Virginia Law

The following words and terms used in this chapter shall have the following meanings. Terms not defined in this chapter shall have the meanings prescribed in Chapter 6 (§ 32.1-163 et seq.) of Title 32.1 of the Code of Virginia or in 12VAC5-610 unless the plain reading of the language requires a different meaning.

"Alternative onsite sewage system," "AOSS," or "alternative onsite system" means a treatment works that is not a conventional onsite sewage system and does not result in a point source discharge.

"Best management practice" means a conservation or pollution control practice approved by the division, such as wastewater treatment units, shallow effluent dispersal fields, saturated or unsaturated soil zones, or vegetated buffers, that manages nutrient losses or other potential pollutant sources to minimize pollution of water resources.

"Biochemical oxygen demand, five-day" or "BOD₅" means the quantitative measure of the amount of oxygen consumed by bacteria while stabilizing, digesting, or treating biodegradable organic matter under aerobic conditions over a five-day incubation period; BOD₅ is expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).

"Board" means the State Board of Health.

"Chesapeake Bay Watershed" means the following Virginia river basins: Potomac River Basin (see 9VAC25-260-390 and 9VAC25-260-400), James River Basin (see 9VAC25-260-410, 9VAC25-260-415, 9VAC25-260-420, and 9VAC25-260-430), Rappahannock River Basin (see 9VAC25-260-440), Chesapeake Bay and small coastal basins (see 9VAC25-260-520, Section 2 through Section 3g), and the York River Basin (see 9VAC25-260-530).

"Conventional onsite sewage system" means a treatment works consisting of one or more septic tanks with gravity, pumped, or siphoned conveyance to a gravity distributed subsurface drainfield.

"Department" means the Virginia Department of Health.

"Direct dispersal of effluent to ground water" means less than six inches of vertical separation between ground water and the point of effluent application or the bottom of an effluent-dispersal trench or other excavation. Other excavation excludes the following: minor tillage of the soil surface without soil removal; replacement of fill material with better quality fill material as determined by the department to improve the ability of the site to treat wastewater; house foundations; tank excavations; force main and header line excavations; and soil disturbances, including preexisting drainfields installed prior to July 17, 2017, that are not designed for surface or ground water drainage, and do not create a direct conduit to ground water.

"Disinfection" means a process used to destroy or inactivate pathogenic microorganisms in wastewater to render them non-infectious.

"Dissolved oxygen" or "DO" means the concentration of oxygen dissolved in effluent, expressed in mg/l or as percent saturation, where saturation is the maximum amount of oxygen that can theoretically be dissolved in water at a given altitude and temperature.

"Division" means the Division of Onsite Sewage and Water Services, Environmental Engineering, and Marina Programs within the department.

"Effluent" means sewage that has undergone treatment.

"General approval" means that a treatment unit has been evaluated in accordance with the requirements of this chapter and 12VAC5-610 and approved for TL-2 or TL-3 in accordance with this chapter.

"GPD/sf" means gallons per day per square foot.

"Ground water" means any water, except capillary moisture, beneath the land surface in the zone of saturation or beneath the bed of any stream, lake, reservoir, or other body of surface water wholly or partially within the boundaries of this Commonwealth, whatever the subsurface geologic structure in which such water stands, flows, percolates, or otherwise occurs. Ground water includes a seasonal or perched water table.

"High-level disinfection" means a disinfection method that results in a fecal coliform concentration less than or equal to 2.2 colonies/100 ml. Chlorine disinfection requires a minimum total residual chlorine (TRC) concentration at the end of a 30 minute contact time of 1.5 mg/l. Ultraviolet disinfection requires a minimum dose of 50,000 μW-sec/cm². Influent turbidity to the disinfection unit shall be less than or equal to 2 Nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) on average.

"Ksat" means saturated hydraulic conductivity.

"Large AOSS" means an AOSS that serves more than three attached or detached single-family residences with a combined average daily sewage flow greater than 1,000 GPD or a structure with an average daily sewage flow in excess of 1,000 GPD.

"Limiting feature" means a feature of the soil that limits or intercepts the vertical movement of water, including seasonal, perched or permanent water table, pans, soil restrictions, and pervious or impervious bedrock.

"Local health department" means the local health department having jurisdiction over the AOSS.

"Maintenance" means performing adjustments to equipment and controls and in-kind replacement of normal wear and tear parts such as light bulbs, fuses, filters, pumps, motors, or other like components. Maintenance includes pumping the tanks or cleaning the building sewer on a periodic basis. Maintenance shall not include replacement of tanks, drainfield piping, and distribution boxes or work requiring a construction permit and an installer.

"MGD" means million gallons per day.

"MPI" means minutes per inch.

"Operate" means the act of making a decision on one's own volition to (i) place into or take out of service a unit process or unit processes or (ii) make or cause adjustments in the operation of a unit process at a treatment works.

"Operation" means the biological, chemical, and mechanical processes of transforming sewage or wastewater to compounds or elements and water that no longer possess an adverse environmental or health impact.

"Operator" means any individual employed or contracted by any owner who is licensed or certified under Chapter 23 (§ 54.1-2300 et seq.) of Title 54.1 of the Code of Virginia as being qualified to operate, monitor and maintain an alternative onsite sewage system.

"Organic loading rate" means the biodegradable fraction of chemical oxygen demand (BOD, biodegradable fats, oils, and grease and volatile solids) delivered to a treatment component in a specified time interval expressed as mass per time or area; examples include pounds per day, pounds per cubic foot per day (pretreatment), or pounds per square foot per day (infiltrative surface or pretreatment). For a typical residential system, these regulations assume that biochemical loading (BOD₅) equals organic loading.

"Owner" means the Commonwealth or any of its political subdivisions, including sanitary districts, sanitation district commissions and authorities, or any individual, any group of individuals acting individually or as a group, or any public or private institution, corporation, company, partnership, firm, or association that owns or proposes to own a sewerage system or treatment works.

"pH" means the measure of the acid or base quality of water that is the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration.

"Pollution" means such alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of any state waters as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters (i) harmful or detrimental or injurious to the public health, safety, or welfare or to the health of animals, fish, or aquatic life; (ii) unsuitable with reasonable treatment for use as present or possible future sources of public water supply; or (iii) unsuitable for recreational, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or other reasonable uses. Pollution shall include any discharge of untreated sewage into state waters.

"Point source discharge" means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance including any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel, or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural storm water run-off.

"Project area" means one or more recorded lots or a portion of a recorded lot owned by the owner of an AOSS or controlled by easement upon which an AOSS is located or that is contiguous to a soil treatment area and that is designated as such for purposes of compliance with the performance requirements of this chapter. In the case of an AOSS serving multiple dwellings, the project area may include multiple recorded lots as in a subdivision.

"Project area boundary" or "project boundary" means the physical limits of the three-dimensional length, width, and depth of the project area, whereby each dimension is identified as follows: (i) the horizontal component is the length and width of the project area; (ii) the upper vertical limit is the ground surface in and around the AOSS; and (iii) the lower vertical limit is the limiting feature.

"Renewable operating permit" means an operation permit that expires and must be revalidated at a predetermined frequency or schedule in accordance with this chapter.

"Reportable incident" means one or more of the following: an alarm event lasting more than 24 hours; an alarm event that reoccurs; any failure to achieve one or more performance requirements; removal of solids; replacement of media; or replacement of any major component of the system including electric and electronic components, pumps, blowers, and valves. The routine cleaning of effluent filters is not a reportable incident.

"Saturated hydraulic conductivity" means a quantitative measure of a saturated soil's capacity to transmit water when subjected to a hydraulic gradient.

"Settleable solids" means a measure of the volume of suspended solids that will settle out of suspension within a specified time, expressed in milliliters per liter (ml/l).

"Sewage Handling and Disposal Regulations" means 12VAC5-610 or its successor.

"Small AOSS" means an AOSS that serves no more than three attached or detached single-family residences with a combined average flow of less than or equal to 1,000 GPD, or a structure with an average daily sewage flow of less than or equal to 1,000 GPD.

"Soil treatment area" means the physical location in the naturally occurring soil medium where final treatment and dispersal of effluent occurs.

"Standard disinfection" means a disinfection process that results in a fecal coliform concentration of less than or equal to 200 colonies/100 ml. Chlorine disinfection requires a minimum TRC concentration at the end of a 30 minute contact time of 1.0 mg/l. Influent TSS to the disinfection unit shall average 30 mg/l or less.

"Standard engineering practice" means the care, diligence, competence, and judgment that a reasonably prudent and experienced professional engineer licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia would exercise given the circumstances, including site and soil conditions, of a particular AOSS design.

"State waters" means all water, on the surface and under the ground, wholly or partially within or bordering the Commonwealth or within its jurisdiction, including wetlands.

"Subsurface drainfield" means a system installed within the soil and designed to accommodate treated sewage from a treatment works.

"Surface waters" means: (i) all waters that are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including all waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide; (ii) all interstate waters, including interstate wetlands; (iii) all other waters such as intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds and the use, degradation, or destruction of which would affect or could affect interstate or foreign commerce including any such waters: (a) that are or could be used by interstate or foreign travelers for recreational or other purposes; (b) from which fish or shellfish are or could be taken and sold in interstate or foreign commerce; or (c) that are used or could be used for industrial purposes by industries in interstate commerce; (iv) all impoundments of waters otherwise defined as surface waters under this definition; (v) tributaries of waters identified in clauses (i) through (iv) of this definition; (vi) the territorial sea; and (vii) wetlands adjacent to waters (other than water that are themselves wetlands) identified in clauses (i) through (vi) of this definition.

"Total nitrogen" or "TN" means the measure of the complete nitrogen content of wastewater including all organic, inorganic, and oxidized forms expressed in mg/l as nitrogen.

"Total residual chlorine" or "TRC" means a measurement of the combined available chlorine and the free available chlorine available in a sample after a specified contact time.

"Total suspended solids" or "TSS" means a measure of the mass of all suspended solids in a sample typically measured in milligrams per liter (mg/l).

"Treatment level 2 effluent" or "TL-2 effluent" means secondary effluent as defined in 12VAC5-610-120 that has been treated to produce BOD₅ and TSS concentrations equal to or less than 30 mg/l each.

"Treatment level 3 effluent" or "TL-3 effluent" means effluent that has been treated to produce BOD₅ and TSS concentrations equal to or less than 10 mg/l each.

"Treatment unit" or "treatment system" means a method, technique, equipment, or process other than a septic tank or septic tanks used to treat sewage to produce effluent of a specified quality before the effluent is dispersed to a soil treatment area.

"Turbidity" means a measurement of the relative clarity of effluent as a result of the presence of varying amounts of suspended organic and inorganic materials or color.

"Vertical separation" means the vertical distance between the point of effluent application to the soil or the bottom of a trench or other excavation and a limiting feature of the soil treatment area such as seasonal high ground water, bedrock, or other restriction.

"Wetlands" means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.