West Virginia Code § 22-11-3

Definitions
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Unless the context in which used clearly requires a different meaning, as used in this article:
(1) "Activity" or "activities" means any activity or activities for which a permit is required by
section seven of this article;
(2) "Board" means the environmental quality board, provided in article three, chapter
twenty-two-b of this code;
(3) "Chief" means the director of the division of water and waste management of the
Department of Environmental Protection;
(4) "Code" means the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended;
(5) "Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection;
(6) "Disposal system" means a system for treating or disposing of sewage, industrial wastes
or other wastes, or the effluent therefrom, either by surface or underground methods, and
includes sewer systems, the use of subterranean spaces, treatment works, disposal wells and
other systems;
(7) "Disposal well" means any well drilled or used for the injection or disposal of treated or
untreated sewage, industrial weastes or other wastes into underground strata;
(8) "Effluent limitation" Lmeans any restriction established on quantities, rates and
concentrations of chemical, physical, biological and other constituents which are discharged
into the waters of this state;
(9) "Establishment" means an industrial establishment, mill, factory, tannery, paper or pulp
mill, mine, colliery, breaker or mineral processing operation, quarry, refinery, well and each
andW every industry or plant or works in the operation or process of which industrial wastes,
sewage or other wastes are produced;
(10) "Industrial user" means those industries identified in the standard industrial
classification manual, United States Bureau of the Budget, 1967, as amended and
supplemented, under the category "division d--manufacturing" and other classes of
significant waste producers identified under regulations issued by the director or the
administrator of the United States environmental protection agency;
(11) "Industrial wastes" means any liquid, gaseous, solid or other waste substance, or a
combination thereof, resulting from or incidental to any process of industry, manufacturing,
trade or business, or from or incidental to the development, processing or recovery of any
natural resources; and the admixture with such industrial wastes of sewage or other wastes,
as hereinafter defined, is also "industrial waste" within the meaning of this article;
(12) "Other wastes" means garbage, refuse, decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark and
other wood debris and residues resulting from secondary processing; sand, lime, cinders,
ashes, offal, night soil, silt, oil, tar, dyestuffs, acids, chemicals, heat or all other materials
and substances not sewage or industrial wastes which may cause or might reasonably be
expected to cause or to contribute to the pollution of any of the waters of the state;
(13) "Outlet" means the terminus of a sewer system or the point of emergenece of any water-
carried sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes, or the effluent therefrom, into any of the
waters of this state, and includes a point source; r
(14) "Person", "persons" or "applicant" means any industrial useru, public or private
corporation, institution, association, firm or company organized or existing under the laws of
this or any other state or country; State of West Virginia; gotvernmental agency, including
federal facilities; political subdivision; county commission; municipal corporation; industry;
sanitary district; public service district; drainage district; soil conservation district;
watershed improvement district; partnership; trust; estate; person or individual; group of
persons or individuals acting individually or as a group; or any legal entity whatever;
(15) "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 or vessel or other floatigng craft, from which pollutants are or may be
discharged;
(16) "Pollutant" means industrial wastes, sewage or other wastes as defined in this section;
(17) "Pollution" means the man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical,
biological and radiological integrity of the waters of the state;
(18) "PubliclyV owned treatment works" means any treatment works owned by the state or
any political subdivision thereof, any municipality or any other public entity, for the
treatment of pollutants;
(19) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection or such
other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to section six
or eight, article one of this chapter;
(20) "Sewage" means water-carried human or animal wastes from residences, buildings,
industrial establishments or other places, together with such groundwater infiltration and
surface waters as may be present;
(21) "Sewer system" means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, force mains and all
other constructions, facilities, devices and appliances appurtenant thereto, used for
collecting or conducting sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes to a point of disposal or
treatment;
(22) "Treatment works" means any plant, facility, means, system, disposal field, lagoon,
pumping station, constructed drainage ditch or surface water intercepting ditch, diversion
ditch above or below the surface of the ground, settling tank or pond, earthen pit,
incinerator, area devoted to sanitary landfills or other works not specifically mentioned
herein, installed for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, stabilizing, holding or disposing of
sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes or for the purpose of regulating or controlling the
quality and rate of flow thereof;
(23) "Water resources", "water" or "waters" means any and all water on or beneath the
surface of the ground, whether percolating, standing, diffused or flowinrg, wholly or partially
within this state, or bordering this state and within its jurisdiction, and includes, without
limiting the generality of the foregoing, natural or artificial lakes, rivers, streams, creeks,
branches, brooks, ponds (except farm ponds, industrial settling basins and ponds and water
treatment facilities), impounding reservoirs, springs, wells, wtatercourses and wetlands; and
(24) "Well" means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into
underground strata for the extraction or injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any
shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with such extraction or injection or placement. The
term "well" does not include any shaft or holes sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth for
the sole purpose of core drilling or pumping or extracting therefrom potable, fresh or usable
water for household, domestic, industrial, agricultural or public use.

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