New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 20 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Chapter 6 - WATER QUALITY
Part 2 - GROUND AND SURFACE WATER PROTECTION
Section 20.6.2.3105 - EXEMPTIONS FROM DISCHARGE PERMIT REQUIREMENT

A. Effluent or leachate which conforms to all the standards in Subsections A, B, and C of Section 20.6.2.3103 NMAC and has a total nitrogen concentration of 10 mg/l or less. To determine conformance, samples may be taken by the agency before the effluent or leachate is discharged so that it may move directly or indirectly into ground water; provided that if the discharge is by seepage through non-natural or altered natural materials, the agency may take samples of the solution before or after seepage. If for any reason the agency does not have access to obtain the appropriate samples, this exemption shall not apply;

B. Effluent which is regulated pursuant to 20.7.3 NMAC, "Liquid Waste Disposal and Treatment" regulations;

C. Water used for irrigated agriculture, for watering of lawns, trees, gardens or shrubs, or for irrigation for a period not to exceed five years for the revegetation of any disturbed land area, unless that water is received directly from any sewerage system;

D. Discharges resulting from the transport or storage of water diverted, provided that the water diverted has not had added to it after the point of diversion any effluent received from a sewerage system, that the source of the water diverted was not mine workings, and that the secretary has not determined that a hazard to public health may result;

E. Effluent which is discharged to a watercourse which is naturally perennial; discharges to dry arroyos and ephemeral streams are not exempt from the discharge permit requirement, except as otherwise provided in this section;

F. Those constituents which are subject to effective and enforceable effluent limitations in a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, where discharge onto or below the surface of the ground so that water contaminants may move directly or indirectly into ground water occurs downstream from the outfall where NPDES effluent limitations are imposed, unless the secretary determines that a hazard to public health may result. For purposes of this subsection, monitoring requirements alone do not constitute effluent limitations;

G. Discharges resulting from flood control systems;

H. Leachate which results from the direct natural infiltration of precipitation through disturbed materials, unless the secretary determines that a hazard to public health may result;

I. Leachate which results entirely from the direct natural infiltration of precipitation through undisturbed materials;

J. Natural ground water seeping or flowing into conventional mine workings which re-enters the ground by natural gravity flow prior to pumping or transporting out of the mine and without being used in any mining process; this exemption does not apply to solution mining;

K. Effluent or leachate discharges resulting from activities regulated by permit issued by the mining and minerals division of the energy, minerals and natural resources department pursuant to the Surface Mining Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 69-25A-1 to 36, provided that this exemption shall not be construed as limiting the application of appropriate ground water protection requirements by the mining and minerals division and the New Mexico Coal Surface Mining Commission; or

L. Discharges resulting from activities regulated by the energy conservation and management division of the energy, minerals and natural resources department under the authority of the Geothermal Resources Development Act, NMSA 1978, Sections 71-9-1 to -11 (2016).