15A NCAC 02H .1103. DEFINITIONS

The following terms as used in this Section shall have the assigned meaning:

(1)           Categories are groups of parameters which differ by measured test exposure regimes (chronic and acute) and, in the case of toxicological assay, through the presence or absence of vertebrae in the species of test organisms used or being a member of the plant kingdom.  All field population survey techniques are contained within one category.

(2)           Certification is a declaration by the Division that personnel, equipment, records, quality control procedures, and methodology cited by the applicant are accurate and that the applicants' proficiency has been considered and found acceptable.

(3)           Commercial Laboratory means any laboratory, including its employees and agents, which analyzes, for others, wastewater samples for toxicity measurements or for their resultant impacts on the receiving waters.

(4)           Decertification is the loss of certification.

(5)           Director means the Director of the North Carolina Division of Environmental Management, or his successor.

(6)           Division means the North Carolina Division of Environmental Management, or its successor.

(7)           Evaluation samples are samples submitted by the State Laboratory to the commercial, municipal, industrial, or public laboratory as an unknown toxicant for measurement of toxicity or as an unknown set of preserved organisms for identification to specified levels of taxonomic classification.

(8)           Falsified data or information means data or information that has been made untrue by alteration, fabrication, intentional omission, substitution, or mischaracterization.  The agency need not prove intent to defraud to prove data is falsified.

(9)           Inaccurate data or other information means data or information that is in any way incorrect or mistaken.

(10)         Industrial Laboratory means a laboratory, including its employees and agents, operated by an industry to analyze samples from its wastewater treatment plants for toxicity measurements or resultant impacts to receiving waters.

(11)         Parameters are subgroups of categories.  Parameters are unique and separate if they are in separate categories or are performed using different species of test organisms.  For the category, Aquatic Population Survey, separate parameters are to be considered fish, macroinvertebrates, algae, aquatic macrophytes, and zooplankton.

(12)         Public Laboratory means a laboratory, including its employees and agents, operated by a municipality, county, water and sewer authority, sanitary district, metropolitan sewerage district, or state or federal installation or any other governmental unit to analyze samples from its wastewater treatment plant(s) for toxicity measurements or resultant impacts to receiving waters.

(13)         Recertification is reaffirmation of certification.

(14)         Split samples are samples from either a surface water effluent discharge, surface water, or aquatic biological population survey which are segregated at the point of sampling or in the case of field survey, collected independently and then analyzed separately by both the State Laboratory and the commercial, public or industrial laboratory.

(15)         State laboratory means the Environmental Sciences Branch of the Water Quality Section of the North Carolina Division of Environmental Management or its successor.

(16)         Toxicant ‑ Any specific chemical or compound or mixture of chemicals or compounds regulated within an NPDES permit and/or defined as a toxic substance in Rule .0202 of Subchapter 2B.

 

History Note:        Authority G.S. 143‑215.3(a)(1); 143‑215.3(a)(10); 143‑215.66;

Eff. October 1, 1988;

Amended Eff. April 1, 1993.