Business and Industry Guide to Environmental Permits in Virginia

Table of contents

2. Glossary of Terms

Air Quality Control Region
A geographic area within which air pollution is measured; usually a city and its surrounding counties and comprising two or more planning districts.

Area Source
Any stationary source that is not a major source.

Best Available Control Technology (BACT)
That pollution control method that is recognized as the one removing the greatest amount of air pollutants for a particular industry or process. Cost is considered in requiring BACT.

Closure
The act of securing a waste management facility in compliance with applicable requirements.

Criteria Pollutant
Any air pollutant for which EPA has established a National Ambient Air Quality Standard: carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, ozone, particulates and sulfur oxides. Criteria pollutants are measured in air quality control regions to determine whether the area meets or does not meet the federal air quality standard.

Discharge to State Waters
Release of pollution from a ditch, pipe or other conveyance to surface waters (lake, stream, creek, river or tidal wetland).

General Permit
A set of conditions that can be standardized for a number of facilities; use of general permits where possible eliminates individualized permits for similar situations and is cheaper and less burdensome administratively than individual permits.

Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP)
One of 189 substances and compounds for which EPA is establishing "maximum achievable control technology" standards. A major source of HAPs is considered one that emits 10 tons per year of a single HAP or 25 tons per year of multiple HAPs.

Hazardous Material
Specific substances listed by EPA, and any other substance that is corrosive, ignitable, reactive or toxic.

Joint Permit Application
An application for disturbing a waterway or wetland that when filed with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission is automatically distributed to the Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for determination of permit need by those agencies.

Local Wetlands Board
A citizen board in some Tidewater jurisdictions that regulates tidal wetlands and sand dunes.

Lowest Achievable Emission Rate (LAER)
The air emission rate that is the lowest possible for a type of facility for a specific pollutant; required of air pollution sources in air quality nonattainment areas.

Major Source
Any source defined as major under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration program; in a nonattainment area; or all other sources not meeting the definition of PSD or nonattainment area who emit 100 tons per year of a regulated pollutant. For sources subject to federal MACT rules, a major source is one that emits 10 tons per year of a single hazardous air pollutant or 25 tons per year of any combination of hazardous air pollutants.

Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT)
The maximum degree of reduction in air pollution for new and existing sources, taking into consideration cost, non-air quality health and environmental impacts and energy requirements.

Mobile Sources
Automobiles, aircraft, fleets of cars, trucks and other air pollution sources that move from place to place.

Modified Facility
Any stationary air pollution source that because of changes in equipment, processes or hours of operation emits new or increased pollutants.

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
Maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants that EPA may reasonably anticipate pose a danger to public health or welfare. When violated, the standards cause an area to be designated a nonattainment area.

National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP)
Standards for asbestos, benzene, beryllium, inorganic arsenic, mercury, radionuclides and vinyl chloride.

New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)
Technology-based limits on air pollutants from new and modified sources.

Nonattainment Area
A geographic area that violates the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Noncriteria Pollutant
Any recognized and otherwise regulated air pollutants that are not listed as criteria pollutants.

Permit-by-Rule
A simplified permitting process by which certain types of waste management facilities receive a permit upon submittal of required application materials, or in other cases, when DEQ acknowledges receipt of the required information.

Pollution Offsets
Air pollution reduction credits that offset any increased emissions resulting from a prospective new or expanding industry in a nonattainment area.

Pretreatment
Specialized industrial wastewater treatment, performed at the source, that makes the wastewater suitable for discharge to a public sewage system.

Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD)
An air pollution-permitting program intended to ensure that air quality does not diminish in attainment areas.

PSD Increment
The maximum increase in concentration that is allowed to occur above a baseline concentration for a pollutant while ensuring that an area continues to meet federal air quality standards.

Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW)
A sewage treatment works, normally for treatment of sanitary sewage, owned by the state, a local government, utility authority or community.

State Implementation Plan (SIP)
A plan through which a state institutes air quality protection measures that meet federal criteria. When approved by EPA, the state is delegated federal authority for air quality regulation.

Stationary Source
An air pollution source permanently located in a single location.

Tidal Wetland
Any saltwater or freshwater wetland that is influenced by tidal action.

Toxics
Listed pollutants recognized by Virginia or EPA as posing a potential risk to health or aquatic life. Emissions of toxics from industrial processes and waste management facilities are limited to avoid accumulations in the air, water or ground.