Section 6111.01. Water pollution control definitions

As used in this chapter:

(A) "Pollution" means the placing of any sewage, sludge, sludge materials, industrial waste, or other wastes in any waters of the state.

(B) "Sewage" means any liquid waste containing sludge, sludge materials, or animal or vegetable matter in suspension or solution, and may include household wastes as commonly discharged from residences and from commercial, institutional, or similar facilities.

(C) "Industrial waste" means any liquid, gaseous, or solid waste substance resulting from any process of industry, manufacture, trade, or business, or from the development, processing, or recovery of any natural resource, together with such sewage as is present.

(D) "Other wastes" means garbage, refuse, decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark, and other wood debris, lime, sand, ashes, offal, night soil, oil, tar, coal dust, dredged or fill material, or silt, other substances that are not sewage, sludge, sludge materials, or industrial waste, and any other "pollutants" or "toxic pollutants" as defined in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act that are not sewage, sludge, sludge materials, or industrial waste.

(E) "Sewerage system" means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, and force mains, and all other constructions, devices, appurtenances, and facilities used for collecting or conducting water-borne sewage, industrial waste, or other wastes to a point of disposal or treatment, but does not include plumbing fixtures, building drains and subdrains, building sewers, and building storm sewers.

(F) "Treatment works" means any plant, disposal field, lagoon, dam, pumping station, building sewer connected directly to treatment works, incinerator, or other works used for the purpose of treating, stabilizing, blending, composting, or holding sewage, sludge, sludge materials, industrial waste, or other wastes, except as otherwise defined.

(G) "Disposal system" means a system for disposing of sewage, sludge, sludge materials, industrial waste, or other wastes and includes sewerage systems and treatment works.

(H) "Waters of the state" means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial, regardless of the depth of the strata in which underground water is located, that are situated wholly or partly within, or border upon, this state, or are within its jurisdiction, except those private waters that do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters.

(I) "Person" means the state, any municipal corporation, any other political subdivision of the state, any person as defined in section 1.59 of the Revised Code, any interstate body created by compact, or the federal government or any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof.

(J) "Industrial water pollution control facility" means any disposal system or any treatment works, pretreatment works, appliance, equipment, machinery, pipeline or conduit, pumping station, force main, or installation constructed, used, or placed in operation primarily for the purpose of collecting or conducting industrial waste to a point of disposal or treatment; reducing, controlling, or eliminating water pollution caused by industrial waste; or reducing, controlling, or eliminating the discharge into a disposal system of industrial waste or what would be industrial waste if discharged into the waters of the state.

(K) "Schedule of compliance" means a schedule of remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with standards and rules adopted under sections 6111.041 and 6111.042 of the Revised Code or compliance with terms and conditions of permits set under division (J) of section 6111.03 of the Revised Code.

(L) "Federal Water Pollution Control Act" means the "Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972," 86 Stat. 886, 33 U.S.C.A. 1251, as amended by the "Clean Water Act of 1977," 91 Stat. 1566, 33 U.S.C.A. 1251, and all other amendments to that act.

(M) "Historically channelized watercourse" means the portion of a watercourse on which an improvement, as defined in divisions (C)(2) to (4) of section 6131.01 of the Revised Code, was constructed pursuant to Chapter 940., 6131., or 6133. of the Revised Code or a similar state law that preceded any of those chapters and authorized such an improvement.

(N) "Sludge" means sewage sludge and a solid, semi-solid, or liquid residue that is generated from an industrial wastewater treatment process and that is applied to land for agronomic benefit. "Sludge" does not include ash generated during the firing of sludge in a sludge incinerator, grit and screening generated during preliminary treatment of sewage in a treatment works, animal manure, residue generated during treatment of animal manure, or domestic septage.

(O) "Sludge materials" means solid, semi-solid, or liquid materials derived from sludge and includes products from a treatment works that result from the treatment, blending, or composting of sludge.

(P) "Storage of sludge" means the placement of sludge on land on which the sludge remains for not longer than two years, but does not include the placement of sludge on land for treatment.

(Q) "Sludge disposal program" means any program used by an entity that begins with the generation of sludge and includes treatment or disposal of the sludge, as "treatment" and "disposal" are defined in division (Y) of section 3745.11 of the Revised Code.

(R) "Agronomic benefit" means any process that promotes or enhances plant growth and includes, but is not limited to, a process that increases soil fertility and moisture retention.

(S) "Sludge management" means the use, storage, treatment, or disposal of, and management practices related to, sludge and sludge materials.

(T) "Sludge management permit" means a permit for sludge management that is issued under division (J) of section 6111.03 of the Revised Code.

(U) "Sewage sludge" has the same meaning as in division (Y) of section 3745.11 of the Revised Code.

Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 64, §101.01, eff. 1/1/2016.

Effective Date: 03-17-2000