§ 1362. — Definitions.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 33USC1362]
TITLE 33--NAVIGATION AND NAVIGABLE WATERS
CHAPTER 26--WATER POLLUTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL
SUBCHAPTER V--GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 1362. Definitions
Except as otherwise specifically provided, when used in this
chapter:
(1) The term ``State water pollution control agency'' means the
State agency designated by the Governor having responsibility for
enforcing State laws relating to the abatement of pollution.
(2) The term ``interstate agency'' means an agency of two or more
States established by or pursuant to an agreement or compact approved by
the Congress, or any other agency of two or more States, having
substantial powers or duties pertaining to the control of pollution as
determined and approved by the Administrator.
(3) The term ``State'' means a State, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands.
(4) The term ``municipality'' means a city, town, borough, county,
parish, district, association, or other public body created by or
pursuant to State law and having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage,
industrial wastes, or other wastes, or an Indian tribe or an authorized
Indian tribal organization, or a designated and approved management
agency under section 1288 of this title.
(5) The term ``person'' means an individual, corporation,
partnership, association, State, municipality, commission, or political
subdivision of a State, or any interstate body.
(6) The term ``pollutant'' means dredged spoil, solid waste,
incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical
wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or
discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal,
and agricultural waste discharged into water. This term does not mean
(A) ``sewage from vessels or a discharge incidental to the normal
operation of a vessel of the Armed Forces'' within the meaning of
section 1322 of this title; or (B) water, gas, or other material which
is injected into a well to facilitate production of oil or gas, or water
derived in association with oil or gas production and disposed of in a
well, if the well used either to facilitate production or for disposal
purposes is approved by authority of the State in which the well is
located, and if such State determines that such injection or disposal
will not result in the degradation of ground or surface water resources.
(7) The term ``navigable waters'' means the waters of the United
States, including the territorial seas.
(8) The term ``territorial seas'' means the belt of the seas
measured from the line of ordinary low water along that portion of the
coast which is in direct contact with the open sea and the line marking
the seaward limit of inland waters, and extending seaward a distance of
three miles.
(9) The term ``contiguous zone'' means the entire zone established
or to be established by the United States under article 24 of the
Convention of the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone.
(10) The term ``ocean'' means any portion of the high seas beyond
the contiguous zone.
(11) The term ``effluent limitation'' means any restriction
established by a State or the 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, including schedules of
compliance.
(12) The term ``discharge of a pollutant'' and the term ``discharge
of pollutants'' each means (A) any addition of any pollutant to
navigable waters from any point source, (B) any addition of any
pollutant to the waters of the contiguous zone or the ocean from any
point source other than a vessel or other floating craft.
(13) The term ``toxic pollutant'' means 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 Administrator, cause death, disease, behavioral
abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions
(including malfunctions in reproduction) or physical deformations, in
such organisms or their offspring.
(14) The term ``point source'' means 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, or vessel or other
floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This
term does not include agricultural stormwater discharges and return
flows from irrigated agriculture.
(15) The term ``biological monitoring'' shall mean the determination
of the effects on aquatic life, including accumulation of pollutants in
tissue, in receiving waters due to the discharge of pollutants (A) by
techniques and procedures, including sampling of organisms
representative of appropriate levels of the food chain appropriate to
the volume and the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of
the effluent, and (B) at appropriate frequencies and locations.
(16) The term ``discharge'' when used without qualification includes
a discharge of a pollutant, and a discharge of pollutants.
(17) The term ``schedule of compliance'' means a schedule of
remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions or
operations leading to compliance with an effluent limitation, other
limitation, prohibition, or standard.
(18) The term ``industrial user'' means those industries identified
in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Bureau of the Budget,
1967, as amended and supplemented, under the category of ``Division D--
Manufacturing'' and such other classes of significant waste producers
as, by regulation, the Administrator deems appropriate.
(19) The term ``pollution'' means the man-made or man-induced
alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological
integrity of water.
(20) The term ``medical waste'' means isolation wastes; infectious
agents; human blood and blood products; pathological wastes; sharps;
body parts; contaminated bedding; surgical wastes and potentially
contaminated laboratory wastes; dialysis wastes; and such additional
medical items as the Administrator shall prescribe by regulation.
(21) Coastal recreation waters.--
(A) In general.--The term ``coastal recreation waters'' means--
(i) the Great Lakes; and
(ii) marine coastal waters (including coastal estuaries)
that are designated under section 1313(c) of this title by a
State for use for swimming, bathing, surfing, or similar water
contact activities.
(B) Exclusions.--The term ``coastal recreation waters'' does not
include--
(i) inland waters; or
(ii) waters upstream of the mouth of a river or stream
having an unimpaired natural connection with the open sea.
(22) Floatable material.--
(A) In general.--The term ``floatable material'' means any
foreign matter that may float or remain suspended in the water
column.
(B) Inclusions.--The term ``floatable material'' includes--
(i) plastic;
(ii) aluminum cans;
(iii) wood products;
(iv) bottles; and
(v) paper products.
(23) Pathogen indicator.--The term ``pathogen indicator'' means a
substance that indicates the potential for human infectious disease.
(June 30, 1948, ch. 758, title V, Sec. 502, as added Pub. L. 92-500,
Sec. 2, Oct. 18, 1972, 86 Stat. 886; amended Pub. L. 95-217, Sec. 33(b),
Dec. 27, 1977, 91 Stat. 1577; Pub. L. 100-4, title V, Secs. 502(a), 503,
Feb. 4, 1987, 101 Stat. 75; Pub. L. 100-688, title III, Sec. 3202(a),
Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4154; Pub. L. 104-106, div. A, title III,
Sec. 325(c)(3), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 259; Pub. L. 106-284, Sec. 5,
Oct. 10, 2000, 114 Stat. 875.)
Amendments
2000--Pars. (21) to (23). Pub. L. 106-284 added pars. (21) to (23).
1996--Par. (6)(A). Pub. L. 104-106 substituted `` `sewage from
vessels or a discharge incidental to the normal operation of a vessel of
the Armed Forces' '' for `` `sewage from vessels' ''.
1988--Par. (20). Pub. L. 100-688 added par. (20).
1987--Par. (3). Pub. L. 100-4, Sec. 502(a), inserted ``the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,'' after ``Samoa,''.
Par. (14). Pub. L. 100-4, Sec. 503, inserted ``agricultural
stormwater discharges and'' after ``does not include''.
1977--Par. (14). Pub. L. 95-217 inserted provision that ``point
source'' does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture.
Termination of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
For termination of Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, see note
set out preceding section 1681 of Title 48, Territories and Insular
Possessions.
Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone of United States
For extension of territorial sea and contiguous zone of United
States, see Proc. No. 5928 and Proc. No. 7219, respectively, set out as
notes under section 1331 of Title 43, Public Lands.
Definition of ``Point Source''
Section 507 of Pub. L. 100-4 provided that: ``For purposes of the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act [33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.], the term
`point source' includes a landfill leachate collection system.''
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in section 1319 of this title; title 14
section 690; title 26 section 169; title 30 section 1419; title 42
sections 9117, 9601.
