Kansas Environmental Coordination Act Glossary: Key Terms & Definitions for Developers and Consultants
Kansas Environmental Coordination Act Key Terms & Definitions
Ambient Air: The portion of the atmosphere, external to buildings, to which the general public has access. (K.A.R. 28-19-200)
Attainment Area: An area considered to have air quality that meets or exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) health standards used in the Clean Air Act. An area may be an attainment area for one pollutant and a non-attainment area for others. (CAA § 107(d))
Best Available Control Technology (BACT): An emission limitation based on the maximum degree of reduction of each pollutant subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act emitted from or which results from any major emitting facility, which the permitting authority, on a case-by-case basis, taking into account energy, environmental, and economic impacts and other costs, determines is achievable for such facility through application of production processes and available methods, systems, and techniques. (CAA § 169(3))
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO): An animal feeding operation that confines animals for more than 45 days during a growing season in an area that does not produce vegetation and meets certain size thresholds. CAFOs are regulated as point sources under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program. (40 CFR § 122.23)
Criteria Pollutants: The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six common air pollutants: ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. These pollutants can harm your health and the environment, and cause property damage. (CAA § 108)
Effluent Limitations: Any restriction, including schedules of compliance, established by a state or the EPA Administrator on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents which are discharged from point sources into navigable waters, the waters of the contiguous zone, or the ocean. (CWA § 502(11))
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): A detailed statement by the responsible official on: (i) the environmental impact of the proposed action; (ii) any adverse environmental effects which cannot be avoided should the proposal be implemented; (iii) alternatives to the proposed action; (iv) the relationship between local short-term uses of man's environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity; and (v) any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented. (NEPA § 102(2)(C))
Fugitive Emissions: Emissions which could not reasonably pass through a stack, chimney, vent, or other functionally equivalent opening. (40 CFR § 70.2)
General Permit: An NPDES permit issued under 40 CFR § 122.28 that authorizes a category of discharges under the CWA within a geographical area.
Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP): Any air pollutant listed pursuant to Clean Air Act Section 112(b). (CAA § 112(a)(6))
Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL): The maximum permissible level of a contaminant in water which is delivered to any user of a public water system. (SDWA § 1401(3))
National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): Standards established by the EPA under the Clean Air Act for pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment. The Clean Air Act identifies two types of NAAQS: primary standards provide public health protection, including protecting the health of "sensitive" populations such as asthmatics, children, and the elderly; and secondary standards provide public welfare protection, including protection against decreased visibility and damage to animals, crops, vegetation, and buildings. (CAA § 109)
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES): The national program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing, terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits, and imposing and enforcing pretreatment requirements, under Clean Water Act Sections 307, 402, 318, and 405. (40 CFR § 122.2)
Navigable Waters: Waters of the United States, including the territorial seas. (CWA § 502(7))
New Source: Any stationary source, the construction or modification of which is commenced after the publication of regulations (or, if earlier, proposed regulations) prescribing a standard of performance under Clean Air Act Section 111 which will be applicable to such source. (CAA § 111(a)(2))
Nonattainment Area: Any area that does not meet (or that contributes to ambient air quality in a nearby area that does not meet) the national primary or secondary ambient air quality standard for a pollutant. (CAA § 107(d)(1)(A)(i))
Nonpoint Source: Any source of water pollution that does not meet the legal definition of "point source" in Clean Water Act Section 502(14).
Point Source: Any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural stormwater runoff. (CWA § 502(14))
Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD): A permitting program established under Clean Air Act Title I, Part C, designed to ensure that air quality in attainment areas does not significantly deteriorate and continues to meet the NAAQS.
Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW): A treatment works as defined by Clean Water Act Section 212, which is owned by a state or municipality (as defined by CWA Section 502(4)). This definition includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. It also includes sewers, pipes, and other conveyances only if they convey wastewater to a POTW Treatment Plant. (40 CFR § 403.3)
State Implementation Plan (SIP): The plan which sets forth the state's strategies for achieving and maintaining the NAAQS. (CAA § 110)
Stationary Source: Any building, structure, facility, or installation which emits or may emit any air pollutant. (CAA § 111(a)(3))
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL): The sum of the individual wasteload allocations for point sources and load allocations for nonpoint sources and natural background. If a receiving water has only one point source discharger, the TMDL is the sum of that point source wasteload allocation plus the load allocations for any nonpoint sources of pollution and natural background sources, tributaries, or adjacent segments. (40 CFR § 130.2)
Toxic Pollutant: Those pollutants, or combinations of pollutants, including disease-causing agents, which after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation into any organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will, on the basis of information available to the EPA Administrator, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction) or physical deformations, in such organisms or their offspring. (CWA § 502(13))
Volatile Organic Compound (VOC): Any compound of carbon, excluding carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid, metallic carbides or carbonates, and ammonium carbonate, which participates in atmospheric photochemical reactions. (40 CFR § 51.100)
Wasteload Allocation (WLA): The portion of a receiving water's loading capacity that is allocated to one of its existing or future point sources of pollution. WLAs constitute a type of water quality-based effluent limitation. (40 CFR § 130.2)
Wetlands: Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. (40 CFR § 230.3)
A Note to Our Readers: We hope this guide is a valuable resource in helping you better understand the . However, it's not a substitute for professional advice and doesn't cover every scenario. Always consult with regulatory bodies and professionals for the most current advice and project-specific guidance.