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

(1) "Administrator" means the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

(2) "Combined waste treatment facility" means any publicly owned waste treatment facility in which the maximum monthly average influent from any one industrial category, or categories producing similar wastes, constitutes over eighty-five percent of the design load for biochemical oxygen demand or suspended solids. Each single industrial category must contribute a minimum of ten percent of the applicable load.

(3) "Department" means department of ecology.

(4) "Director" means the director of the department of ecology or his/her authorized representative.

(5) "Discharge of pollutant" and the term "discharge of pollutants" each means (a) any addition of any pollutant or combination of pollutants to surface waters of the state from any point source, (b) any addition of any pollutant or combination of pollutants to the waters of the contiguous zone or the ocean from any point source, other than a vessel or other floating craft which is being used as a means of transportation.

(6) "Discharger" means owner or operator of any facility or activity subject to regulation under the NPDES program.

(7) "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.

(8) "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. This term applies only to facilities discharging to surface water.

(9) "Effluent limitation" means any restriction established by the state or administrator on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents which are discharged from point sources into surface waters of the state.

(10) "FWPCA" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.

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

(12) "Individual permit" means a permit for a single point source or a single facility.

(13) "Major discharger" means any discharger classified as such by the administrator in conjunction with the director and published in the annual state-EPA agreement.

(14) "Minor discharger" means any discharger not designated as major or covered under a general permit.

(15) "NPDES" means the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

(16) "Permit" means an authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued by the director to implement this chapter.

(17) "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.

(18) "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 return flows from irrigated agriculture.

(19) "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 include sewage from vessels within the meaning of section 312 of the FWPCA nor does it include dredged or fill material discharged in accordance with a permit issued under section 404 of the FWPCA.

(20) "Regional administrator" means the regional administrator of Region X of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or his/her authorized representative.

(21) "Surface waters of the state" means all waters defined as "waters of the United States" in 40 C.F.R. 122.2 that are within the boundaries of the state of Washington. This includes lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, inland waters, wetlands, ocean, bays, estuaries, sounds, and inlets.

(22) "Water quality standards" means the state of Washington's water quality standards for surface waters of the state, which are codified in chapter 173-201 WAC.