NR 204.03(44)(44) “POTW” or “publicly owned treatment works” means a treatment works which is owned by a public entity and any sewers that convey wastewater to the treatment works. This definition includes any device or system used by a municipality in the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage, sludge or liquid industrial waste. NR 204.03(45)(45) “Privately owned domestic wastewater treatment works” means a facility which has a permit under ch. 283, Stats., and which treats domestic wastewater or sludge and which is owned and operated by non-municipal entity or enterprise such as a mobile home park, restaurant, hotel, motel or country club. NR 204.03(46)(46) “Public contact site” means land with a high potential for contact by the public. This includes sites such as public parks, ball fields, plant nurseries, turf farms and golf courses. NR 204.03(47)(47) “Recreation area” means a designated area clearly identified for the purpose of providing an opportunity for recreational activity. NR 204.03(48)(48) “Reclamation site” means drastically disturbed land that is reclaimed using sewage sludge. This includes sites such as strip mines and construction sites. NR 204.03(49)(49) “Recycling” means the beneficial reuse of sludge through land application, composting or other approved method that returns organic matter or nutrients to the soil, or creates a useful product. NR 204.03(50)(50) “Research plots” means an area of land approved by the department and designed and operated by a qualified person to investigate questions pertaining to land application and uses of sludge. NR 204.03(51)(51) “Restricted public access” means private property or the limiting of entry, for a period of time, by means such as signs or traditional agricultural fencing or other department approved method. NR 204.03(52)(52) “School” means a public or private educational facility in which a program of educational instruction is provided to children or adults in any grade or grades from pre-school through the university level. NR 204.03(53)(53) “Screenings” means the coarse sewage solids collected from devices such as gratings, wire mesh or perforated plates. NR 204.03(54)(54) “Set aside land” or “acreage conservation reserve” means the agricultural land which is taken out of crop production on an annual basis for the purposes of conservation and to reduce the acreage planted of a particular crop. NR 204.03(55)(55) “Sewage sludge” or “sludge” or “biosolids” means the solid, semi-solid or liquid residue generated during the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works. Sewage sludge includes scum or solids removed in primary, secondary or advanced wastewater treatment processes and material derived from sewage sludge. Sewage sludge does not include ash generated during the firing of a sewage sludge incinerator or grit and screenings generated during preliminary treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works. NR 204.03 NoteNote: All 3 terms defined here are interchangeable and recognized by the department, as they are all in common use.
NR 204.03(56)(56) “Site” means any property used for recycling, disposal or storage of sludge and may be divided into fields. NR 204.03(57)(57) “Soil” means the unconsolidated material which overlies bedrock. NR 204.03(58)(58) “Soil compaction” means the degree of compaction to a soil at which its infiltration capacity, permeability and ability to function as a medium for plant growth is impeded. NR 204.03(59)(59) “Soil conservation practice” means a measure used to retain surface water and soil on agricultural fields, including contour strip cropping, terracing, grassed waterways or plant residue management practices. NR 204.03(60)(60) “Soil pH” means the pH of the soil in the plow layer as measured in water by a pH meter with a glass electrode or by using another department approved procedure. NR 204.03(61)(61) “Specific oxygen uptake rate” or “SOUR” means the mass of oxygen consumed per unit time per unit mass of total solids on a dry weight basis. NR 204.03(62)(62) “Stabilization of sludge” means any combination of chemical, physical, thermal or biological treatment processes which result in a significant reduction in the percentage of volatile solids or the specific oxygen uptake rate in the sludge. NR 204.03(63)(63) “Surface disposal unit” means an area of land on which only sewage sludge, including exceptional quality sludge, is placed for final disposal. This does not include land or lagoons on which sewage sludge is either stored or treated, municipal solid waste landfills or land application sites. NR 204.03(64)(64) “Surface water” means those portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior within the boundaries of Wisconsin, all lakes, bays, rivers, streams, springs, ponds, impounding reservoirs, marshes, water courses, drainage systems and other surface water, natural or artificial, public or private within the state or under its jurisdiction, except those waters which are entirely confined and completely retained upon the property of a facility. NR 204.03(65)(65) “Threatened or endangered species” means those species defined in ch. NR 27. NR 204.03(66)(66) “Total nitrogen” means the sum of nitrite, nitrate, ammonia and organic nitrogen. NR 204.03(67)(67) “Total solids” means the materials in sewage sludge that remain as residue when the sewage sludge is dried at 103 to 105° Celsius. NR 204.03(68)(68) “Treatment works” means a publicly or privately owned treatment works, centralized septage treatment facility, and treatment works owned by federal or state government. NR 204.03(69)(69) “Unstabilized solids” means the organic materials in sewage sludge that have not been treated in either an aerobic or anaerobic treatment process. NR 204.03(70)(70) “Vector attraction” means the characteristics of sewage sludge that attract rodents, flies, mosquitos or other organisms capable of transporting infectious agents. NR 204.03(71)(71) “Volatile solids” means the amount of the total solids in sewage sludge lost when the sewage sludge is combusted at 550° Celsius in the presence of excess air.