Minnesota Administrative Rules
Agency 167 - Pollution Control Agency
Chapter 7060 - UNDERGROUND WATERS
Part 7060.0300 - DEFINITIONS

Subpart 1. Confined groundwater.

"Confined groundwater" means the water which is under pressure greater than atmospheric, and its upper limit is the bottom of a bed of distinctly lower hydraulic conductivity than that of the material in which the confined water occurs.

Subp. 2. Perched groundwater.

"Perched groundwater" is unconfined groundwater separated from an underlying body of groundwater by an unsaturated zone. Perched groundwater may be either permanent where recharge is frequent enough to maintain a saturated zone above the perching bed, or temporary where intermittent recharge is not great or frequent enough to prevent the perched water from disappearing from time to time as a result of drainage over the edge or through the perching bed.

Subp. 3. Saturated zone.

"Saturated zone" is that part of the earth's crust in which all the voids, large and small, are ideally filled with water under pressure greater than atmospheric.

Subp. 4. Toxic pollutant.

"Toxic pollutant" means those 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 by ingestion through food chains, will, on the basis of information available, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction), or physical deformations, in such organisms or their offspring.

Subp. 5. Unconfined groundwater.

"Unconfined groundwater" is water in a formation that has a water table.

Subp. 6. Underground water.

"Underground water" means the water contained below the surface of the earth in the saturated zone including, without limitation, all waters whether under confined, unconfined, or perched conditions, in near surface unconsolidated sediment or regolith, or in rock formations deeper underground. The term groundwater shall be synonymous with underground water.

Subp. 7. Unsaturated zone.

"Unsaturated zone" is the zone between the land surface and the water table. It includes the capillary fringe. Generally, the water is under less than atmospheric pressure.

Subp. 8. Water table.

"Water table" is the surface of the groundwater at which the pressure is atmospheric. Generally this is the top of the saturated zone.

Subp. 9. Other terms.

Other terms used herein which are defined in Minnesota Statutes, chapters 115 and 116, shall be given the meaning ascribed to them therein. Terms not defined in this chapter or in Minnesota Statutes, chapters 115 and 116 shall be construed in accordance with accepted professional usage and practice.