                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

DEFINITIONS (§ 32.1-163)

As used in this article, unless the context clearly requires a different
meaning:
		&#8220;Alternative discharging sewage system&#8221; means any device or system
which results in a point source discharge of treated sewage for which the Board
may issue a permit authorizing construction and operation when such system is
regulated by the State Water Control Board pursuant to a general Virginia
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued for an individual single
family dwelling with flows less than or equal to 1,000 gallons per day.
		&#8220;Alternative onsite sewage system&#8221; or &#8220;alternative onsite
system&#8221; means a treatment works that is not a conventional onsite sewage
system and does not result in a point source discharge.
		&#8220;Betterment loan&#8221; means a loan to be provided by private lenders
either directly or through a state agency, authority or instrumentality or a
locality or local or regional authority serving as a conduit lender, to repair,
replace, or upgrade an onsite sewage system or an alternative discharging sewage
system for the purpose of reducing threats to public health and ground and
surface waters, which loan is secured by a lien with a priority equivalent to
the priority of a lien securing an assessment for local improvements under §
15.2-2411.
		&#8220;Conduit lender&#8221; means a state agency, authority or
instrumentality or a locality, local or regional authority or an instrumentality
thereof serving as a conduit lender of betterment loans.
		&#8220;Conventional onsite sewage system&#8221; means a treatment works
consisting of one or more septic tanks with gravity, pumped, or siphoned
conveyance to a gravity distributed subsurface drainfield.
		&#8220;Licensed onsite soil evaluator&#8221; means a person who is licensed
under Chapter 23 (§ 54.1-2300 et seq.) of Title 54.1 as an onsite soil
evaluator. A licensed onsite soil evaluator is authorized to evaluate soils and
soil properties in relationship to the effects of these properties on the use
and management of these soils as the locations for onsite sewage systems.
		&#8220;Maintenance&#8221; means, unless otherwise provided in local ordinance,
(i) performing adjustments to equipment and controls or (ii) in-kind replacement
of normal wear and tear parts that do not require a construction permit for
adjustment or replacement of the component such as light bulbs, fuses, filters,
pumps, motors, sewer lines, conveyance lines, distribution boxes, header lines,
or other like components. &#8220;Maintenance&#8221; includes pumping the tanks
or cleaning the building sewer on a periodic basis. Notwithstanding any local
ordinance, &#8220;maintenance&#8221; does not include replacement of tanks,
drainfield piping, subsurface drainfields, or work requiring a construction
permit and installer. Unless otherwise prohibited by local ordinance, a
conventional onsite sewage system installer or an alternative onsite sewage
system installer may perform maintenance work limited to in-kind replacement of
light bulbs, fuses, filters, pumps, sewer lines, conveyance lines, distribution
boxes, and header lines.
		&#8220;Operate&#8221; means the act of making a decision on one&#8217;s own
volition (i) to place into or take out of service a unit process or unit
processes or (ii) to make or cause adjustments in the operation of a unit
process at a treatment works.
		&#8220;Operation&#8221; means the biological, chemical, and mechanical
processes of transforming sewage or wastewater to compounds or elements and
water that no longer possess an adverse environmental or health impact.
		&#8220;Operator&#8221; means any individual employed or contracted by any
owner, who is licensed or certified under Chapter 23 (§ 54.1-2300 et seq.) of
Title 54.1 as being qualified to operate, monitor, and maintain an alternative
onsite sewage system.
		&#8220;Owner&#8221; means the Commonwealth or any of its political
subdivisions, including sanitary districts, sanitation district commissions and
authorities, any individual, any group of individuals acting individually or as
a group, or any public or private institution, corporation, company,
partnership, firm or association which owns or proposes to own a sewerage system
or treatment works.
		&#8220;Regulations&#8221; means the Sewage Handling and Disposal Regulations,
heretofore or hereafter enacted or adopted by the State Board of Health.
		&#8220;Review Board&#8221; means the State Sewage Handling and Disposal
Appeals Review Board.
		&#8220;Sewage&#8221; means water-carried and non-water-carried human
excrement, kitchen, laundry, shower, bath or lavatory wastes, separately or
together with such underground, surface, storm and other water and liquid
industrial wastes as may be present from residences, buildings, vehicles,
industrial establishments or other places.
		&#8220;Sewerage system&#8221; means pipelines or conduits, pumping stations
and force mains and all other construction, devices and appliances appurtenant
thereto, used for the collection and conveyance of sewage to a treatment works
or point of ultimate disposal.
		&#8220;Subsurface drainfield&#8221; means a system installed within the soil
and designed to accommodate treated sewage from a treatment works.
		&#8220;Transportation&#8221; means the vehicular conveyance of sewage.
		&#8220;Treatment works&#8221; means any device or system used in the storage,
treatment, disposal or reclamation of sewage or combinations of sewage and
industrial wastes, including but not limited to pumping, power and other
equipment and appurtenances, septic tanks, and any works, including land, that
are or will be (i) an integral part of the treatment process or (ii) used for
ultimate disposal of residues or effluents resulting from such treatment.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 32-9; 1954, c. 646; 1964, c. 436; 1970, c. 645; 1972, c.
775; 1979, c. 711; 1984, c. 457; 1990, cc. 342, 861, 869; 1994, c. 747; 2007,
cc. 892, 924; 2009, c. 829; 2018, c. 830.