17.40.201    DEFINITIONS

In addition to the terms defined in 37-42-102, MCA:

(1) "Advanced or tertiary wastewater treatment" means additional treatment to remove suspended or dissolved substances remaining after conventional secondary wastewater treatment processes. Treatment may utilize biological or chemical treatment processes. Mechanical tertiary treatment processes refer to advanced treatment processes that require extensive use of mechanical equipment such as pumps, blowers, chemical metering, motors and other pieces of equipment and structures.

(2) "Certified operator-in-training" means an operator who does not satisfy the experience requirements set forth in ARM 17.40.213, but has:

(a) passed the certification examination; and

(b) met applicable continuing education requirements in ARM 17.40.213.

(3) "Facility-based training" means training provided by the owner of a water treatment system, water distribution system or wastewater treatment system for its employees and either held at that treatment facility or taught, in whole or in part, by other employees of that facility.

(4) "Fully certified operator" means an operator who:

(a) has met applicable continuing education requirements, if any, in ARM 17.40.213; and

(b) has passed the certification examination and satisfies the experience requirements set forth in ARM 17.40.207;

(c) is an operator certified pursuant to ARM 17.40.203(1) who is still employed at the system where he was employed July 1, 1967;

(d) was certified pursuant to 37-42-305, MCA, before March 1, 1982; or

(e) is certified pursuant to ARM 17.40.203(8).

(5) "Ground water" means water occupying the voids within a geologic stratum and within the zone of saturation.

(6) "On-site wastewater treatment system" means a sewage system using a mechanical or septic tank based treatment process where the treated waste is disposed of using a soil disposal system.

(7) "Responsible charge" means responsibility exercised by an individual in day-by-day operation or supervision of a water system, wastewater treatment system, or any part thereof, which may affect the quality or quantity of water for human consumption or the quality of effluent produced by the wastewater treatment system.

(8) "Secondary wastewater treatment" means a process that reduces the concentrations of contaminants in wastewater, through biological treatment methods such as lagoons, trickling filters, activated sludge, sequencing batch reactors or bio-discs to generally meet the numeric criteria of the National Secondary Treatment Standards contained in 40 CFR Part 133, which have been adopted by reference in ARM Title 17, chapter 30, subchapter 12.

(9) "Surface waters" means any water on the earth's surface including, but not limited to, streams, lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and irrigation drainage systems discharging directly into a stream, lake, pond, reservoir or other water on the earth's surface. Water bodies used solely for treating, transporting or impounding pollutants are not considered surface water for the purposes of this chapter.

(10) "Temporary certificate" means a certificate that is issued to a department-approved applicant, who does not meet the full certification requirements, to be an operator in responsible charge of a specified system.

(11) "Wastewater treatment system" means a wastewater treatment plant as defined in 37-42-102, MCA.

(12) "Water treatment system" means a water treatment plant as defined in 37-42-102, MCA. 

History: 37-42-202, MCA; IMP, 37-42-202, MCA; NEW, Eff. 12/5/75; AMD, 1981 MAR p. 1787, Eff. 12/18/81; AMD, 1986 MAR p. 1078, Eff. 6/27/86; AMD, 1991 MAR p. 1276, Eff. 7/26/91; TRANS, from DHES, 1996 MAR p. 1499; AMD, 1997 MAR p. 545, Eff. 3/25/97; AMD, 1998 MAR p. 2966, Eff. 11/6/98; AMD, 2002 MAR p. 3148, Eff. 11/15/02; AMD, 2012 MAR p. 886, Eff. 4/27/12; AMD, 2015 MAR p. 2144, Eff. 12/11/15.