WAC 246-294-010   Definitions.  Abbreviations:


     EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

     MCL - maximum contaminant level

     NTNC - nontransient noncommunity

     SMA - satellite management agency

     SSNC - state significant noncomplier

     TNC - transient noncommunity

     VOC - volatile organic chemical

     WFI - water facilities inventory


     "Adequacy" means an assessment, based upon evaluation of the department's records, of a water system's current ability to provide safe and reliable drinking water in accordance with applicable drinking water statutes and regulations.

     "Community water system" means any Group A water system:

     With fifteen or more services used by residents for one hundred eighty or more days within a calendar year, regardless of the number of people; or

     Regularly serving twenty-five or more residents for one hundred eighty or more days within the calendar year, regardless of the number of services.

     "Department" means the Washington state department of health.

     "Drinking water regulations" means the provisions of chapter 70.119A RCW, chapter 246-290 WAC, state board of health drinking water regulations and chapter 246-292 WAC, water works operator certification regulations, that help assure Group A public water systems provide safe and reliable drinking water.

     "Group A water systems" are defined as community and noncommunity water systems.

     (a) Community water system means any Group A water system providing service to fifteen or more service connections used by year-round residents for one hundred eighty or more days within a calendar year, regardless of the number of people, or regularly serving at least twenty-five year-round (i.e., more than one hundred eighty days per year) residents.

     (b) Noncommunity water system means a Group A water system that is not a community water system. Noncommunity water systems are further defined as:

     (i) Nontransient (NTNC) water systems that provide service opportunity to twenty-five or more of the same nonresidential people for one hundred eighty or more days within a calendar year.

     (ii) Transient (TNC) water systems that serve:

     (A) Twenty-five or more different people each day for sixty or more days within a calendar year;

     (B) Twenty-five or more of the same people each day for sixty or more days, but less than one hundred eighty days in a calendar year; or

     (C) One thousand or more people for two or more consecutive days within a calendar year.

     "Maximum contaminant level (MCL)" means the maximum permissible level of a contaminant in water the purveyor delivers to any public water system user, measured at the locations identified under WAC 246-290-300, Table 3.

     "Nonresident" means a person having access to drinking water from a public water system who lives elsewhere. Examples include travelers, transients, employees, students, etc.

     "Owner" means any agency, subdivision of the state, municipal corporation, firm, company, mutual or cooperative association, institution, partnership, or person or any other entity, that holds as property, a public water system.

     "Public water system" means any system, providing water for human consumption through pipes or other constructed conveyances, excluding a system serving only one single-family residence and a system with four or fewer connections all of which serve residences on the same farm. The term includes:

     (a) Collection, treatment, storage, and/or distribution facilities under control of the purveyor and used primarily in connection with the system.

     (b) Collection or pretreatment storage facilities not under control of the purveyor, but primarily used in connection with the system.

     "Resident" means an individual living in a dwelling unit served by a public water system.

     "Satellite management agency (SMA)" means an individual, purveyor, or entity that is approved by the department in accordance with chapter 246-295 WAC to own or operate more than one public water system on a regional or county-wide basis, without the necessity for a physical connection between such systems.

     "Service connection" means a connection to a public water system designed to provide potable water to a single-family residence, or other residential or nonresidential population. When the connection provides water to a residential population without clearly defined single-family residences, the following formulas shall be used in determining the number of services to be included as residential connections on the WFI form:

     • Divide the average population served each day by two and one-half; or

     • Using actual water use data, calculate the total ERU's represented by the service connection in accordance with department design guidance.

     • In no case shall the calculated number of services be less than one.

     "State significant noncomplier (SSNC)" means a system that is violating or has violated department rules, and violations may create, or have created an imminent or a significant risk to human health. Such violations include, but are not limited to, repeat violations of monitoring requirements, failure to address exceedance of permissible levels of regulated contaminants, failure to comply with treatment technique standards or requirements, failure to comply with water works operator certification requirements, or failure to submit to a sanitary survey.

     "Water facilities inventory (WFI)" means the department form summarizing each public water system's characteristics.



[Statutory Authority: Chapter 70.119A RCW. 04-06-047, § 246-294-010, filed 3/1/04, effective 4/1/04; 93-03-047 (Order 325), § 246-294-010, filed 1/14/93, effective 2/14/93.]