33 U.S.C. § 1362 : US Code - Section 1362: Definitions

Search 33 U.S.C. § 1362 : US Code - Section 1362: Definitions

Except as otherwise specifically provided, when used in this
chapter:
(1) The term "State water pollution control agency" means the
State agency designated by the Governor having responsibility for
enforcing State laws relating to the abatement of pollution.
(2) The term "interstate agency" means an agency of two or more
States established by or pursuant to an agreement or compact
approved by the Congress, or any other agency of two or more
States, having substantial powers or duties pertaining to the
control of pollution as determined and approved by the
Administrator.
(3) The term "State" means a State, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American
Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
(4) The term "municipality" means a city, town, borough, county,
parish, district, association, or other public body created by or
pursuant to State law and having jurisdiction over disposal of
sewage, industrial wastes, or other wastes, or an Indian tribe or
an authorized Indian tribal organization, or a designated and
approved management agency under section 1288 of this title.
(5) The term "person" means an individual, corporation,
partnership, association, State, municipality, commission, or
political subdivision of a State, or any interstate body.
(6) The term "pollutant" means dredged spoil, 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 discharged into
water. This term does not mean (A) "sewage from vessels or a
discharge incidental to the normal operation of a vessel of the
Armed Forces" within the meaning of section 1322 of this title; or
(B) 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 in which the well is
located, and if such State determines that such injection or
disposal will not result in the degradation of ground or surface
water resources.
(7) The term "navigable waters" means the waters of the United
States, including the territorial seas.
(8) The term "territorial seas" means the belt of the seas
measured from the line of ordinary low water along that portion of
the coast which is in direct contact with the open sea and the line
marking the seaward limit of inland waters, and extending seaward a
distance of three miles.
(9) The term "contiguous zone" means the entire zone established
or to be established by the United States under article 24 of the
Convention of the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone.
(10) The term "ocean" means any portion of the high seas beyond
the contiguous zone.
(11) The term "effluent limitation" means any restriction
established by a State or the Administrator on quantities, rates,
and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other
constituents which are discharged from point sources into navigable
waters, the waters of the contiguous zone, or the ocean, including
schedules of compliance.
(12) The term "discharge of a pollutant" and the term "discharge
of pollutants" each means (A) any addition of any pollutant to
navigable waters from any point source, (B) any addition of any
pollutant to the waters of the contiguous zone or the ocean from
any point source other than a vessel or other floating craft.
(13) The term "toxic pollutant" means those pollutants, or
combinations of pollutants, 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 Administrator, cause
death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic
mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in
reproduction) or physical deformations, in such organisms or their
offspring.
(14) The term "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. This term does not include agricultural stormwater
discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture.
(15) The term "biological monitoring" shall mean the
determination of the effects on aquatic life, including
accumulation of pollutants in tissue, in receiving waters due to
the discharge of pollutants (A) by techniques and procedures,
including sampling of organisms representative of appropriate
levels of the food chain appropriate to the volume and the
physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the effluent,
and (B) at appropriate frequencies and locations.
(16) The term "discharge" when used without qualification
includes a discharge of a pollutant, and a discharge of pollutants.
(17) The term "schedule of compliance" means a schedule of
remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions or
operations leading to compliance with an effluent limitation, other
limitation, prohibition, or standard.
(18) The term "industrial user" means those industries identified
in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Bureau of the
Budget, 1967, as amended and supplemented, under the category of
"Division D - Manufacturing" and such other classes of significant
waste producers as, by regulation, the Administrator deems
appropriate.
(19) The term "pollution" means the man-made or man-induced
alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological
integrity of water.
(20) The term "medical waste" means isolation wastes; infectious
agents; human blood and blood products; pathological wastes;
sharps; body parts; contaminated bedding; surgical wastes and
potentially contaminated laboratory wastes; dialysis wastes; and
such additional medical items as the Administrator shall prescribe
by regulation.
(21) Coastal recreation waters. -
(A) In general. - The term "coastal recreation waters" means -
(i) the Great Lakes; and
(ii) marine coastal waters (including coastal estuaries) that
are designated under section 1313(c) of this title by a State
for use for swimming, bathing, surfing, or similar water
contact activities.
(B) Exclusions. - The term "coastal recreation waters" does not
include -
(i) inland waters; or
(ii) waters upstream of the mouth of a river or stream having
an unimpaired natural connection with the open sea.
(22) Floatable material. -
(A) In general. - The term "floatable material" means any
foreign matter that may float or remain suspended in the water
column.
(B) Inclusions. - The term "floatable material" includes -
(i) plastic;
(ii) aluminum cans;
(iii) wood products;
(iv) bottles; and
(v) paper products.
(23) Pathogen indicator. - The term "pathogen indicator" means a
substance that indicates the potential for human infectious
disease.
(24) Oil and gas exploration and production. - The term "oil and
gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations or
transmission facilities" means all field activities or operations
associated with exploration, production, processing, or treatment
operations, or transmission facilities, including activities
necessary to prepare a site for drilling and for the movement and
placement of drilling equipment, whether or not such field
activities or operations may be considered to be construction
activities.