§830.102. Definitions

Except as stated in this Section, the definition of each word or term used in this Part, 35 Ill. Adm. Code 831 and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 832 shall be the same as that applied to the same word or term in the Environmental Protection Act ("Act") [415 ILCS 5].

 

            "Act" means the Environmental Protection Act [415 ILCS 5].

 

            "Additive" means components, other than landscape waste, added to composting material to maximize the decomposition process by adjusting any of the following: moisture, temperature, oxygen transfer, pH, carbon to nitrogen ratio, biology or biochemistry of the composting material.

 

            "Aerated static pile" means a composting system that uses a series of perforated pipes or equivalent air distribution systems running underneath a compost pile and connected to a blower that either draws or blows air through the piles.  Little or no pile agitation or turning is performed.

 

            "Aerobic composting" means a process managed and maintained to promote maturation of organic materials by microbial action in the presence of free oxygen contained within the gas in the composting material.

 

            "Aerobic" means done in the presence of free oxygen.

 

            "Agency" means the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

 

            "Agronomic Rates" means the application of not more than 20 tons per acre per year, except that the Agency may allow a higher rate for individual sites where the owner or operator has demonstrated to the Agency that the site's soil characteristics or crop needs require a higher rate.  (Section 21(q) of the Act.)

 

            "Anaerobic composting" means a process managed and maintained to promote maturation of organic materials by microbial action in the absence of free oxygen within the gas in the composting material.

 

            "Bad Load" means a load of material that would, if accepted, cause or contribute to a violation of the Act, even if managed in accordance with these regulations and any facility permit conditions.

 

            "Batch" means material used to fill the vessel of a contained composting system.

 

            "Board" means the Illinois Pollution Control Board.

 

            "Bulking agent" means a material used to increase porosity, to improve aeration, or to absorb moisture from decomposing waste.

 

            "Closure" means the process of terminating composting facility operations pursuant to applicable Sections in this Part, 35 Ill. Adm. Code 831 and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 832, beginning upon permit expiration without filing for renewal, intentional cessation of waste acceptance or cessation of waste acceptance for greater than 180 consecutive days, unless an alternative time frame is approved in a closure plan.

 

            "Commercial activity" means any activity involving the transfer of money.

 

            "Compost" means the humus-like product of the process of composting waste, which may be used as a soil conditioner. (Section 3.70 of the Act.)

 

            "Composting" means the biological treatment process by which microorganisms decompose the organic fraction of the waste, producing compost.  (Section 3.70 of the Act.)  Land application is not composting.

 

            "Composting area" means the area of a composting facility in which waste, composting material or undistributed end-product compost is unloaded, stored, staged, stockpiled, treated or otherwise managed.

 

            "Composting material" means solid wastes that are in the process of being composted.

 

            "Composting operation" means an enterprise engaged in the production and distribution of end-product compost.

 

            "Contained composting process" means a method of producing compost in which the composting material is confined or contained in a vessel or structure which both protects the material from the elements and controls the moisture and air flow.

 

            "Designated use compost" means end-product compost which does not meet the standards set forth in Section 830.503 of this Part.

 

            "Dewar flask" means an insulated container used especially to store liquefied gases, having a double wall, an evacuated space between the walls and silvered surfaces.

 

            "Domestic sewage" means waste water derived principally from dwellings, business or office buildings, institutions, food service establishments, and similar facilities.

 

            "End-product compost" means organic material that has been processed to maturity and classified as general use compost or designated use compost in accordance with this Part.

 

            "Facility" means any landscape waste compost facility.

 

            "Garbage" is waste resulting from the handling, processing, preparation, cooking, and consumption of food, and wastes from the handling, processing, storage, and sale of produce. (Section 3.11 of the Act.)

 

            "Garden compost operation" means an operation which (1) has no more than 25 cubic yards of landscape waste, composting material or end-product compost on-site at any one time and (2) is not engaging in commercial activity.

 

            "General use compost" means end-product compost which meets the standards set forth in Section 830.503 of this Part.

 

            "Groundwater" means underground water which occurs within the saturated zone and geologic materials where the fluid pressure in the pore space is equal to or greater than atmospheric pressure. (Section 3(b) of the Groundwater Protection Act [415 ILCS 55].)

 

            "In-vessel composting" means a diverse group of composting methods in which composting materials are contained in a building, reactor, or vessel.

 

            "In-vessel continuous feed system" means a method of producing compost in which the raw composting material is delivered on a continuous basis to a reactor.

 

            "Insulating material" means material used for the purpose of preventing the passage of heat out of a windrow or other pile. Insulating material includes, but is not limited to, end-product compost, foam, or soil.  Insulating material does not include composting material that has not reached maturity.

 

            "Land application" means the spreading of waste, at an agronomic rate, as a soil amendment to improve soil structure and crop productivity.

 

            "Landscape Waste" means all accumulations of grass or shrubbery cuttings, leaves, tree limbs and other materials accumulated as the result of the care of lawns, shrubbery, vines and trees. (Section 3.20 of the Act.)

 

            "Landscape waste compost facility" means an entire landscape waste composting operation, with the exception of a garden compost operation.

 

            "Landscape waste leachate" means a liquid containing any of the following: waste constituents originating in landscape waste; landscape waste composting material; additives; and end-product compost.

 

            "Maturity" means a state which is characteristically:  generally dark in color; humus-like; crumbly in texture; not objectionable in odor; resembling rich topsoil; and bearing little resemblance in physical form to the waste from which it is derived.

 

            "Modification" means a permit revision authorizing either an extension of the current permit term or a physical or operational change at a composting facility which involves different or additional processes, increases the capacity of the operation, requires construction, or alters a requirement set forth as a special condition in the existing permit.

 

            "MPN" means most probable number, a mathematical inference of the viable count from the fraction of cultures that fail to show growth in a series of tubes containing a suitable medium.

 

            "Nearest residence" means an occupied dwelling and adjacent property commonly used by inhabitants of the dwelling.

 

            "Non-compostable material" means items not subject to microbial decomposition under conditions used to compost waste.

 

            "Off-site" means not on-site.

 

            "On-farm landscape waste compost facility" means a landscape compost facility which satisfies all of the criteria set forth in Section 830.106.

 

            "On-site" means on the same or geographically contiguous property which may be divided by public or private right-of-way, provided the entrance and exit between the properties is at a crossroads intersection and access is by crossing as opposed to going along the right-of-way.  Noncontiguous properties owned by the same person but connected by a right-of-way which the owner controls and to which the public does not have access are also considered on-site property.

 

            "On-site commercial facility" means a landscape waste compost facility at which the landscape waste composted is generated only on-site and the end-product is offered for off-site sale or use.

 

            "On-site facility" means a landscape waste compost facility at which the landscape waste composted is generated only on-site and the end-product is not offered for off-site sale or use.

 

            "Open composting process" means a method of producing compost without protecting the compost from weather conditions.

 

            "Operator" means the individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, political subdivision, State agency, or any other legal entity that is responsible for the operation of the facility.  The property owner, if different from the operator, shall be deemed the operator in the event that the operator abandons the facility.

 

            "Origin" means the legal entity from which a substance has been obtained.

 

            "Processing into windrows or other piles" means placement of waste materials into windrows or other piles of a size, structure, and mixture adequate to begin the composting process.

 

            "Property owner" means the owner of the land on which the composting operation is located or proposed to be located, except that if the operator has obtained a lease for at least the duration of the proposed facility permit plus one year, then "property owner" shall mean the operator of the composting operation.

 

            "Registered professional engineer" means a person registered under the Illinois Professional Engineering Practice Act [225 ILCS 325].

 

            "Relatively impermeable soil" means a soil located above the water table that has a hydraulic conductivity no greater than 1 x 10^(-5) centimeters per second for a thickness of at least one foot.

 

            "Runoff" means water resulting from precipitation that flows overland before it enters a defined stream channel, excluding any portion of such overland flow that infiltrates into the ground before it reaches the stream channel, and any precipitation that falls directly into a stream channel.

 

            "Runon" means any rainwater, leachate or other liquid that drains over land onto any part of a facility.

 

            "Salvaging" means the return of waste materials to beneficial use.

 

            "Salvaging operations" means those activities that recover waste for beneficial use, so long as the activity is done under the supervision of the compost facility's operator, does not interfere with or otherwise delay the operations of the compost facility, and results in the removal of all materials for salvaging from the compost facility daily or separation by type and storage in a manner that does not create a nuisance, harbor vectors, or cause an unsightly appearance.

 

            "Septage" means the liquid portions and sludge residues removed from septic tanks.

 

            "Sewage" means water-carried human and related waste from any source.

 

            "Site" means any location, place, tract of land, and facilities, including but not limited to buildings, and improvements used for purposes subject to regulation or control by the Act and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 830, 831 and 832. (Section 3.43 of the Act.)

 

            "Sludge" means any solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, or any other such waste having similar characteristics and effects.  (Section 3.44 of the Act.)

 

            "Special waste" means any industrial process waste, pollution control waste or hazardous waste, except as determined pursuant to Section 22.9 of the Act and 35 Ill. Adm. Code 808. (Section 3.45 of the Act.)

 

            "Stability" means a state in which the compost decomposes slowly even under conditions favorable for microbial activity.

 

            "Staging area" means an area within a facility where raw material for composting is processed, temporarily stored in accordance with the standards set forth in 830.205(a)(1)(A), loaded or unloaded.

 

            "Surface water" means all tributary streams and drainage basins, including natural lakes and artificial reservoirs, which may affect a specific water supply above the point of water supply intake.  Such term does not include treatment works (such as a retention basin).

 

            "Ten (10) year, 24 hour precipitation event" means a precipitation event of 24 hour duration with a probable recurrence interval of once in 10 years.

 

            "20-20-20 NPK" means a fertilizer containing 20 percent total nitrogen (N), 20 percent available phosphoric acid (P^[2]O^[5]) and 20 percent soluble potash (K^[2]O).

 

            "Unacceptable load" means a load containing waste a facility is not authorized to accept.

 

            "Underground water" means all water beneath the land surface.

 

            "Vector" means any living agent, other than human, capable of transmitting, directly or indirectly, an infectious disease.

 

            "Water table" means the boundary between the unsaturated and saturated zones of geologic materials or the surface on which the fluid pressure in the pores of a porous medium is exactly at atmospheric pressure.

 

            "Windrow" means an elongated pile of solid waste or composting material constructed to promote composting.

 

            "Woody landscape waste" means plant material greater than two inches in diameter.