For the purposes of this chapter the following definitions shall be applicable:

(1) "Beneficial uses" shall include, but not be limited to, use for domestic water, irrigation, fish, shellfish, game, and other aquatic life, municipal, recreation, industrial water, generation of electric power, and navigation.

(2) "Dangerous wastes" means any discarded, useless, unwanted, or abandoned nonradioactive substances, including but not limited to certain pesticides, or any residues or containers of such substances which are disposed of in such quantity or concentration as to pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, wildlife, or the environment because such wastes or constituents or combinations of such wastes:

(a) Have short-lived, toxic properties that may cause death, injury, or illness or have mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic properties; or

(b) Are corrosive, explosive, flammable, or may generate pressure through decomposition or other means (Hazardous Waste Disposal Act, chapter 70.105 RCW).

(3) "Department" means department of ecology.

(4) "Domestic wastewater" means water carrying human wastes, including kitchen, bath, and laundry wastes from residences, buildings, industrial establishments or other places, together with such groundwater infiltration or surface waters as may be present (submission of plans and reports for construction of wastewater facilities, chapter 173-240 WAC).

(5) "Domestic wastewater facility" means all structures, equipment, or processes required to collect, carry away, treat, reclaim, or dispose of domestic wastewater together with such industrial waste as may be present. In case of subsurface sewage treatment and disposal, the term is restricted to mean those facilities treating and disposing of domestic wastewater only from:

(a) A septic tank with subsurface sewage treatment and disposal and an ultimate design capacity exceeding fourteen thousand five hundred gallons per day at any common point; or

(b) A mechanical treatment system or lagoon followed by subsurface disposal with an ultimate design capacity exceeding three thousand five hundred gallons per day at any common point (submission of plans and reports for construction of wastewater facilities, chapter 173-240 WAC).

(6) "FWPCA" means Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended by 1981 amendment (33 U.S.C. §466 et seq.).

(7) "General permit" means a permit which covers multiple dischargers within a designated geographical area, in lieu of individual permits being issued to each discharger.

(8) "Industrial wastewater" means water or liquid-carried waste from industrial or commercial processes, as distinct from domestic wastewater. These wastes may result from any process or activity of industry, manufacture, trade or business, from the development of any natural resource, or from animal operations such as feed lots, poultry houses, or dairies. The term includes contaminated stormwater and, also, leachate from solid waste facilities (Submission of plans and reports for construction of wastewater facilities, chapter 173-240 WAC).

(9) "Interfere with" means a discharge by an industrial user which, alone or in conjunction with discharges by other sources, inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal and which is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or of the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal by the POTW in accordance with the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder (or more stringent state or local regulations): Section 405 of the FWPCA, the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) ( including Title II, more commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and including state regulations contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D or the SWDA, the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act.

(10) "Municipal sewerage system" or "publicly owned treatment works (POTW)" means a publicly owned domestic wastewater facility or a privately owned domestic wastewater facility that is under contract to a municipality.

(11) "NPDES" means National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program under section 402 of FWPCA.

(12) "New source" means any building, structure, facility, or installation from which there is or may be a discharge, the construction of which commenced; after proposal of Pretreatment Standards under section 307(c) of the FWPCA which are applicable to such sources.

(13) "Pass through" means the discharge of pollutants through a municipal sewerage system into waters of the state in quantities or concentrations which are a cause of or significantly contribute to a violation of any requirement of water quality standards for waters of state of Washington, chapter 173-201 WAC, or of the NPDES or state waste discharge permit, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation (section 307 of FWPCA). Failure to obtain approval of an application for a new or increased discharge or change in the nature of the discharge according to WAC 173-216-110(5) would constitute such a violation.

(14) "Person" includes any political subdivision, local, state or federal government agency, municipality, industry, public or private corporation, partnership, association, firm, individual, or any other entity whatsoever.

(15) "Pretreatment" means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW.

(16) "Pretreatment requirements" means any substantive or procedural state, local, or federal requirements or standards developed under chapter 90.48 RCW and sections 307 and/or 402 of the FWPCA.

(17) "Pretreatment standards," "categorical standards," or "standards," means any pollutant discharge limitations, including those developed under section 307 (b) and (c) of the FWPCA and implemented through regulations in 40 C.F.R. Subchapter N, that apply to the discharge of nondomestic wastes to POTWs. This term includes prohibitive discharge limits established pursuant to WAC 173-216-060.

(18) "Subsurface sewage treatment and disposal" means the physical, chemical, or biological treatment and disposal of domestic wastewater within the soil profile by placement beneath the soil surface in trenches, beds, seepage pits, mounds, or fills (Submission of plans and reports for construction of wastewater facilities, chapter 173-240 WAC).

(19) "Waste materials" means any discarded, abandoned, unwanted or unrecovered material(s), except the following are not waste materials for the purposes of this chapter:

(a) Discharges into the ground or groundwater of return flow, unaltered except for temperature, from a groundwater heat pump used for space heating or cooling: Provided, That such discharges do not have significant potential, either individually, or collectively, to affect groundwater quality or uses.

(b) Discharges of stormwater that is not contaminated or potentially contaminated by industrial or commercial sources.

(20) "Waters of the state" means all lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, inland waters, groundwaters, salt waters, and all other waters and water courses within the jurisdiction of the state of Washington.

(21) In the absence of other definitions as set forth herein, the definitions as set forth in 40 C.F.R. Part 403.3 shall be used for circumstances concerning the discharge of waste into sewerage systems.