Wyoming Administrative Code
Agency 020 - Environmental Quality, Dept. of
Sub-Agency 0011 - Water Quality
Chapter 2 - DISCHARGES, PERMIT REGS
Section 2-3 - Definitions

(i) "Department" means the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

(ii) "Director" means the director of the Department of Environmental Quality.

(iii) "Discharge" means any addition of any pollution or wastes to any waters of the state.

(iv) "Ecological function" means the ability of an area to support vegetation and fish and wildlife populations, recharge aquifers, stabilize base flows, attenuate flooding, trap sediment and remove or transform nutrients and other pollutants.

(v) "Mitigation" means all actions to avoid, minimize, restore and compensate for ecological functions or wetland values lost.

(vi) "Nonpoint source" means any source of pollution other than a point source. For purposes of W.S. W.S. W.S. 16-1-201 through 16-1-207 only, nonpoint source includes leaking underground storage tanks as defined by W.S. W.S. W.S. 35-11-1415(a) (ix) and aboveground storage tanks as defined by W.S. W.S. W.S. 35-11-1415(a) (xi)."

(vii) "Person" means an individual, partnership, firm, association, joint venture, public or private corporation, trust, estate, commission, board, public or private institution, utility, cooperative, municipality or any other political subdivision of the state, or any interstate body or any other legal entity.

(viii) "Point source" means 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 or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged.

(ix) "Pollution" means contamination or other alteration of the physical, chemical or biological properties of any waters of the state, including change in temperature, taste, color, turbidity or odor of the waters or any discharge of any acid or toxic material, chemical or chemical compound, whether it be liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive or other substance, including wastes, into any waters of the state which creates a nuisance or renders any waters harmful, detrimental or injurious to public health, safety or welfare, to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wildlife or aquatic life, or which degrades the water for its intended use, or adversely affects the environment. This term does not mean water, gas or other material which is injected into a well to facilitate production of oil, or gas or water, derived in association with oil or gas production and disposed of in a well, if the well used either to facilitate production or for disposal purposes is approved by authority of the state, and if the state determines that such injection or disposal well will not result in the degradation of ground or surface or water resources.

(x) "Wastes" means sewage, industrial waste and all other liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive, or other substances which may pollute any waters of the state.

(xi) "Waters of the state" means all surface and groundwater, including waters associated with wetlands, within Wyoming.

(xii) "Wetlands" means those areas in Wyoming having all three (3) essential characteristics:

(xiii) "Wetland value" means those socially significant attributes of wetlands such as uniqueness, heritage, recreation, aesthetics and a variety of economic values.

(i) "Administrator of the EPA" means the chief executive officer of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

(ii) "Administrator" means the administrator of the Water Quality Division, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

(iii) "Affected land" means the area of land from which overburden is removed, or upon which overburden, development waste rock or refuse is deposited, or both, access roads, haul roads, mineral stockpiles, mill tailings, impoundment basins, and all other lands whose natural state has been or will be disturbed as a result of mining operations.

(iv) "Animal feeding operation" is defined in Appendix G.

(v) "Applicable effluent standards and limitations" means all state and federal effluent standards and limitations to which a discharge is subject to under the Environmental Quality Act, or the CWA, including, but not limited to, effluent limitations, standards of performance, toxic effluent standards and prohibitions, and pretreatment standards.

(vi) "Applicable water quality standards" means all water quality standards to which a discharge is subject under Wyoming Water Quality Rules and Regulations, Chapter 1.

(vii) "Applicant" means the person responsible for submitting a completed application form for a WYPDES permit and the person who will have primary responsibility for meeting the requirements of the permit. Applicant is usually the owner of the facility from which discharge is or will be occurring; however, when a facility is operated by someone other than the owner, the operator is the applicant.

(viii) "Application" means an application form upon which the applicant has provided the requested information in order to obtain a WYPDES permit, modification to a WYPDES permit or renewal of a WYPDES permit.

(ix) "Application form" means the uniform state or national forms, including subsequent revisions or modifications, for application for a new, modified or reissued individual WYPDES permit.

(x) "Aquaculture project" means a defined managed water area which uses discharges of pollutants into that designated area for the maintenance or production of harvestable freshwater plants or animals.

(xi) "Authorization" means the written approval granted by the department to a person or facility which states that a discharge from the facility is permitted under a general permit and which is subject to the conditions set forth in the general permit . "Authorization" also means the modifications to a previously issued authorization that are made to accommodate an alteration in the conditions under a previous authorization or an extension of the allowed time for discharge to occur that was established under a previous authorization.

(xii) "Best Management Practices (BMPs)" means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and/or other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of "waters of the state." BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.

(xiii) "Bypass" means the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of a treatment facility.

(xiv) "CFR" means Code of Federal Regulations. All references to the Code refer to the CFR dated July 1, 2004.

(xv) "Compliance schedule" means a schedule of remedial measures included in a permit that establishes an enforceable sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with an effluent limitation, other limitation, prohibition, or standard.

(xvi) "Concentrated animal feeding operation" means an animal feeding operation (other than an aquatic animal production facility) which meets the criteria in Appendix G of these regulations.

(xvii) "Concentrated aquatic animal production facility" means a hatchery, fish farm, or other facility which meets the criteria as defined in Appendix F of these regulations, or an aquatic animal production facility that is designated as concentrated by the department as a result of its significant contribution of pollution to surface waters of the state.

(xviii) "Co-permittee" means a permittee to a WYPDES permit that is only responsible for permit conditions relating to the discharge for which it is operator.

(xix) "CWA" means the federal Clean Water Act.

(xx) "Daily average" means the average concentration determined by the arithmetic mean of all samples collected within a calendar day.

(xxi) "Daily maximum" means the highest single reading from any grab or composite sample collected during the reporting period, except in the case of Coal Mining Operations, where the definition means the value determined by an analysis of a properly preserved composite sample composed of a minimum of four grab samples collected at equally spaced two hour intervals and proportioned according to flow at the time of sampling.

(xxii) "Designated project areas" means the portions of surface waters of the state within which the permittee or permit applicant plans to confine the cultivated species, using a method, plan or operation (including, but not limit ed to, physical confinement) which, on the basis of reliable scientific evidence, is expected to ensure that specific individual organisms comprising an aquaculture crop will experience increased growth attributable to the discharge of pollutants, and be harvested within a defined geographic area.

(xxiii) "Designated uses" means those uses specified in water quality standards for each water body or segment whether or not they are being attained.

(xxiv) "Duly authorized representative" means an individual or position having responsibility for the overall operation of the regulated facility or activity, or an individual or position having overall responsibility for environmental matters for the regulated facility who has been designated by a person described in Section 14(a) of these regulations, through the submittal to the administrator of a written notification, as the individual or position authorized to sign reports required by the permits or certify other information requested by the administrator.

(xxv) "Effluent" means the pollutant or waste stream from a facility that is being or is proposed to be discharged.

(xxvi) "Effluent limitation" means any restriction established by the state or by the Administrator of the EPA on quantities, rates and/or concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents which are discharged from point sources into surface waters of the state.

(xxvii) "EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

(xxviii) "Facility" means any WYPDES point source or collection of point sources or any other facility or activity (including land or appurtenances thereto associated with the operation of the facility) that is subject to regulation under the WYPDES program.

(xxix) "Fact sheet" means the application materials, a draft copy of the permit, a statement of basis and the public notice.

(xxx) "Federal Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act) as amended in 1987, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq. as amended.

(xxxi) "Fill material" means any material used for the primary purpose of replacing an aquatic area with dry land or of changing the bottom elevation of a waterbody. The term does not include any pollutant discharged into the water primarily to dispose of waste, as that activity is regulated under Section 5 of these regulations.

(xxxii) "Flow monitoring station" means a designated point where stream flow is measured.

(xxxiii) "Form" means any issued permit and any uniform state or national form developed for use in the WYPDES system or these regulations.

(xxxiv) "General permit" means a permit to discharge which authorizes a category of discharges within a specified geographic area.

(xxxv) "Grab sample" means a single "dip and take" sample collected at a representative point in the discharge stream.

(xxxvi) "Hydric soil" means a soil that formed under conditions of saturation, flooding or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part.

(xxxvii) "Hydrophytic vegetation" means a community of plants where, under normal circumstances more than 50 percent of the composition of the dominant species from all strata are obligate wetland (OBL), facultative wetland (FACW), and/or facultative (FAC) species; or a frequency analysis of all species within the community yields a prevalence index value of less than 3.0 (where OBL = 1.0, FACW = 2.0, FAC = 3.0, FACU (facultative upland) = 4.0, and UPL (upland species) = 5.0).

(xxxviii) "Illicit discharge" means any discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer that is not composed entirely of storm water except discharges pursuant to a WYPDES permit (other than the WYPDES permit for discharges from the municipal separate storm sewer) and discharges resulting from fire fighting activities.

(xxxix) "Incorporated place" means a city, town, township or village that is incorporated under the laws of the State of Wyoming.

(xl) "Individual permit" means a permit to discharge to surface waters of the state issued to a facility for specific activities in accordance with the regulations contained herein.

(xli) "Industrial user" means those industries identified in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Bureau of the Budget, 1967, as amended and supplemented, under the category 'Division D - Manufacturing' and such other classes of significant waste producers as, by regulation, the administrator deems appropriate.

(xlii) "Instantaneous maximum" means the value determined by an analysis of a single properly preserved grab sample.

(xliii) "Irrigation compliance point" means a point downstream of the outfall but before the first irrigation diversion where, when indicated in the permit, specified effluent limitations must be met.

(xliv) "Isolated wetlands" means wetlands as defined by the Environmental Quality Act and Section 3 of these regulations which do not meet the federal definition of waters of the United States but meet the state's definition of waters of the state as defined in the Environmental Quality Act.

(xlv) "Major facility" means:

(xlvi) "Major modification" means any modification that is not defined as a minor modification.

(xlvii) "Main stem" means the major channel of a river or stream as shown on the latest and most detailed records of the Wyoming State Engineer.

(xlviii) "MGD" means million gallons per day.

(xlix) "Micrograms per liter (µg/l)" means micrograms of solute per liter of solution equivalent to parts per billion (ppb) in liquids, assuming unit density.

(l) "Milligrams per liter (mg/l)" means milligrams of solute per liter of solution equivalent to parts per million (ppm) in liquids, assuming unit density.

(li) "Minor facility" means any discharge which is not identified by the director and the Regional Administrator of the EPA, as a major facility.

(lii) "Minor modification" means

(liii) "Mixing zone" means limited area or volume of a surface water body within which an effluent becomes thoroughly mixed with the water body.

(liv) "Modification" means adjustments in permit conditions which result from alterations in the configuration or operation of a facility from what was identified in the application for the permit most recently noticed or authorized.

(lv) "MS4" means a municipal separate storm sewer system.

(lvi) "Municipal separate storm sewer " means a conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains):

(lvii) "Municipality" means a city, town, county, district, association, or other public body created by or under state law and having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, or other wastes, or a designated and approved management agency under section 208 of the CWA (1987).

(lviii) "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System" means the federal program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing, terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits and imposing and enforcing pretreatment requirements, under section 307, 318, 402, and 405 of the CWA.

(lix) "Natural" means that condition which would exist without the measurable effects or measurable influence of man's activities.

(lx) "Natural water quality" means that quality of water which would exist without the measurable effects or measurable influence of man's activities.

(lxi) "Net oil and grease" means the results from a 1664-Cu analysis which represents the oil and grease concentration corrected for elemental sulphur.

(lxii) "New discharger" means any building, structure, facility, or installation:

(lxiii) "New facility" means a facility for which a discharge is being proposed but is not yet occurring, or a facility from which a discharge is occurring, where no permit or authorization for such discharge has been issued by the department.

(lxiv) "New source" means any source, the construction of which is commenced after publication by the Administrator of the EPA of a proposed standard of performance, which will be applicable to such source if promulgated.

(lxv) "Non-process wastewater" means any water which, during manufacturing or processing is not defined as process wastewater.

(lxvi) "Notice" means the announcement to the public, in accordance with the provisions of Section 15 of this regulation, of the intention of the department to issue, reissue, modify, terminate, deny or revoke a permit, or hold a public hearing.

(lxvii) "Notice of intent" means the form which is used to apply for new, modified, or extended authorization to discharge as sanctioned by a general permit.

(lxviii) "NPDES" means National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

(lxix) "Outfall" means the point at which a discharge exits the final treatment unit, if any, associated with a facility prior to entering surface waters of the state.

(lxx) "Overburden" means any material of any nature, consolidated or unconsolidated, that overlies a mineral deposit, excluding topsoil or similar naturally-occurring surface materials that are not disturbed by mining operations.

(lxxi) "Owner or operator" means the owner or operator of any facility or activity subject to regulation under the WYPDES program. The owner or operator is the person applying for a WYPDES permit or authorization who will be responsible for complying with the requirements of the permit or authorization.

(lxxii) "Permit" means any permit issued by the Administrator of the EPA under the NPDES program or by the administrator of the Water Quality Division in accordance with these regulations.

(lxxiii) "pH" means a term used to express the intensity of acid or alkaline conditions. pH is a me asure of the hydrogen ion activity in a water sample. It is mathematically related to hydrogen ion activity according to the expression: pH = -log 10 (H+), where (H+) is the hydrogen ion activity. A pH value of 7 at 25 degrees C is neutral, with pHs of less than seven (7) progressively more acid and pHs of greater than seven (7) progressively more basic (alkaline).

(lxxiv) "Point of compliance" means a point downstream from the outfall where effluent limitations specified in a permit must be achieved.

(lxxv) "Pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials (except those regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended [ 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.]), heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water. It does not mean sewage from vessels; or water, gas, or other material which is injected into a well to facilitate production of oil or gas, or water derived in association with oil and gas production and disposed of in a well, if the well used either to facilitate production or for disposal purposes is approved by authority of the state and if the state determines that the injection or disposal will not result in the degradation of ground or surface water resources.

(lxxvi) "POTW" means a publicly owned treatment work.

(lxxvii) "Pretreatment standards" means standards for that level of treatment required of waste before introduction into a publicly owned treatment works so that it neither interferes with, passes through, or otherwise is incompatible with such works.

(lxxviii) "Primary industrial facility" means a facility that falls into one of the defined primary industrial categories listed in 40 CFR Part 122 Appendix A.

(lxxix) "Process wastewater" means 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, by product, or waste product.

(lxxx) "Produced water" means underground water which surfaces through oil and/or gas wells.

(lxxxi) "Regional Administrator" means the EPA Region VIII Administrator.

(lxxxii) "Reporting form" means the uniform state or national forms, including subsequent revision and modification, for reporting data and information pursuant to monitoring and other conditions of WYPDES permits.

(lxxxiii) "Severe property damage" means substantial physical damage to property, damage to the treatment facilities which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources which can reasonably be expected to occur in the absence of a bypass. Severe property damage does not mean economic loss caused by delays in production.

(lxxxiv) "Significant materials" includes, but is not limited to: raw materials; fuels; materials such as solvents, detergents, and plastic pellets; finished materials such as metallic products; raw materials used in food processing or production; hazardous substances designated under section 101(14) of CERCLA; any chemical the facility is required to report pursuant to Section 313 of title III of SARA; fertilizers; pesticides; and waste products such as ashes, slag and sludge that have the potential to be released with storm water discharges.

(lxxxv) "Silvicultural point source" means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance related to rock crushing and gravel washing as defined in 40 CFR Part 436, subpart B and, log sorting, or log storage facilities as defined in 40 CFR Part 429, subpart I which are operated in connection with silvicultural activities and from which pollutants are discharged into surface waters of the state. The term does not include nonpoint source silvicultural activities such as nursery operations, site preparation, reforestation and subsequent cultural treatment, thinning, prescribed burning, pest and fire control, harvesting operations, surface drainage, or road construction and maintenance from which there is natural runoff. However, some of these activities may involve point source discharges of dredged or fill material which may require a permit under Section 404 of the CWA or Section 7 of these regulations.

(lxxxvi) "Site" means the land or water area where any facility or activity is physically located or conducted, including adjacent land used in connection with the facility or activity.

(lxxxvii) "Skim ponds" means earthen ponds usually used in conjunction with heater treaters and/or free water knockout units and/or skim tanks, into which produced water is discharged with the purpose of providing gravity separation of oil and water. Skim ponds are usually designed with a "stand pipe" which discharges relatively oil-free water from near the bottom of the pond while the majority of the oil is allowed to float to the top of the pond where it is collected.

(lxxxviii) "Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code" means the statistical classification standard for industrial establishments developed by the Office of Management and Budget and published in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget (1987).

(lxxxix) "Storm water" means storm water runoff, snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.

(xc) "Storm water discharge associated with industrial activity" is defined in Section 6(g) of these regulations.

(xci) "Surface waters of the state" means surface waters of the state as defined in Wyoming Water Quality Rule s and Regulations Chapter 1, Wyoming Surface Water Quality Standards.

(xcii) "Technology-based effluent limit" means a permit limit for a pollutant that has been adopted pursuant to Section 5(c) (iii) (A) and (B) of these regulations and 304 (b) of the CWA that is based on the capability of a treatment method(s) to reduce the pollutant to a certain concentration.

(xciii) "Toxic materials" means those materials, or combination of materials, 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 to the director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic malfunctions, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction), or physical deformations in such organisms or their offspring.

(xciv) "Toxicity reduction evaluation" means a site-specific study conducted in a step-wise process designed to identify the causative agent(s) of effluent toxicity, isolate the sources of toxicity, evaluate the effectiveness of toxicity control options, and then confirm the reduction in effluent toxicity.

(xcv) "Tributary" means those streams or stream segments which flow into or contribute water to another stream, stream segment, downstream reach of the same stream, or other water body.

(xcvi) "Uncontrolled sanitary landfill" means a landfill or open dump, whether in operation or closed, that does not meet the requirements for runon or runoff controls established pursuant to RCRA Subtitle D.

(xcvii) "Upset" means an exceptional incident in which there is unintentional and temporary noncompliance with technology based permit effluent limitations because of factors beyond the reasonable control of the permittee. An upset does not include noncompliance to the extent caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance, or careless or improper operation.

(xcviii) "Variance" means any me chanism or provision under section 301 or 316 of the CWA or under Section 8 of these regulations, or in the applicable effluent guidelines pursuant to Section 5(c) (iii) of these regulations which allows modification to or waiver of the generally applicable effluent limitation requirements or time deadlines of the CWA. This includes provisions which allow the establishment of alternative limitations based on fundamentally different factors or on Sections 301(c), 301(g), 301(h), 301(i), or 316(a) of the CWA.

(xcix) "Water quality based effluent limit" means a permit effluent limit derived by selecting the most stringent of the effluent limits calculated using all applicable water quality criteria as set forth in Wyoming Water Quality Rules and Regulations, Chapter 1 for a specific point source to a specific receiving water for a given pollutant.

(c) "Water quality monitoring station" means a point downstream from the outfall on the tributary just prior to the confluence with the main stem of the drainage and/or on the mainstream above and below the confluence with the tributary where certain water quality monitoring data is to be collected when specified in the permit.

(ci) "Water quality standard" means the regulations as established by Wyoming Water Quality Rules and Regulations, Chapter 1 which describe the designated uses of surface waters of the state, the numeric and narrative criteria that are necessary to protect the uses of surface waters of the state, and an antidegradation provision which protects the natural water quality of surface waters of the state.

(cii) "Wetland hydrology" means the presence of water on or near the land surface at a frequency and duration to cause the formation of hydric soils and support a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted to saturated and/or inundated conditions.

(ciii) "Whole effluent toxicity" means the total toxic effect of an effluent measured directly with a toxicity test.

(civ) "Wyoming Pollution Discharge Elimination System (WYPDES)" means the state program for issuing, modifying and reissuing, terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits for discharging pollutants into surface waters of the state under the provisions of these rules, W.S. 35-11- 101 through 35-11-1803 and the CWA.