§ 650.53 - Explanation of terms.

(a) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The system for issuing and conditioning permits under a schedule of compliance and denying permits for the discharge of pollutants from point sources into the navigable waters, which is administered by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to sections 402 and 405 of Pub. L. 92-500. The following additional terms have the following meanings with respect to the NPDES program and the FWPCA:

(1) Pollutant. Solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharge into water. It does not mean “sewage from vessels.”

(2) Point source. 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.

(3) Discharge of a pollutant. Any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source.

(4) Permit. Any permit or equivalent document or requirement issued by the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the disposal of pollutants.

(5) Schedule of compliance. A schedule of remedial measures including sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with an effluent limitation, other limitation, prohibition, or standard.

(6) Navigable waters. All navigable waters of the United States (33 CFR part 329); tributaries of navigable waters of the United States; interstate waters; intrastate lakes, rivers, and streams which are utilized by interstate travelers for recreational or other purposes; intrastate lakes, rivers, and streams from which fish or shellfish are taken and sold in interstate commerce; and intrastate lakes, rivers, and streams which are utilized for industrial purposes by industries in interstate commerce.

(b) Treatment works. Any facility, method or system for the storage, treatment, recycling, or reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature, including waste in combined storm water and sanitary sewer systems.

(c) Material into ocean waters. Matter of any kind or description, but not limited to solid waste, incinerator residue, garbage, sewage, sewage sludge, munitions, radiological, chemical, and biological warfare agents, radioactive materials, chemicals, biological and laboratory waste, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, excavation debris, and industrial, municipal, agricultural, and other waste. It does not mean oil of any kind or in any form, including, but not limited to, petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with wastes other than dredge material and does not mean sewage from vessels including human body wastes and wastes from toilets and other receptacles intended to receive or retain body wastes.

(d) Ocean waters. Those waters of the open seas lying seaward of the -baseline from which the territorial sea is measured, as provided for in the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone (15 UST 1606; TIAS 5639).

(e) Dredged material. Any material excavated or dredged from navigable waters.

(f) Fill material. Any material deposited or discharged into navigable waters which may result in creating fastlands or other planned elevations of lands beneath navigable waters of the United States.

(g) Marine sanitation devices. The following definitions apply to Marine Sanitation Devices:

(1) Marine sanitation device (MSD). Any equipment for installation in a vessel which is designated to receive, retain, treat or discharge sewage, and any process to treat sewage. Four types of marine sanitation devices are defined:

(i) Type I. A “flow-through” MSD certified by a DOD Component or the US Coast Guard as being capable of producing an effluent with a fecal coliform bacterial count of not more than 1,000 per 100 milliliters and no visible floating solids.

(ii) Type II. A “flow-through” MSD certified by a DOD Component or the US Coast Guard as being capable of producing an effluent with a fecal coliform baterial count of not more than 200 per 100 milliliters and total suspended solids of not more than 150 milligrams per liter.

(iii) Type III-A. A “nonflow-through” MSD which is designed to treat and hold the treated sewage. This type would include reduced-flush devices which ultimately evaporate or incinerate the sewage to a sterile sludge or ash.

(iv) Type III-B. A collection, holding, and transfer (CHT) system, consisting of: Drain piping, holding tanks, pumps, valves, connectors, and other equipment used to collect and hold shipboard sewage waste for subsequent transfer to a shore sewage system, sewage barge, or for overboard discharge in unrestricted waters. Also known as Type III-B MSD.

(2) Flow-through device. Any marine sanitation device (Type I or Type II) which discharges treated sewage waste overboard.

(3) Nonflow-through device. Any marine sanitation device (Type III) which collects, holds and/or treats sewage or holds the untreated or treated sewage onboard for disposal in legal areas or for transfer to proper shore facilities. This type includes those devices which collect, evaporate or incinerate the sewage to a sterile sludge or ash, as well as collection and holding systems.

(4) Vessel. Every ship or watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on the navigable waters of the United States.

(5) Vessels owned and/or operated by the US Army. Those vessels owned by or bareboat chartered to the US Army.

(6) New vessel. Any vessel on which first construction was initiated on or after April 1, 1976.

(7) Existing vessel. Any vessel on which first construction was initiated prior to April 1, 1976.

(8) Sewage. Human body wastes and wastes from toilets or other receptacles intended to receive human body wastes.

(9) Discharge. Includes, but is not limited to, any spillings, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping.

(10) Fresh water lakes, reservoirs, and impoundments. Fresh water bodies whose inlets or outlets prevent the ingress or egress of vessels subject to this regulation; rivers not capable of interstate navigation by vessels subject to this regulation.