used to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants to waters of the Commonwealth.
Conventional Pollutant - biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, pH, fecal coliform, or oil and grease.
Department - the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
Discharge or Discharge of Pollutants - any addition of any pollutant or combination of pollutants to waters of the Commonwealth from any source, including but not limited to, discharges from surface runoff which are collected or channelled by man; discharges through pipes, sewers, or other conveyances owned by a State, municipality, or other person, which do not lead to a POTW; and discharges through pipes, sewers, or other conveyances, leading into privately owned treatment works. This term does not include an addition of pollutants by any indirect discharger.
Effluent - a discharge of pollutants into the environment, whether or not treated.
Effluent Limitation or Effluent Limit - any requirement, restriction, or standard imposed by the Department on quantities, discharge rates, and concentrations of pollutants which are discharged from point sources into waters of the Commonwealth or to publicly owned treatment works.
Effluent Limitation Guideline or Effluent Standard - a regulation published by the Administrator under 33 U.S.C. 1251 § 304, 306 or 307 or by the Department under M.G.L. c. 21, § 27 which is used as a basis for establishing effluent limitations.
Environmental Protection Agency or EPA - the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Hazardous Substance - any of the substances designated under 40 CFR Part 116 pursuant to 33 U.S.C. 1251 § 311, or any hazardous material as defined in M.G.L. c. 21E.
Hazardous Waste - a hazardous waste pursuant to 310 CMR 30.000: Hazardous Waste.
Highest and Best Practical Treatment or HBPT - For the purposes of establishing technology based effluent limitations pursuant to 314 CMR 3.11(5), 4.04(5) and 405(5)(c), HBPT means the technology based standard of "Best Available Technology Economically Achievable ("BAT") used by EPA under 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq., defined as the most appropriate means available on a national basis for controlling the direct discharge of toxic and non-conventional pollutants to navigable waters and which represent the best existing performance technologies for a particular pollutant or group of pollutant that are economically achievable.
Illicit Discharge - any discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) that is not composed entirely of storm water, except discharges pursuant to a surface water discharge permit pursuant to 314 CMR 3.00 (other than the surface water discharge permit for discharges from the MS4) and discharges resulting from fire fighting activities.
Indirect Discharger - a discharger introducing pollutants to a treatment works.
Industrial Waste - any liquid, gaseous, or solid waste substance or a combination thereof resulting from any process of industry, manufacturing, trade, or business or from the development or recovery of any natural resources.
Massachusetts Water Quality Standards - 314 CMR 4.00: Massachusetts Surface Water Quality Standards and 314 CMR 6.00: Ground Water Quality Standards.
NPDES - the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program established pursuant to 33 U.S.C. 1342.
New Discharger - any building, structure, facility, or installation:
(a) from which there is or may be a new or additional discharge of pollutants at a site at which on August 13, 1979, it had never discharged pollutants;
(b) which has never received a finally effective NPDES permit for discharges at that site; and
(c) which is not a "new source".
This definition includes an indirect discharger which commences discharging into waters of the Commonwealth after August 13, 1979.
New Source - any building, structure, facility, or installation from which there is or may be a discharge of pollutants, the construction of which commenced:
(a) After promulgation of standards of performance under 33 U.S.C. 1251 306 which are applicable to such source; or
(b) After proposal of standards of performance in accordance with 33 U.S.C. 1251 § 306 Act which are applicable to such source, but only if the standards are promulgated in accordance with 33 U.S.C. 1251 § 306 within 120 days of their proposal.
Non-conventional Pollutant - any pollutant other than a toxic pollutant or a conventional pollutant.
Non-contact Cooling Water - water used to reduce temperature which does not come into direct contact with any raw material, intermediate product, waste product (other than heat), or finished product.
Outlet - the terminus of a sewer system, or the point of emergence of any wastewater or effluent into the waters of the Commonwealth or onto the land surface.
Permit - an authorization issued pursuant to M.G.L. c. 21, § 43 and 314 CMR 2.00, and 3.00, 5.00, or 7.00, to implement the requirements of the Massachusetts Clean Waters Act, M.G.L. c. 21, §§ 26 through 53 and the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq and the NPDES regulations at 40 CFR Part 122 . Depending on the context in 314 CMR 3.00, the term "permit" applies to:
(a) An individual permit that regulates one or more discharges by a discharger; and/or
(b) a general permit that regulates one or more categories of discharges and covers multiple individual dischargers who have properly applied for coverage under the general permit.
Person - any agency or political subdivision of the Commonwealth, the Federal government, any public or private corporation or authority, individual, partnership or association, or other entity, including any officer of a public or private agency or organization, upon whom a duty may be imposed by or pursuant to any provisions of M.G.L. c. 21, §§ 26 through 53.
Point Source - any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture.
Pollutant - any element or property of sewage, agricultural, industrial or commercial waste, runoff, leachate, heated effluent, or other matter, in whatever form and whether originating at a point or major non-point source, which is or may be discharged, drained or otherwise introduced into any sewerage system, treatment works or waters of the Commonwealth.
Pollutant of Concern - pollutants that include biochemical oxygen demand ("BOD"), sediment or a parameter that addresses sediment (such as total suspended solids, turbidity or siltation), pathogens, oil and grease, and any pollutant that has been identified as a cause of impairment in any water body to which a MS4 discharges.
Pollution - the presence in the environment of pollutants in quantities or characteristics which are or may be injurious to human, plant or animal life or to property or which unreasonably interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property throughout such areas as may be affected thereby.
Pretreatment - the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW.
Primary Treatment - a wastewater treatment process in which substantially all floating or settleable solids are removed by screening and sedimentation.
Process Wastewater - any water which, during manufacturing or processing, comes into direct contact with or results from the production or use of any raw material, intermediate product, finished product, or waste product.
Public Entity - any city, town, special district, the Metropolitan District Commission or other existing governmental unit eligible to receive a grant for the construction of treatment works from the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to Title II of 33 U.S.C. 1251.
Publicly Owned Treatment Works or POTW - any device or system used in the treatment (including recycling and reclamation) of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature which is owned by a public entity. A POTW includes any sewers, pipes, or other conveyances only if they convey wastewater to a POTW providing treatment.
RCRA - the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 ( P.L. 94-580, as amended by P.L. 95-609, 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.)
RCRA Facility - a hazardous waste management facility as defined in 314 CMR 8.03.
Sewage - the water-carried human or animal wastes from residences, buildings, industrial establishments or other places, together with such ground water infiltration and surface water as may be present.
Sewer System - pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, force mains, and all other structures, devices, appurtenances, and facilities used for collecting and conveying wastes to a site or works for treatment or disposal.
Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System or Small MS4 - all separate storm sewers that are:
(a) Owned or operated by the United States, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a city, town, borough, county, parish, district, association, or other public body (created by or pursuant to state law) having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, storm water, or other wastes, including special districts under state law such as a sewer district, flood control district or drainage district, or similar entity or an Indian tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organization, or a designated and approved management agency under 33 U.S.C. § 1288 that discharges to waters of the United States.
(b) Not defined as a large or medium municipal separate storm sewer systems pursuant to 40 CFR s. 122.26(b)(4) and (b)(7) or designated under 40 CFR § 122.26(a)(1)(v).
(c) This term includes systems similar to separate storm sewer systems in municipalities, such as systems at military bases, large hospitals or prison complexes, and highways and other thoroughfares. The term does not include separate storm sewers in very discrete areas such as individual buildings.
Surface Waters - all waters other than ground waters within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, including, without limitation, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, springs, impoundments, estuaries, wetlands and coastal waters.
Storm Water - means storm water runoff, snow melt runoff, and surface water runoff and drainage.
Total Maximum Daily Loads or TMDLs - water quality assessments that determine the source or sources of pollutants of concern for a particular water body, consider the maximum amount of pollutants the waterbody can assimilate, and then allocate to each source a set level of pollutants that it is allowed to discharge (i.e., a "wasteload allocation").
Toxic Pollutants - those pollutants identified in 314 CMR 3.16 or any other pollutants, or combination of pollutants, including disease-causing agents, which after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation into any organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly through food chains, may, on the basis of information available to the Department, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, mutations, physiological malfunctions, biochemical abnormalities, including malfunctions in reproduction, or physical deformations, in such organisms or their offspring.
Treatment Works - any and all devices, processes and properties, real or personal, used in the collection, pumping, transmission, storage, treatment, disposal, recycling, reclamation or reuse of waterborne pollutants, but not including any works receiving a hazardous waste from off the site of the works for the purpose of treatment, storage or disposal.
Urbanized Area - a land area comprising one or more places - central place(s) - and the adjacent densely settled surrounding area - urban fringe - that together have a residential population of at least 50,000 and an overall population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile, as determined by the federal Bureau of the Census.
Wastewater - sewage, industrial waste, other wastes or any combination of the three.
Waters of the Commonwealth - all waters within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, including, without limitation, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, springs, impoundments, estuaries, wetlands, coastal waters, and ground waters.
