Tenn. Code Ann. § 69-3-103 (2026)

As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

• (1) "Administrator" means the administrator, or head by whatever name, of the United States environmental protection agency;

• (2) "Animal feeding operation" means a lot or facility, other than an aquatic animal production facility, where the following conditions are met:
  • (A) Animals, other than aquatic animals, have been, are, or will be stabled or confined and fed or maintained for a total of forty-five (45) days or more in any twelve-month period; and
  • (B) Crops, vegetation, forage growth, or post-harvest residues are not sustained in the normal growing season over any portion of the lot or facility;

• (3) "Areawide waste treatment management plan" means a plan that has been approved by the administrator pursuant to § 208 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, Public Law 92-500 (33 U.S.C. § 1288);

• (4) "Board" means the board of water quality, oil and gas, created in § 69-3-104;

• (5) "Boat" means any vessel or watercraft moved by oars, paddles, sails or other power mechanism, inboard or outboard, or any vessel or structure floating upon the water whether or not capable of self-locomotion, including, but not limited to, houseboats, barges, docks, and similar floating objects;

• (6) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of environment and conservation or the commissioner's duly authorized representative and, in the event of the commissioner's absence or a vacancy in the office of commissioner, the deputy commissioner;

• (7) "Conflict of interest" means:
  • (A) Employment or other affiliation with, or financial interest in, the individual, firm, or corporation engaged in preparing an engineering report or plans, a permit package, or an inspection report, or engaged in inspecting the non-discharging treatment works or sewerage system, or the development served by the non-discharging treatment works or sewerage system; or
  • (B) A relationship with a family member or other individual involved in preparing the engineering report or plans, the permit package, inspection report, or inspecting the non-discharging treatment works or the development served by the treatment works that could create an appearance of impropriety;

• (8) "Construction" means any placement, assembly, or installation of facilities or equipment, including contractual obligations to purchase such facilities or equipment, at the premises where such equipment will be used, including preparation work at such premises;

• (9) "Department" means the department of environment and conservation;

• (10) "Director" means the director of the division of water management of the department;

• (11) "Discharge of a pollutant," "discharge of pollutants," and "discharge," when used without qualification, each refer to the addition of pollutants to waters from a source;

• (12) "Division" means the division of water management;

• (13) "Effluent limitation" means any restriction, established by the board or the commissioner, on quantities, rates and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents that are discharged into waters or adjacent to waters;

• (14) "Forestry best management practices" means those land and water resource conservation measures that prevent, limit, or eliminate water pollution for forest resource management purposes, as provided in rules promulgated in this part in accordance with § 11-4-301(d)(18). Until those rules are effective, "forestry best management practices" will be those that have been developed by the division of forestry of the department of agriculture. The commissioner of agriculture shall specifically identify these interim forestry best management practices prior to September 1, 2000;

• (15) "Industrial user" means those industries identified in the standard industrial classification manual, bureau of the budget, 1967, as amended and supplemented, under the category "Division D - Manufacturing" and such other classes of significant waste producers as the board or commissioner deems appropriate;

• (16) "Industrial wastes" means any liquid, solid, or gaseous substance, or combination thereof, or form of energy including heat, resulting from any process of industry, manufacture, trade, or business or from the development of any natural resource;

• (17) "Liquid waste management system" means a waste management system that collects, stores, or land applies manure in a liquid, flowable form;

• (18) "Local administrative officer" means the chief administrative officer of a pretreatment agency that has adopted and implemented an approved pretreatment program pursuant to this part and 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq. and 40 CFR 403.1 et seq.;

• (19) "Local hearing authority" means the administrative board created pursuant to an approved pretreatment program that is responsible for the administration and enforcement of that program and §§ 69-3-123 - 69-3-129;

• (20) "Member" means a member of the board of water quality, oil and gas;

• (21) "Municipal separate storm sewer system" means a municipal separate storm sewer system as defined in the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.), and the rules promulgated thereunder;

• (22) "New source" means any source, the construction of which is commenced after the publication of state or federal regulations prescribing a standard of performance applicable to such source;

• (23) "Obligate lotic aquatic organisms" means organisms that require flowing water for all or almost all of the aquatic phase of their life cycles;

• (24) "Operator" as used in the context of silvicultural activities, means any person who conducts or exercises control over any silvicultural activities; provided, however, that the term "operator" does not include an owner if the silvicultural activities are being conducted by an independent contractor;

• (25) "Other wastes" means any and all other substances or forms of energy, with the exception of sewage and industrial wastes, including, but not limited to, decayed wood, sand, garbage, silt, municipal refuse, sawdust, shavings, bark, lime, ashes, offal, oil, hazardous materials, tar, sludge, or other petroleum byproducts, radioactive material, chemicals, heated substances, dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage sludge, munitions, biological materials, wrecked and discarded equipment, rock, and cellar dirt;

• (26) "Owner" as used in the context of silvicultural activities, means any person or persons that own or lease land on which silvicultural activities occur or own timber on land on which silvicultural activities occur;

• (27) "Owner or operator" means any person who owns, leases, operates, controls, or supervises a source;

• (28) "Person" means any and all persons, including individuals, firms, partnerships, associations, public or private institutions, state and federal agencies, municipalities or political subdivisions, or officers thereof, departments, agencies, or instrumentalities, or public or private corporations or officers thereof, organized or existing under the laws of this or any other state or country;

• (29) "Pollutant" means sewage, industrial wastes, or other wastes;

• (30) "Pollution" means such alteration of the physical, chemical, biological, bacteriological, or radiological properties of the waters of this state, including, but not limited to, changes in temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of the waters that will:
  • (A) Result or will likely result in harm, potential harm or detriment to the public health, safety, or welfare;
  • (B) Result or will likely result in harm, potential harm or detriment to the health of animals, birds, fish, or aquatic life;
  • (C) Render or will likely render the waters substantially less useful for domestic, municipal, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other reasonable uses; or
  • (D) Leave or likely leave the waters in such condition as to violate any standards of water quality established by the board;

• (31) "Pretreatment agency" means the owner of a publicly owned treatment works permitted pursuant to this part that is required by its permit to adopt and enforce an approved pretreatment program that complies with this part and 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq. and 40 CFR 403.1 et seq.;

• (32) "Pretreatment program" means the rules, regulations, and/or ordinances of a pretreatment agency regulating the discharge and treatment of industrial waste that complies with this part and 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq. and 40 CFR 403.1 et seq.;

• (33) "Qualified local program" means a municipal separate storm sewer system that has been approved as such by the department pursuant to this part;

• (34) "Regional administrator" means the regional administrator of the United States environmental protection agency whose region includes Tennessee, or any person succeeding to the duties of this official;

• (35) "Schedules of compliance" means a schedule of remedial measures including an enforceable sequence of actions or operations leading to compliance with an effluent limitation, condition of a permit, other limitation, prohibition, standard, or regulation;

• (36) "Sewage" means water-carried waste or discharges from human beings or animals, from residences, public or private buildings, or industrial establishments, or boats, together with such other wastes and ground, surface, storm, or other water as may be present;

• (37) "Sewerage system" means the conduits, sewers, and all devices and appurtenances by means of which sewage and other waste is collected, pumped, treated, or disposed;

• (38) "Silvicultural activities" means those forest management activities associated with the harvesting of timber and including, without limitation, the construction of roads and trails;

• (39) "Source" means any activity, operation, construction, building, structure, facility, or installation from which there is or may be the discharge of pollutants;

• (40) "Standard of performance" means a standard for the control of the discharge of pollutants that reflects the greatest degree of effluent reduction that the commissioner determines to be achievable through application of the best available demonstrated control technology, processes, operating methods, or other alternatives, including, where practicable, a standard permitting no discharge of pollutants;

• (41) "Stop work order" means an order issued by the commissioner of environment and conservation requiring the operator to immediately cease part or all silvicultural activities;

• (42) "Stream" means a surface water that is not a wet weather conveyance;

• (43) "Third-party water resources engineer" means an engineer qualified by education or experience in wastewater design, including subsurface sewage disposal systems or land application systems, who is:
  • (A) Registered with the Tennessee state board of examiners for architects and engineers;
  • (B) Registered with the department as a third-party water resources engineer; and
  • (C) Not employed by the department or the contract county;

• (44) "Third-party wetland professional" means an individual who is:
  • (A) Certified as a professional wetland scientist by the Society of Wetland Scientists or another wetland certifying entity acceptable to the department;
  • (B) Registered with the department as a third-party wetland professional, having met the qualifications required by the department; and
  • (C) Not employed by the department;

• (45) "Toxic effluent limitation" means an effluent limitation on 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 available information, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions, including malfunctions in reproduction, or physical deformations, in such organisms or their offspring;

• (46) "Variance" means an authorization issued to a person by the commissioner that would allow that person to cause a water quality standard to be exceeded for a limited time period without changing the standard;

• (47) "Watercourse" means a man-made or natural hydrologic feature with a defined linear channel that discretely conveys flowing water, as opposed to sheet-flow;

• (48) "Waters" means any and all water, public or private, on or beneath the surface of the ground, that are contained within, flow through, or border upon Tennessee or any portion thereof, except those bodies of water confined to and retained within the limits of private property in single ownership that do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters;

• (49) "Wet weather conveyance" means, notwithstanding any other law or rule to the contrary, man-made or natural watercourses, including natural watercourses that have been modified by channelization:
  • (A) That flow only in direct response to precipitation runoff in their immediate locality;
  • (B) Whose channels are at all times above the groundwater table;
  • (C) That are not suitable for drinking water supplies; and
  • (D) In which hydrological and biological analyses indicate that, under normal weather conditions, due to naturally occurring ephemeral or low flow there is not sufficient water to support fish, or multiple populations of obligate lotic aquatic organisms whose life cycle includes an aquatic phase of at least two (2) months; and

• (50) "Wetland" means:
  • (A) An area that is inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions; and
  • (B) A type of waters that are not wet weather conveyances, and generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas;

Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 771,s 7, eff. 10/1/2024.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 548, s 1, eff. 5/26/2021.

Amended by 2018 Tenn. Acts, ch. 523, Secs.s 1, s 3eff. 2/28/2018.

Amended by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 293, s 1, eff. 3/1/2018.

Acts 1971, ch. 164, § 3; 1977, ch. 366, § 1; T.C.A., § 70-326; Acts 1984, ch. 804, § 1; 1987, ch. 111, § 1; 1988, ch. 688, §§ 2, 6; 1992, ch. 693, § 1; 1998, ch. 735, § 1; 2000, ch. 680, §1; 2009 , ch. 464, §1; 2012 , ch. 1019, § 1.