§ 74-6-2 — Definitions

As used in the Water Quality Act: A. "abatement costs" means costs incurred in accordance with an abatement plan prepared and approved in accordance with rules adopted by the commission; B. "aquatic resources" means wetlands, streams, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water, riparian habitats and the organisms that live in them and the ecological functions, services and values they provide; C. "barrier" means a technical, including any log reduction credits assigned, operational or managerial measure to control microbial or chemical constituents; D. "commission" means the water quality control commission; E. "constituent agency" means, as the context may require, any or all of the following agencies of the state: (1) the department; (2) the state engineer and the interstate stream commission; (3) the department of game and fish; (4) the oil conservation commission; (5) the state parks division of the energy, minerals and natural resources department; (6) the New Mexico department of agriculture; (7) the soil and water conservation commission; and (8) the bureau of geology and mineral resources at the New Mexico institute of mining and technology; F. "compensatory mitigation" means the process of restoring, establishing, enhancing or preserving wetlands, streams or other aquatic resources to offset unavoidable adverse impacts that remain after appropriate and practicable avoidance and minimization measures have been achieved; G. "department" means the department of environment; H. "dredged material" means material that is excavated or dredged from a surface water; I. "facility" means all contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land, including any building, installation, equipment, pipe or pipeline, including a pipe into a sewer or a publicly owned treatment works, a well, a pit, a pond, a lagoon, an impoundment, a ditch, a landfill, a storage container, a motor vehicle, a rolling stock, an aircraft, a vessel or a watercraft, or any site or area where a water contaminant has been, is currently or is proposed to be managed, treated, deposited, stored, disposed of or placed or has otherwise come to be located; J. "federal act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and its subsequent amendment and successor provisions; K. "fill material" means material that is placed in a surface water where the material has the effect of replacing any portion of a surface water with dry land or changing the bottom elevation of a surface water; "fill material" does not include trash, garbage or incidental fallback resulting from excavation activities when small volumes of material fall back to substantially the same place as the initial removal; L. "general permit" means a permit that applies to one or more categories or subcategories of discharges, sludge use or disposal practices or facilities within a geographic area, including the state or a region, basin or watershed in the state; M. "general permit coverage" means authorization to discharge pursuant to a general permit and any additional permit conditions required by a constituent agency; N. "gray water" means untreated household wastewater that has not come in contact with toilet waste and includes wastewater from bathtubs, showers, washbasins, clothes washing machines and laundry tubs, but does not include wastewater from kitchen sinks or dishwashers or laundry water from the washing of material soiled with human excreta, such as diapers; O. "new source" means: (1) any source, the construction of which is commenced after the publication of proposed rules prescribing a standard of performance applicable to the source; or (2) an existing source when modified to treat substantial additional volumes or when there is a substantial change in the character of water contaminants treated; P. "pathogen" means a microorganism capable of causing illness in humans; Q. "person" means an individual or other entity, including partnerships, corporations, associations, responsible business or association agents or officers, the state or a political subdivision of the state or an agency, a department or an instrumentality of the United States and any of its officers, agents or employees; R. "point source" means a discernable, confined and discrete conveyance, including a pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system or vessel or other floating craft from which water contaminants are or may be discharged; "point source" does not include a discharge composed entirely of return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural storm water runoff; S. "produced water" means a fluid that is an incidental byproduct from drilling for or the production of oil and gas; T. "responsible party" means: (1) the owner and operator of a facility; (2) a person who, at the time of disposal of any water contaminant, owned or operated a facility at or from which such water contaminants were disposed; (3) a person who, by contract, agreement or otherwise, arranged for disposal or treatment, or arranged with a transporter for transport for disposal or treatment, of water contaminants owned or possessed by the person, or by any other party or entity, at a facility owned or operated by another party or entity and containing such water contaminants; and (4) a person who accepts or accepted any water contaminants for transport to disposal or treatment facilities or sites selected by the person, from which there is a release, or a threatened release that causes the incurrence of response costs, of a water contaminant; U. "septage" means the residual wastes and water periodically pumped from a liquid waste treatment unit or holding tank for maintenance or disposal purposes; V. "sewer system" means pipelines, conduits, pumping stations, force mains or other structures, devices, appurtenances or facilities used for collecting or conducting wastes to an ultimate point for treatment or disposal; W. "sewerage system" means a system for disposing of wastes, either by surface or underground methods, and includes sewer systems, treatment works, disposal wells and other systems; X. "sludge" means solid, semi-solid or liquid waste generated from a municipal, a commercial or an industrial wastewater treatment plant, a water supply treatment plant or an air pollution control facility that is associated with the treatment of these wastes. "Sludge" does not mean treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant; Y. "source" means a building, a structure, a facility or an installation from which there is or may be a discharge of water contaminants directly or indirectly into water; Z. "standards of performance" means a standard, an effluent limitation or an effluent standard adopted pursuant to the federal act or the Water Quality Act; AA. "substantial adverse environmental impact" means that an act or omission of the violator causes harm or damage: (1) to human beings; or (2) that amounts to more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in damage or mitigation costs to flora, including agriculture crops; fish or other aquatic life; waterfowl or other birds; livestock; or wildlife or damage to their habitats, ground water or surface water or the lands of the state; BB. "surface water discharge" means: (1) the addition of a water contaminant or combination of water contaminants to a surface water from a point source, including surface runoff collected or channeled by human effort, discharges through pipes, sewers or other conveyances owned by the state, a municipality or another person that do not lead to a treatment works and discharges through pipes, sewers or other conveyances leading into privately owned treatment works, but does not include the addition of water contaminants from an indirect discharger; or (2) the addition of dredged or fill material into a surface water from excavation of a surface water or from filling in a surface water in a manner that replaces the surface water with dry land or changes the bottom elevation of the surface water but does not include incidental fallback; CC. "treatment works" means a plant or other works used for the purpose of treating, stabilizing or holding wastes; DD. "wastes" means sewage, industrial wastes or other liquid, gaseous or solid substances that may pollute the waters of the state; EE. "water" means all water, including water situated wholly or partly within or bordering upon the state, whether surface or subsurface, public or private, except private waters that do not combine with other surface or subsurface water; FF. "water contaminant" means a substance that could alter, if discharged or spilled, the physical, chemical, biological or radiological qualities of water. "Water contaminant" does not mean source, special nuclear or byproduct material as defined by the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954; and GG. "water pollution" means introducing or permitting the introduction into water, either directly or indirectly, of one or more water contaminants in a quantity and duration as may with reasonable probability injure human health, animal or plant life or property or to unreasonably interfere with the public welfare or the use of property.

Legislative History

1953 Comp., § 75-39-2, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 190, § 2; 1970, ch. 64, § 1;