455B.171 Definitions.

When used in this part 1 of division III, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Abandoned well" means a water well which is no longer in use or which is in such a state of dis- repair that continued use for the purpose of accessing ground- water is unsafe or impracticable.

2. "Animal feeding operation" means a lot, yard, corral, building, or other area in which animals are confined and fed and maintained for forty-five days or more in any twelve-month period, and all structures used for the storage of manure from animals in the animal feeding operation. Two or more animal feeding operations under common ownership or management are deemed to be a single animal feeding operation if they are adjacent or utilize a common area or system for manure disposal. An animal feeding operation does not include a livestock market as defined in section 455B.161.

3. "Animal weight capacity" means the same as defined in section 455B.161.

4. "Confinement feeding operation" means the same as defined in section 455B.161.

5. "Construction" of a water well means the physical act or process of making the water well including, but not limited to, siting, excavation, construction, and the installation of equipment and materials necessary to maintain and operate the well.

6. "Contractor" means a person engaged in the business of well construction or reconstruction or other well services.

7. "Disposal system" means a system for disposing of sewage, industrial waste, or other wastes, or for the use or disposal of sewage sludge. "Disposal system" includes sewer systems, treatment works, point sources, dispersal systems, and any systems designed for the usage or disposal of sewage sludge.

8. "Effluent standard" means any restriction or prohibition on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, radiological, and other constituents which are discharged from point sources into any water of the state including an effluent limitation, a water quality related effluent limitation, a standard of performance for a new source, a toxic effluent standard, or other limitation.

9. "Federal Water Pollution Control Act" means the federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, Pub. L. No. 92-500, as published in 33 U.S.C. § 1251--;1376, as amended through December 31, 1985.

10. "Industrial waste" means any liquid, gaseous, radioactive, or solid waste substance resulting from any process of industry, manufacturing, trade, or business or from the development of any natural resource.

11. "Manure" means the same as defined in section 455B.161.

12. "Manure sludge" means the solid or semisolid residue produced during the treatment of manure in an anaerobic lagoon.

13. "Maximum contaminant level" means the maximum permissible level of any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance in water which is delivered to any user of a public water supply system.

14. "New source" means any building, structure, facility, or installation, from which there is or may be the discharge of a pollutant, the construction of which is commenced after the publication of proposed federal rules prescribing a standard of performance which will be applicable to such source, if such standard is promulgated.

15. "Other waste" means heat, garbage, municipal refuse, lime, sand, ashes, offal, oil, tar, chemicals, and all other wastes which are not sewage or industrial waste.

16. "Person" means any agency of the state or federal government or institution thereof, any municipality, governmental subdivision, interstate body, public or private corporation, individual, partnership, or other entity and includes any officer or governing or managing body of any municipality, governmental subdivision, interstate body, or public or private corporation.

For the purpose of imposing liability for violation of a section of this part, or a rule or regulation adopted by the department of natural resources under this part, "person" does not include a person who holds indicia of ownership in contaminated property from which prohibited discharges, deposits, or releases of pollutants into any water of the state have been or are evidenced, if the person has satisfied the requirements of section 455B.381, subsection 7, unnumbered paragraph 2, with respect to the contaminated property, regardless of whether the department has determined that the contaminated property constitutes a hazardous condition site.

17. "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.

18. "Pollutant" means sewage, industrial waste, or other waste.

19. "Private sewage disposal system" means a system which provides for the treatment or disposal of domestic sewage from four or fewer dwelling units or the equivalent of less than sixteen individuals on a continuing basis.

20. "Private water supply" means any water supply for human consumption which has less than fifteen service connections and regularly serves less than twenty-five individuals.

21. "Production capacity" means the amount of potable water which can be supplied to the distribution system in a twenty-four-hour period.

22. "Public water supply system" means a system for the provision to the public of piped water for human consumption, if the system has at least fifteen service connections or regularly serves at least twenty-five individuals. The term includes any source of water and any collection, treatment, storage, and distribution facilities under control of the operator of the system and used primarily in connection with the system, and any collection or pretreatment storage facilities not under such control which are used primarily in connection with the system.

23. "Reconstruction" of a water well means replacement or removal of all or a portion of the casing of the water well.

24. "Schedule of compliance" means a schedule of remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with any effluent standard, water quality standard, or any other requirement of this part of this division or any rule promulgated pursuant thereto.

25. "Semi-public sewage disposal system" means a system for the treatment or disposal of domestic sewage which is not a private sewage disposal system and which is not owned by a city, a sanitary sewer district, or a designated and approved management agency under section 1288 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1288).

26. "Septage" means the liquid and solid material pumped from a septic tank, cesspool, or similar domestic sewage treatment system, or from a holding tank, when the system is cleaned or maintained.

27. "Sewage" means the water-carried waste products from residences, public buildings, institutions, or other buildings, including the bodily discharges from human beings or animals together with such ground water infiltration and surface water as may be present.

28. "Sewage sludge" means any solid, semisolid, or liquid residue removed during the treatment of municipal waste water or domestic sewage. "Sewage sludge" includes, but is not limited to, solids removed during primary, secondary, or advanced waste water treatment, scum septage, portable toilet pumpings, type III marine device pumpings as defined in 33 C.F.R. part 159, and sewage sludge products. "Sewage sludge" does not include grit, screenings, or ash generated during the incineration of sewage sludge.

29. "Sewer extension" means pipelines or conduits constituting main sewers, lateral sewers, or trunk sewers used for conducting pollutants to a larger interceptor sewer or to a point of ultimate disposal.

30. "Sewer system" means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, force mains, vehicles, vessels, conveyances, injection wells, and all other constructions, devices, and appliances appurtenant thereto used for conducting sewage or industrial waste or other wastes to a point of ultimate disposal or disposal to any water of the state. To the extent that they are not subject to section 402 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act, ditches, pipes, and drains that serve only to collect, channel, direct, and convey nonpoint runoff from precipitation are not considered as sewer systems for the purposes of this part of this division.

31. "Small animal feeding operation" means the same as defined in section 455B.161.

32. "Treatment works" means any plant, disposal field, lagoon, holding or flow-regulating basin, pumping station, or other works installed for the purpose of treating, stabilizing, or disposing of sewage, industrial waste, or other wastes.

33. "Viable" means a disposal system or a public water supply system which is self-sufficient and has the financial, managerial, and technical capability to reliably meet standards of performance on a long-term basis, as required by state and federal law, including the federal Water Pollution Control Act and the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

34. "Water of the state" means any stream, lake, pond, marsh, watercourse, waterway, well, spring, reservoir, aquifer, irrigation system, drainage system, and any other body or accumulation of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through or border upon the state or any portion thereof.

35. "Water pollution" means the contamination or alteration of the physical, chemical, biological, or radiological integrity of any water of the state by a source resulting in whole or in part from the activities of humans, which is harmful, detrimental, or injurious to public health, safety, or welfare, to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or recreational use or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish, or other aquatic life.

36. "Water supply distribution system extension" means any extension to the pipelines or conduits which carry water directly from the treatment facility, source or storage facility to the consumer's service connection.

37. "Water well" means an excavation that is drilled, cored, bored, augered, washed, driven, dug, jetted, or otherwise constructed for the purpose of exploring for groundwater, monitoring groundwater, utilizing the geothermal properties of the ground, or extracting water from or injecting water into the aquifer. "Water well" does not include an open ditch or drain tiles or an excavation made for obtaining or prospecting for oil, natural gas, minerals, or products mined or quarried.

Section History: Early form

[C66, 71, § 455B.2; C73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 455B.30; 82 Acts, ch 1050, § 1, 2, ch 1199, § 6, 7, 8, 96]

Section History: Recent form

C83, § 455B.171 ~I83 Acts, ch 137, § 2; 84 Acts, ch 1121, § 1, 2; 85 Acts, ch 176, §1; 86 Acts, ch 1144, § 1; 86 Acts, ch 1237, § 29; 91 Acts, ch 224, § 3; 92 Acts, ch 1041, § 1; 93 Acts, ch 42, §1; 95 Acts, ch 195, §20; 96 Acts, ch 1079, § 13; 97 Acts, ch 137, § 1, 2

Internal References

Referred to in § 161A.42, 427.1(19), 455B.172, 455B.190, 455B.190A, 455B.241, 455B.266, 455E.2


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