Section 730.103  Definitions

 

The following definitions apply to the underground injection control program.

 

"Abandoned well" means a well whose use has been permanently discontinued or that is in a state of disrepair such that it cannot be used for its intended purpose or for observation purposes.

 

"Act" means the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (P.L. 94-580, as amended by P.L. 95-609, 42 USC 6901).

 

"Administrator" means the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Administrator's designee.

 

"Agency" means the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

 

"Application" means the Agency forms for applying for a permit, including any additions, revisions, or modifications to the forms.  For RCRA, application also includes the information required by the Agency pursuant to 35 Ill. Adm. Code 703.182-703.188 and 703.200 (contents of Part B of the RCRA application).

 

"Aquifer" means a geologic formation, group of formations or part of a formation that is capable of yielding a significant amount of water to a well or spring.

 

"Area of review" means the area surrounding an "injection well" described according to the criteria set forth in Section 730.106 or, in the case of an area permit, the project area plus a circumscribing area the width of which is either 402 meters (one-quarter mile) or a number calculated according to the criteria set forth in Section 730.106.

 

"Casing" means a pipe or tubing of appropriate material, of varying diameter and weight, lowered into a borehole during or after drilling in order to support the sides of the hole and thus prevent the walls from caving, to prevent loss of drilling mud into porous ground or to prevent water, gas, or other fluid from entering or leaving the hole.

 

"Catastrophic collapse" means the sudden and utter failure of overlying "strata" caused by removal of underlying materials.

 

"Cementing" means the operation whereby a cement slurry is pumped into a drilled hole or forced behind the casing.

 

"Cesspool" means a "drywell" that receives untreated sanitary waste containing human excreta and which sometimes has an open bottom or perforated sides.

 

"Confining bed" means a body of impermeable or distinctly less permeable material stratigraphically adjacent to one or more aquifers.

 

"Confining zone" means a geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is capable of limiting fluid movement above an injection zone.

 

"Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in water.

 

"Conventional mine" means an open pit or underground excavation for the production of minerals.

 

"Director" means the Director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency or the Administrator's designee.

 

"Disposal well" means a well used for the disposal of waste into a subsurface stratum.

 

"Drywell" means a well, other than an improved sinkhole or subsurface fluid distribution system, that is completed above the water table so that its bottom and sides are typically dry except when receiving fluids.

 

"Environmental Protection Act" means the Environmental Protection Act [415 ILCS 5].

 

"EPA" or "USEPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

 

"Exempted aquifer" means an "aquifer" or its portion that meets the criteria in the definition of "underground source of drinking water" but which has been exempted according to the procedures of 35 Ill. Adm. Code 704.123, 704.104, and 702.105.

 

"Existing injection well" means an "injection well" other than a "new injection well".

 

"Experimental technology" means a technology that has not been proven feasible under the conditions in which it is being tested.

 

"Facility or activity" means any HWM facility, UIC injection well, or any other facility or activity (including land or appurtenances thereto) that is subject to regulation under the "State" RCRA or UIC program.

 

"Fault" means a surface or zone of rock fracture along which there has been displacement.

 

"Flow rate" means the volume per unit time of the flow of a gas or other fluid substance that emerges from an orifice, pump or turbine or which passes along a conduit or channel.

 

"Fluid" means material or substance that flows or moves, whether in a semisolid, liquid sludge, gas, or any other form or state.

 

"Formation" means a body of rock characterized by a degree of lithologic homogeneity that is prevailingly, but not necessarily, tabular and is mappable on the earth's surface or traceable in the subsurface.

 

"Formation fluid" means fluid present in a formation under natural conditions as opposed to introduced fluids, such as drilling mud.

 

"Generator" means any person, by site location, whose act or process produces hazardous waste identified or listed in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 721.

 

"Groundwater" means water below the land surface in a zone of saturation.

 

"Hazardous waste" means a hazardous waste as defined in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 721.103.

 

"Hazardous waste management facility" or "HWM facility" means all contiguous land, and structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land used for treating, storing, or disposing of hazardous waste.  A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposal operational units (for example, one or more landfills, surface impoundments, or combination of them).

 

"HWM facility" means Hazardous waste management facility.

 

"Illinois" means the State of Illinois.

 

"Improved sinkhole" means a naturally occurring karst depression or other natural crevice that is found in volcanic terrain and other geologic settings that have been modified by man for the purpose of directing and emplacing fluids into the subsurface.

 

"Injection well" means a well into which fluids are being injected.

 

"Injection zone" means a geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation receiving fluids through a well.

 

"Lithology" means the description of rocks on the basis of their physical and chemical characteristics.

 

"Owner or operator" means the owner or operator of any facility or activity subject to regulation under RCRA, UIC, or the Environmental Protection Act.

 

"Packer" means a device lowered into a well that can be expanded to produce a fluid-tight seal.

 

"Permit" means an authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued by the Agency to implement the requirements of this Part and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 702 through 705.  Permit does not include RCRA interim status (Subpart C of 35 Ill. Adm. Code 703), UIC authorization by rule (Subpart C of 35 Ill. Adm. Code 704), or any permit that has not yet been the subject of final Agency action, such as a draft permit or a proposed permit.

 

"Plugging" means the act or process of stopping the flow of water, oil, or gas into or out of a formation through a borehole or well penetrating that formation.

 

"Plugging record" means a systematic listing of permanent or temporary abandonment of water, oil, gas, test, exploration, and waste injection wells, and may contain a well log, description of amounts and types of plugging material used, the method employed for plugging, a description of formations that are sealed and a graphic log of the well showing formation location, formation thickness, and location of plugging structures.

 

"Point of injection", for a Class V injection well, means the last accessible sampling point prior to waste fluids being released into the subsurface environment through the well.  For example, the point of injection of a Class V septic system might be the distribution box – the last accessible sampling point before the waste fluids drain into the underlying soils.  For a dry well, it is likely to be the well bore itself.

 

"Pressure" means the total load or force per unit area acting on a surface.

 

"Project" means a group of wells in a single operation.

 

"Radioactive Waste" means any waste that contains radioactive material in concentrations that exceed those listed in Table II, column 2 in appendix B to 10 CFR 20 (Water Effluent Concentrations), incorporated by reference in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 720.111.

 

"RCRA" means the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (42 USC 6901 et seq.).

 

"Sanitary waste" means liquid or solid wastes originating solely from humans and human activities, such as wastes collected from toilets, showers, wash basins, sinks used for cleaning domestic areas, sinks used for food preparation, clothes washing operations, and sinks or washing machines where food and beverage serving dishes, glasses, and utensils are cleaned.  Sources of these wastes may include single or multiple residences, hotels and motels, restaurants, bunkhouses, schools, ranger stations, crew quarters, guard stations, campgrounds, picnic grounds, day-use recreation areas, other commercial facilities, and industrial facilities, provided the waste is not mixed with industrial waste.

 

"SDWA" means the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 USC 300(f) et seq.).

 

"Septic system" means a well that is used to emplace sanitary waste below the surface and which is typically comprised of a septic tank and subsurface fluid distribution system or disposal system.

 

"Site" means the land or water area where any facility or activity is physically located or conducted, including adjacent land used in connection with the facility or activity.

 

"Sole or principal source aquifer" means an aquifer that has been designated by the Administrator pursuant to section 1424(a) or (e) of SDWA (42 USC 300h-3(a) or (e)).

 

"State" means the State of Illinois.

 

"Stratum" (plural strata) means a single sedimentary bed or layer, regardless of thickness, that consists of generally the same kind of rock material.

 

"Subsidence" means the lowering of the natural land surface in response to:  earth movements; lowering of fluid pressure, removal of underlying supporting material by mining or solution of solids, either artificially or from natural causes; compaction due to wetting (hydrocompaction); oxidation of organic matter in soils; or added load on the land surface.

 

"Subsurface fluid distribution system" means an assemblage of perforated pipes, drain tiles, or other similar mechanisms intended to distribute fluids below the surface of the ground.

 

"Surface casing" means the first string of well casing to be installed in the well.

 

"Total dissolved solids" or "TDS" means the total dissolved (filterable) solids, as determined by use of the method specified in 40 CFR 136.3 (Identification of Test Procedures; the method for filterable residue), incorporated by reference in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 720.111.

 

"UIC" means the Underground Injection Control program under Part C of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 USC 300h through 300h-8), including the approved Illinois program.

 

"Underground injection" means a "well injection".

 

"Underground source of drinking water" or "USDW" means an aquifer or its portion is not an exempted aquifer, as defined in this Section, and of which the following is true:

 

It supplies any public water system; or

 

It contains a sufficient quantity of groundwater to supply a public water system; and

 

It currently supplies drinking water for human consumption; or

 

It contains less than 10,000 mg/ℓ total dissolved solids.

 

"USDW" means underground source of drinking water.

 

"Well" means a bored, drilled, or driven shaft whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension; a dug hole whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension; an improved sinkhole; or a subsurface fluid distribution system.

 

"Well injection" means the subsurface emplacement of fluids through a well.

 

"Well monitoring" means the measurement, by on-site instruments or laboratory methods, of the quality of water in a well.

 

"Well plug" means a watertight and gastight seal installed in a borehole or well to prevent movement of fluids.

 

"Well stimulation" means several processes used to clean the well bore, enlarge channels, and increase pore space in the interval to be injected, thus making it possible for wastewater to move more readily into the formation, and includes surging, jetting, blasting, acidizing, and hydraulic fracturing.

 

BOARD NOTE:  Derived from 40 CFR 146.3 (2017).

 

(Source:  Amended at 42 Ill. Reg. 24145, effective November 19, 2018)