Current through September 16, 2024
1. A
facility, regardless of size or type, may not degrade the waters of the State
to the extent that:
(a) The quality of surface
water is lowered below that allowed by
NRS
445A.565.
(b) For groundwater:
(1) The concentration of a constituent
exceeds the greater of:
(I) A state or federal
regulation prescribing standards for drinking water; or
(II) The natural background concentration of
the regulated drinking water constituent; or
(2) The concentration of WAD cyanide exceeds
0.2 mg/L.
The Department may establish a numerical limit for any
constituent not regulated by subparagraphs (1) and (2) which may reasonably be
expected to be discharged by the facility in sufficient volume and
concentration to cause an adverse impact on human health.
(c) The quality of those waters of
the State which already exceed the criteria established by subsection 2 is
lowered to a level that the Department finds would render those waters
unsuitable for the existing or potential municipal, industrial, domestic or
agricultural use.
2. The
Department may exempt a body of groundwater or portion thereof from the
standards established in subsection 1 if the request for an exemption to the
groundwater standards and the supporting information is submitted as part of
the application for the permit. The following criteria will be considered by
the Department in determining whether to exempt a potentially impacted body of
groundwater from the standards in subsection 1:
(a) The impacted groundwater does not
currently serve as a source of drinking water and because of the following
reasons the groundwater will not serve as a source of drinking water:
(1) The groundwater produces a mineral,
hydrocarbon or geothermal fluid which the applicant can demonstrate to the
satisfaction of the Department exists at a concentration that is expected to be
capable of commercial production and that releases by the facility will not
affect this production;
(2) The
groundwater is situated at a depth or location which makes recovery of water
for drinking economically or technologically impractical; or
(3) It would be economically or
technologically impractical to render the water fit for human consumption;
or
(b) The total
dissolved solids in the groundwater is more than 10,000 milligrams per liter
and the groundwater is not reasonably expected to become a supply of drinking
water.
Added to NAC by
Environmental Comm'n, eff. 9-1-89-Substituted in revision for NAC 445.24342; A
by
R046-18A,
eff. 8/21/2018; A by
R046-18AP,
eff. 8/30/2018
NRS
445A.425,
445A.465
