Title 18 . Environmental Conservation

Chapter 60 . Administrative Enforcement

Section 990. Definitions

18 AAC 60.990. Definitions

Unless the context indicates otherwise, in this chapter,

(1) "accepts for disposal" means the act of

(A) accepting solid waste at a solid waste disposal facility and then disposing of the waste without treating the waste; or

(B) disposing of waste or residue that is left after solid waste has been incinerated or otherwise treated;

(2) "accumulation" means the collection of waste or discarded material until the waste or material can be shipped for disposal or another use;

(3) "active life" means the period of operation beginning with the first receipt of solid waste and ending at completion of closure activities;

(4) "active portion" means that part of a facility or unit in which disposal operations have been or are being conducted, but does not include a facility or unit with a complete final cover;

(5) "active thaw zone" means the surface layers of organic matter and mineral soils that thaw each year in areas of permafrost;

(6) "agronomic rate for nitrogen" means the maximum amount of nitrogen-containing material that can be spread evenly over an area so that all of the nitrogen in the material is used by the crops grown onsite, taking into account any residual nitrogen present in the soil or the addition of another fertilizer;

(7) "airport" means a public-use airport open to the public without prior permission and without restrictions within the physical capacities of available facilities;

(8) "amalgamated" means to mix or alloy a metal with mercury;

(9) "animal waste" means discarded material originating from an animal inoculated with an infectious agent during research, production of biologicals, or pharmaceutical testing; "animal waste" includes the carcass, body parts, blood, and bedding of any animal known to have been in contact with an infectious agent;

(10) "application site" means a facility subject to land application of sewage solids or biosolids;

(11) "approved" means approved by the department;

(12) "aquifer" means a geological formation, group of formations, or portion of a formation capable of yielding significant quantities of groundwater to wells or springs;

(13) "aquifer of resource value" means an area beneath the ground that is used as a drinking water supply source, has a reasonable potential to be used as a drinking water supply source, or has some other potential use for which uncontaminated water might be important;

(14) "area susceptible to mass movement" means an area of influence, including an area characterized as having an active or substantial possibility of mass movement, when the movement of earth material at, beneath, or adjacent to a MSWLF, because of natural or human-induced events, results in the downslope transport of soil and rock material by means of gravitational influence, including landslides, avalanches, debris slides and flows, soil fluction, block sliding, and rock fall;

(15) "asbestos" means the asbestiform varieties of serpentine (chyrsotile), riebeckite (crocidolite), cummingtonite-grunerite, anthophyllite, and actinolite-tremolite;

(16) "aufeis" means ice that is formed as water flows over a frozen surface;

(17) "barrier berm" means an above-grade containment structure used in regions of continuous permafrost;

(18) "barrier layer" means a continuous horizontal layer of natural or synthetic materials through which the movement of liquid is prevented or greatly restricted;

(19) "base flood" means a flood that has a one percent or greater chance of recurring in any year, or a flood of a magnitude equaled or exceeded once in 100 years on the average over a significantly long period;

(20) "biosolids" means solid, semi-solid, or liquid residue generated during treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works; "biosolids" includes domestic septage; scum or solids removed in primary, secondary, or advanced wastewater treatment processes; and a material derived from biosolids; "biosolids" does not include ash generated during the firing of biosolids in a biosolids incinerator or grit and screenings generated during preliminary treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works;

(21) "bird hazard" means an increase in the likelihood of a bird-aircraft collision that might cause damage to the aircraft or injury to its occupants;

(22) "blood and blood products" means discarded waste human blood and blood components, including serum and plasma, and materials containing free-flowing blood and blood components;

(23) "cap" means a combination of natural or synthetic materials, including a barrier layer and final cover, placed on a closed waste containment structure;

(24) "Category I nonfriable asbestos-containing material" means asbestos-containing packings, gaskets, resilient floor covering, and asphalt roofing products that contain more than one percent asbestos, determined using the method in 40 C.F.R. 763, Subpart E, Appendix E, Polarized Light Microscopy, revised as of July 1, 1997, adopted by reference;

(25) "Category II nonfriable asbestos-containing material" means asbestos-containing material such as shingles, wallboard, or cementitious pipe that

(A) contain more than one percent asbestos, determined using the method in 40 C.F.R. 763, Subpart E, Appendix E, Polarized Light Microscopy, revised as of July 1, 1997, adopted by reference; and

(B) when dry, cannot be crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by hand pressure;

(26) "Clean Water Act" means the "Federal Water Pollution Control Act," 33 U.S.C. 1251 - 33 U.S.C. 1387, as amended through August 21, 1998;

(27) "closed portion" means that part of a facility or unit that has been closed in accordance with this chapter;

(28) "commercial solid waste" means all types of solid waste generated by a store, office, restaurant, warehouse, or other nonmanufacturing activity; "commercial solid waste" does not include residential and industrial wastes;

(29) "containment structure" means a type of waste management area in which an arrangement of dikes, walls, barrier berms, pits, ice storage pits, liners, pads, cover material, and other similar constructs are used to hold solid waste and to prevent the escape, seepage, or discharge of solid waste and leachate from, or infiltration of water or precipitation into, the waste management area;

(30) "cover material" means a natural or synthetic material, or combination of materials, used to cover solid waste disposed of at a solid waste disposal facility or unit;

(31) "crumb rubber" means vehicle tires that have been chopped and ground to a grain size less than or equal to one-quarter inch in diameter;

(32) "crystallization point" means the temperature below 32ΓΈ F at which ice crystals begin to form;

(33) "cultures and stocks" means discarded cultures and stocks of infectious agents and associated microbiologicals, including human and animal cell cultures from medical and pathological laboratories, cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories, waste from the production of biologicals, discarded live and attenuated vaccines, and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, or mix cultures of infectious agents;

(34) "demonstrate" means to make a showing of fact to the department; unless a different standard is established on a case-by-case basis, a "demonstration" required by this chapter must show the asserted conclusion by a preponderance of evidence;

(35) "department" means the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation;

(36) "designated portion" means the active portion of a facility, including the closed portion and that portion set aside to become an active portion in the future;

(37) "disease vector" means a carrier that can transmit a pathogen from one organism to another, and includes flies and other insects, rodents and other small mammals, birds, and vermin;

(38) "displacement" means the relative movement of any two sides of a fault, measured in any direction;

(39) "disposal" means the deposit of a solid or liquid waste into or onto the water or land of the state, whether the waste is contained or uncontained, by discharging, injecting, dumping, spilling, leaking, placing, discarding, or abandoning the waste so that the waste or any part or byproduct of the waste might enter the environment;

(40) "domestic wastewater" has the meaning given in 18 AAC 72.990;

(41) "drilling waste" means exploration and production waste exempted from RCRA Subtitle C that is associated with the exploration, development, or production of crude oil, natural gas, or geothermal energy; "drilling waste" includes drilling muds, cuttings, hydrocarbons, brine, acid, sand, and emulsions or mixtures of fluids produced from and unique to the operation or maintenance of a well, whether naturally occurring or added for the operation or productivity of the well; "drilling waste" is only waste described in this paragraph that is derived intrinsically from primary field operations, produced from a well, and removed at the drill site or removed at a crude oil production facility by crude oil or wastewater treatment process before custody transfer of the crude oil; "drilling waste" does not include spent solvents and oils from equipment maintenance activities, discarded chemical products, or fuels;

(42) repealed 9/7/2002;

(43) "emergency relief volume" means the space necessary to contain material expelled from an oil or gas well during an underground pressure imbalance; the minimum emergency relief volume is routinely one and one-half times the well bore or casing volume;

(44) "EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency;

(45) "existing MSWLF" means a municipal solid waste landfill that was receiving solid waste as of October 9, 1993;

(46) "existing or developing population" means a community of persons residing in close proximity to each other, with a concentration equivalent to at least 120 persons per one-quarter section (160 acres);

(47) "explosive gas" means methane (CH 4 );

(48) "facility" means all contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on land used for treatment, storage, or disposal of solid waste; "facility" includes solid waste disposal facilities, solid waste processing facilities, and treatment works;

(49) "facility structure" means any buildings, sheds, or utility or drainage lines on the facility;

(50) "fault" means a fracture or a zone of fractures in any material along which strata on one side have been displaced with respect to that on the other side;

(51) "floodplain" means the lowland and relatively flat areas adjoining inland and coastal waters; "floodplain" includes flood-prone areas of offshore islands, that are inundated by the 100-year flood; for purposes of this paragraph, "100-year flood" means a flood that has a one percent or greater chance of recurring in any given year or a flood of a magnitude equalled or exceeded once in 100 years on the average over a significantly long period;

(52) "fluid management plan" means the use of snow removal or any dewatering practice to keep to a minimum the hydrostatic head of fluids and drilling wastes in a containment structure; "fluid management plan" includes approved disposal of liquid wastes in an injection well, or by other approved discharge to the land and water of the state;

(53) "freezeback" means the process of freezing solid waste in place as a means to prevent the migration of solid waste and leachate from the designated portion of a facility or unit;

(54) "friable asbestos material" means material that

(A) contains more than one percent asbestos, determined using the method in 40 C.F.R. 763, Subpart E, Appendix E, Polarized Light Microscopy, revised as of July 1, 1997, adopted by reference; and

(B) when dry, can be crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by hand pressure;

(55) "gas condensate" means the liquid generated as a result of a gas recovery process at a MSWLF;

(56) "groundwater" means water below the land surface in the zone of saturation;

(57) "hard rock mine" means a mining facility, on the surface or underground, in which mineral resources are extracted from consolidated or lithified geologic formations;

(58) "hazardous constituent" means a constituent listed in 40 C.F.R. Part 258, Appendices I or II, revised as of July 1, 1997;

(59) "hazardous waste" has the meaning given in AS 46.03.900 ;

(60) "Holocene" means the most recent epoch of the Quaternary period, extending from the end of the Pleistocene Epoch to the present; "Holocene" is generally considered to be 10,000 years;

(61) "household waste" means solid waste; "household waste" includes garbage, trash, and sanitary waste in septic tanks, derived from a household; for purposes of this paragraph, "household" includes single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds, and day-use recreation areas;

(62) "inactive reserve pit" means a drilling waste disposal area, containment structure, or group of containment structures where drilling waste has not been disposed of after January 28, 1996 and at which the owner or operator does not plan to dispose of drilling waste;

(63) "industrial solid waste" means solid waste generated by a manufacturing or industrial process that is not a hazardous waste regulated under 42 U.S.C. 6921 - 42 U.S.C. 6939b (RCRA, Subtitle C, as amended through August 21, 1998); "industrial solid waste" includes polluted soil, inorganic chemicals, iron and steel manufacturing waste, leather and leather products, waste from nonferrous metals manufacturing and foundries, drilling waste, organic chemicals, plastic resin waste, sludges and boiler ash from the pulp and paper industry, rubber and miscellaneous plastic products, textile manufacturing waste, and water treatment chemicals; "industrial solid waste" does not include coal ash, slaughterhouse waste, wood waste, inert waste, or mining waste;

(64) "inert waste" means solid waste that has a low potential to pollute air or water, and that does not normally attract wildlife; "inert waste" includes coal power plant ash, scrap metal, auto fluff, construction and demolition waste, and pavement rubble; "inert waste" does not include asphalt material that contains asbestos;

(65) "injection well" means a confined subsurface porous soil or rock formation for the disposal of waste;

(66) "karst terrane" means an area where karst topography, with its characteristic surface and subterranean features, is developed as the result of dissolution of limestone, dolomite, or other soluble rock; in this paragraph, "characteristic surface and subterranean features" include sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, large springs, and blind valleys;

(67) "landfill" means an area of land, or an excavation in which solid wastes are placed for permanent disposal, and that is not an application site, injection well, reserve pit, or waste pile;

(68) "lateral expansion" means a horizontal expansion of the waste boundaries of an existing solid waste disposal facility;

(69) "leachate" means liquid that has passed through or emerged from solid waste and contains soluble, suspended, or miscible materials removed from the wastes;

(70) "leachate collection system" means a system or device installed immediately above a liner that is designed, constructed, maintained, and operated to collect and remove leachate from a landfill;

(71) "liner" means a continuous layer of natural or synthetic materials beneath or on the sides of a landfill or solid waste containment structure, or a vertical layer installed in a barrier berm that extends continuously from the base of the active thaw zone to the top of the barrier berm to prevent solid waste and leachate from escaping from the landfill or the containment structure;

(72) "liquid waste" means waste material that is determined to contain free liquids as defined by Method 9095 (Paint Filter Liquids Test), as described in Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste, Physical/Chemical Methods (SW-846), adopted by reference in 18 AAC 60.365;

(73) "lithified earth material" means rock, including naturally occurring and naturally formed aggregates or masses of minerals or small particles of older rock that formed by crystallization of magma or by induration of loose sediments; "lithified earth material" does not include human-made material, such as fill, concrete, and asphalt, or unconsolidated earth material, soil, or regolith lying at or near the earth surface;

(74) "litter" has the meaning given that term in AS 46.06.150 ;

(75) "lower explosive limit" means the lowest percent by volume of a mixture of explosive gases that will propagate a flame in air at 25ΓΈ C and normal atmospheric pressure;

(76) "major road system" means a system of connected pioneer roads and community roads as described in 17 AAC 05.030, with a total length of 100 miles or more;

(77) "maximum horizontal acceleration in lithified earth material" means the maximum expected horizontal acceleration depicted on a seismic hazard map, with a 90 percent or greater probability that the acceleration will not be exceeded in 250 years, or the maximum expected horizontal acceleration based on a site-specific seismic risk assessment;

(78) "medical waste" means laboratory waste consisting of discarded cultures and stocks of infectious agents and associated microbiologicals; pathological wastes; selected isolation waste; used and unused discarded sharps; animal waste; human blood or blood products; and other waste defined as "regulated waste" in 29 C.F.R. 1910.1030(b), revised as of July 1, 1997;

(79) "medical waste incinerator" means

(A) a two-chambered incinerator that holds waste for at least one second at temperatures at or above 1700ΓΈ F in the secondary chamber, and operates at 1200ΓΈ F or more in the primary chamber; or

(B) a thermal oxidation unit approved by the department;

(80) "monofill" means a landfill or drilling waste disposal facility that receives primarily one type of solid waste and that is not an inactive reserve pit;

(81) "MSWLF" means a municipal solid waste landfill;

(82) "municipal solid waste landfill" and "MSWLF" mean an area of land or an excavation that receives household waste, and that is not an application site, surface impoundment, injection well, or waste pile; "municipal solid waste landfill" includes new MSWLF, an existing MSWLF, and a lateral expansion of an existing MSWLF;

(83) "new MSWLF" means a municipal solid waste landfill unit that did not receive waste before October 10, 1993;

(84) "nondomestic wastewater" has the meaning given in 18 AAC 72.990;

(85) "nonfriable asbestos material" means asbestos-containing material that, when dry, cannot be crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by hand pressure;

(86) "open burning" means the combustion of solid waste without

(A) control of combustion air to maintain adequate temperature for efficient combustion;

(B) containment of the combustion reaction in an enclosed device to provide sufficient residence time and mixing for complete combustion; and

(C) control of the emission of the combustion products;

(87) "operator" means the person or persons responsible for the overall operation of a facility;

(88) "owner" means the person or persons who own a facility; unless expressly excluded in a particular section, "owner or operator" includes the holder of a permit issued under this chapter regardless of whether the permittee otherwise fits within the definitions given of those terms;

(89) "pathological waste" means discarded pathological waste, including human tissues, organs, and body parts removed during surgery, autopsy, or another medical procedure;

(90) "PCB waste" means polychlorinated biphenyls waste;

(91) "permafrost" means soil in which the naturally occurring temperature has remained below 32ΓΈ F for two or more consecutive years;

(92) repealed 9/7/2002;

(93) "permanently frozen state" means the condition at which both of the following occur:

(A) the temperature of the waste is perpetually at or colder than 0.5ΓΈ F below the crystallization point of the waste; and

(B) migration of leachate and other waste constituents from the buried waste is prevented;

(94) "pH" means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration;

(95) "placer mining" means obtaining, by washing or dredging, minerals from a glacial or alluvial deposit of sand or gravel that contains eroded particles of valuable minerals;

(96) "polluted run-off water" means water that violates a criterion of 40 C.F.R. 257.3-3, revised as of July 1, 1997, adopted by reference, the water quality standards of 18 AAC 70, or the drinking water standards of 18 AAC 80;

(97) "polluted soil" means soil or residue that is not a regulated hazardous waste and meets any of the following criteria; soil that is not polluted under this section may be considered "contaminated soil" under 18 AAC 75 or 18 AAC 78:

(A) contains a hazardous substance in a concentration exceeding an "over 40 inch zone" migration to groundwater level set in 18 AAC 75.341 Table B1 or Table B2, as amended as of August 8, 2002, adopted by reference; or

(B) contains petroleum contaminated media or debris associated with an underground storage tank that is exempted from regulation as a hazardous waste under 40 C.F.R. 261.4(b)(10), revised as of July 1, 1998, adopted by reference;

(C) contains polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in concentrations greater than 10 ppm;

(98) "pollution" has the meaning given in AS 46.03.900 ;

(99) "poor foundation conditions" means an area where features exist that indicate a natural or human-induced event might result in inadequate foundation support for the structural components of an solid waste disposal facility;

(100) "Portland cement" means a material used primarily as the ingredient that binds the aggregate together in concrete; concrete made with Portland cement differs from asphalt cement in that Portland cement hardens due to the hydration of lime, while asphalt cement, which uses hydrocarbons as a binder, hardens as it cools;

(101) "public water system" means a source of water, intake works, collection system, treatment works, storage facility, or distribution system from which water is available for human consumption; "public water system" includes systems providing water to more than one residential dwelling unit, or to a factory, office building, restaurant, school, or other similar facility; "public water system" does not include a system serving only a single-family residence;

(102) "pumpable fluids" means fluids that can be readily pumped or made to flow under normal conditions at temperatures above freezing;

(103) "putrescible waste" means solid waste that contains organic matter capable of being decomposed by microorganisms and of such a character and proportion as to cause obnoxious odors and to be capable of attracting or providing food for birds or animals;

(104) "qualified groundwater scientist" means a scientist or engineer who has received a baccalaureate or post-graduate degree in the natural sciences or engineering and has sufficient training and experience in groundwater hydrology and related fields as may be demonstrated by professional certification or completion of accredited university programs that enable that scientist or engineer to make sound professional judgments regarding groundwater monitoring, contaminant fate and transport, and corrective action;

(105) "RCRA" means the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. 6901 - 42 U.S.C. 6992k, as amended through August 21, 1998;

(106) "recycling" means the process by which a material that would otherwise be destined for disposal is collected, reprocessed, or remanufactured, and then reused;

(107) "registered engineer" means an engineer who is registered in this state under AS 08.48.211 ;

(108) "regulated asbestos-containing material or RACM" means

(A) friable asbestos material;

(B) Category I nonfriable asbestos-containing material that has become friable;

(C) Category I nonfriable asbestos-containing material that will be, or has been, subject to sanding, grinding, cutting, or abrading; and

(D) Category II nonfriable asbestos-containing material that has a high probability of becoming, or has become, crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by the forces expected to act on the material in the course of a demolition or renovation operation regulated by 40 C.F.R. 61.145, revised as of July 1, 1997, or in the course of a disposal operation regulated under this chapter;

(109) "regulated hazardous waste" means a waste that is a hazardous waste, as defined in 40 C.F.R. 261.3, revised as of July 1, 1998, adopted by reference, that is not excluded from regulation as a hazardous waste under 40 C.F.R. 261.4(b), revised as of July 1, 1998, adopted by reference, and was not generated by a conditionally exempt small quantity generator;

(110) "reinforced barrier berm" means a barrier berm in which a liner is installed;

(111) "representative sample" means a sample the chemical makeup or characteristics of which are indicative of the in situ material from which it came;

(112) "resource recovery" means the recovery of materials or energy from solid waste for industrial use, agriculture, heat production, power production, or another process or purpose, including recycling;

(113) "road base" means the areas under and adjacent to the surface of a road that are not normally in contact with standing water;

(114) "run-off" means rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains over land from any part of a facility;

(115) "run-on" means rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains over land onto any part of a facility;

(116) "salvaging" means the controlled removal of waste materials for recycling or reuse;

(117) "seismic impact zone" means an area with a 10 percent or greater probability that the maximum horizontal acceleration in lithified earth material, expressed as a decimal fraction of the earth's gravitational pull, will exceed 0.10g in 250 years;

(118) "selected isolation waste" means discarded waste material that is contaminated with excretions, exudates, and secretions from patients with highly communicable diseases, and that is treated in isolation; "selected isolation waste" includes blood and blood components, and sharps;

(119) "septage" means liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet, Type III marine sanitation device, or similar treatment works that receives only domestic sewage; "domestic sewage" does not include liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, or similar treatment works that receives commercial wastewater or industrial wastewater and does not include grease removed from a grease trap at a restaurant;

(120) "sewage solids" means waste that passes the paint filter test (EPA Test Method 9095, published in Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste, Physical/Chemical Methods (SW-846), adopted by reference in 18 AAC 60.365) , and has been removed from a wastewater treatment system, sewer, septic tank, or other wastewater handling equipment; "sewage solids" includes lagoon dredge, sewer cleanout waste, barscreen grit, and wastewater treatment sludge;

(121) "sewage solids monofill" means a monofill used for disposal of sewage solids, including a "surface disposal site" as defined in 40 C.F.R. 503.21, revised as of July 1, 1997;

(122) "sharps" means discarded implements or parts of equipment used in animal or human patient care, medical research, or industrial laboratories, including hypodermic needles, syringes, Pasteur pipettes, scalpel blades, blood vials, needles with attached tubing, broken or unbroken glassware that has been in contact with an infectious agent, slides, cover slips, and unused, discarded implements, or parts of equipment;

(123) "site" means the land, structures, and equipment at a given location associated with a facility subject to this chapter;

(124) "solid waste" has the meaning given in AS 46.03.900 ;

(125) "solid waste disposal facility" has the meaning given in AS 46.03.900 ;

(126) "solid waste management system" means a comprehensive waste management regime that might extend beyond the boundary of a single facility; "solid waste management system" includes transport, storage, treatment, and disposal operations;

(127) "solid waste processing facility" has the meaning given in AS 46.03.900 ;

(128) "spoil and overburden" means soil, rock, and other material that is removed during a mining operation to gain access to ore;

(129) "store" means holding for a temporary period, at the end of which the material being held is treated, disposed of, or otherwise relocated;

(130) "structural component" means a liner, leachate collection system, final cover, run-on or run-off system, and any other component used in the construction and operation of a waste management area that is necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare and the environment;

(131) "surface impoundment" or "impoundment" means a facility or part of a facility that is a natural topographic depression, human-made excavation, or diked area formed primarily of earthen materials, although it may be lined with human-made materials, that is designed to hold an accumulation of liquid wastes or wastes containing free liquids and that is not an injection well; "surface impoundments" includes holding storage, settling, and aeration pits, ponds, and lagoons;

(132) "surface transportation" means pioneer roads and community roads as described in 17 AAC 05.030, or a railroad system that routinely handles freight; "surface transportation" does not include barges or any other form of water craft;

(133) "surface water" means water

(A) open to the atmosphere and subject to surface run-off; and

(B) from springs, wells, or other collectors directly influenced by surface water;

(134) "tailings" means refuse or dross remaining after ore from a mining operation has been processed;

(135) "thermal instability" means the potential for subsurface degradation of the soils due to thawing in permafrost or ice-rich areas;

(136) "transfer station" means a public use facility for the deposit and temporary storage of solid waste, "transfer station" includes a transfer station located at a landfill; "transfer station" does not include a facility for the storage of a regulated hazardous waste;

(137) "treat" means subjecting waste to physical, mechanical, chemical, biological, or thermal processes that reduce the volume or toxicity, or change the characteristics of the waste;

(138) "treatment works" has the meaning given in AS 46.03.900 ;

(139) "twenty-five-year storm" or "25-year storm" means a storm that has no more than a four percent chance of recurring in any given year or a storm of a magnitude equaled or exceeded once in 25 years on the average over a significantly long period;

(140) "Type I error" means in a statistical test, incorrectly indicating pollution or an increase in pollution;

(141) "unsaturated zone" means the ground layer beneath the topsoil and overlying the water table in which water in pore spaces coexists with air or in which geological matter is unsaturated;

(142) "unstable area" means a location that is susceptible to natural or human-induced events or forces capable of impairing the integrity of some or all of a landfill's structural components responsible for preventing releases from the landfill; "unstable area" includes poor foundation conditions, areas susceptible to mass movements, or earthquake-induced failures, areas underlain by permafrost, and karst terranes;

(143) "uppermost aquifer" means the geologic formation nearest the natural ground surface that is an aquifer, as well as lower aquifers that are hydraulically interconnected with this aquifer within, or immediately downgradient of, the facility's boundary;

(144) "washout" means the carrying away of solid waste by waters of the base flood;

(145) "waste disposal permit" means a permit issued under this chapter;

(146) "waste incompatible with freezeback" means waste that prevents the buried waste in a landfill from attaining a permanently frozen state within the time period allowed in a permit issued under this chapter;

(147) "waste management area" means that part of a facility in which solid wastes are treated, stored, or disposed of;

(148) "waste management boundary" means a plane surface located at the hydraulically downgradient limit of a waste management area, extending down into the uppermost aquifer;

(149) "waste pile" or "pile" means any noncontainerized accumulation of solid, nonflowing waste;

(150) "waste rock" means rock that has been removed during mining or advanced exploration that does not contain sufficient metallic minerals to constitute ore; "waste rock" includes spoil and overburden;

(151) "waste source reduction" means a change in a habit or process that results in less waste being produced; "waste source reduction" does not include physical processing of waste in balers or incinerators;

(152) "water" or "waters" has the meaning given in AS 46.03.900 ;

(153) "wetlands" has the meaning given in 40 C.F.R. 232.2, revised as of July 1, 1997;

(154) "wood waste" means a solid waste that is generated during the transfer or processing of timber; "wood waste" includes wood chips, bark, sawdust, and other such woody debris;

(155) "large inert landfill" means a landfill that is designed to accept more than 1000 cubic yards of inert waste;

(156) "institutional control" means a measure taken to limit, prohibit, or protect against an activity that could

(A) interfere with the integrity of activities or improvements designed to encapsulate or control pollution at a facility, or

(B) result in human or environmental exposure to pollution;

(157) "acute hazardous waste" means a waste identified as an acute hazardous waste under 40 C.F.R. 261.30 - 261.33, revised as of July 1, 1998, adopted by reference;

(158) "conditionally exempt small quantity generator" has the meaning given in 40 C.F.R. 261.5, revised as of July 1, 1998, adopted by reference;

(159) "post-closure period" means the time period following closure of a facility during which monitoring or care of the facility is required under this chapter; if a closure report or certification is required, the post-closure period begins when the report or certification requirement is satisfied and ends when the conditions of 18 AAC 60.270 are met;

(160) "food waste disposal facility" means a facility used to dispose of

(A) slaughterhouse waste;

(B) waste from a seafood processing facility subject to 18 AAC 34; or

(C) waste from a food processing establishment subject to 18 AAC 31;

(161) "grind-and-inject facility" means a facility that processes drilling waste and disposes of it in an injection well;

(162) "household hazardous waste" means solid waste that may have hazardous constituents, but that is not regulated under 42 U.S.C. 6921 - 6939e (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, subtitle C) because it is generated by a household; for purposes of this paragraph, "household" includes single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds, and day-use recreation areas;

(163) "household hazardous waste storage facility" means a facility used for the collection or storage of

(A) household hazardous waste; or

(B) conditionally exempt small quantity generator waste that is not regulated under 42 U.S.C. 6921 - 6939e (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, subtitle C) of disposed of in accordance with those provisions;

(164) "untreated medical waste" means medical waste that has not been treated in an autoclave according to the manufacturer's instructions or incinerated;

(165) "wetted surface" means that area of a solid waste disposal cell or trench excavation surface that is in contact with solid or liquid waste;

(166) "working day" means a day other than Saturday, Sunday, or a state holiday.

History: Eff. 1/28/96, Register 137; am 10/29/98, Register 148; am 7/11/99, Register 151; am 6/30/2002, Register 162; am 9/7/2002, Register 163

Authority: AS 44.46.020

AS 46.03.010

AS 46.03.020

AS 46.03.100

AS 46.03.110

AS 46.03.800

AS 46.03.810

AS 46.06.010

AS 46.06.080

Editor's note: The documents referred to in this section may be reviewed at the department's Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks offices.