Definitions

Definitions. Definitions. In this chapter: (1) “Amendment” means a formal, written change to an existing legal agreement or contract executed by all parties to the original agreement or contract. (2) “American Community Survey” or “ACS” means the nationwide survey conducted by the U.S. bureau of the census to collect demographic, social, housing, and economic data and produce 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year estimates based on population thresholds. (3) “Applicant” means any municipality that submits to the department any of the following for financial assistance under this chapter: (a) Intent to apply form and priority evaluation and ranking information as required by the department. (b) A financial assistance application. (4) “Approval” means the written approval of the department. (5) “Best management practices” or “BMPs” has the meaning given in s. NR 151.002 (4) . (6) “Block group” means a subdivision of a census tract made up of a cluster of blocks having the same first digit of their 4-digit identifying numbers within the tract. (7) “Board of commissioners of public lands” or “BCPL” means the organization comprised of the secretary of state, the state treasurer, and the attorney general that operates under the authority of ch. 24 , Stats. (7m) “BOD” means the pollutant parameter biochemical oxygen demand. (8) “Breach of contract” means the failure of the municipality to comply with any of the following: (a) The terms and conditions of the financial assistance agreement or interest rate subsidy agreement. (b) The terms and conditions of the municipal resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of bonds or notes to the clean water fund program. (9) “Capital improvement” means construction resulting in improvements to real property or depreciable property, or both, and adding to the value or useful life of these assets, including structural improvements, or improvements that enhance usefulness or productivity. “Capital improvement” includes capital assets that are not structural but are necessary for water quality protection or improvement, such as trucks, street sweepers, land for buffer areas, and other tangible assets with a single item cost of greater than $5,000. (9m) “CBOD” means the pollutant parameter carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand. (10) “Census block” means the smallest unit for which the U.S. bureau of the census collects and tabulates population information in the decennial census and income information in the ACS. (11) “Census designated place” means a statistical area delineated for each decennial census according to U.S. bureau of the census guidelines for the purpose of presenting census data and ACS data for a concentration of population, housing, and commercial structures that is locally identifiable by name, but is not within an incorporated place. (12) “Census tract” means a small, relatively permanent statistical subdivision of a county used in the decennial census and the ACS, delineated for the purpose of presenting data, typically following visible features or governmental boundaries or both, including approximately 4,000 inhabitants, and designed to be a relatively homogeneous unit with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. (13) “Change order” means an action that specifies and justifies a change to a construction contract that alters the time of completion or the total price, or both. (14) “Clean water fund program” or “CWFP” means the program established under ss. 25.43 , 281.58 , and 281.59 , Stats., for the purpose of providing financial assistance to municipalities for the planning, design, and construction of treatment works and BMPs. (15) “Compliance maintenance” means the program established and regulated under ch. NR 208 , intended to prevent a permittee under ch. 283 , Stats., from exceeding an effluent limitation contained in a permit issued under ch. 283 , Stats. (16) “Construction” means a set of actions taken to make a capital improvement, including any of the following actions: (a) Building, erecting, extending, or assembling a treatment works or BMP or a new major asset for an existing treatment works or BMP. (b) Preparing a construction site or sites of a scored project for work activities, including grading, staking, digging, and demolition or abandonment of existing structures. (c) Purchasing a package wastewater treatment system or capacity in an existing treatment works. (d) Altering, modifying, improving, upgrading, rehabilitating, or adding to existing treatment works facilities or BMPs. (e) Performing major repairs or replacing major components of existing facilities. (f) Installing new piping or mechanical, electrical, or electronic equipment or facilities. (g) Remediation of illicit discharges to an MS4 or runoff treatment works. (17) “Custom tabulation” means a special tabulation of income data from the ACS microdata files that is performed by the U.S. bureau of the census, is not part of the standard ACS data tabulations, and results in generation of a median household income for an area designated by the applicant as the boundaries of a town sanitary district, public inland lake protection and rehabilitation district, or metropolitan sewerage district, or of the area served by the treatment works if the treatment works serves only a portion of the place or minor civil division in which it is located. (18) “Department” means the department of natural resources. (19) “Design flow” means the average annual flow or average daily flow specified in an approved facilities plan or approved plans and specifications, the flow specified in a WPDES permit, or the flow required to meet performance standards. (20) “Disadvantaged business enterprise” or “DBE” means a business entity certified as disadvantaged under the U.S. department of transportation unified certification program or other program approved by the U.S. environmental protection agency to certify disadvantaged businesses. (21) “Discharge” has the meaning given in s. 283.01 (4) , Stats. (21m) “DO” means the effluent parameter dissolved oxygen. (22) “DOA” means the department of administration. (23) “Effluent limitation” has the meaning given in s. 283.01 (6) , Stats. (24) “Engineering” includes all of the following: (a) Performing preliminary planning to determine the need for or the feasibility of building or modifying a treatment works or BMP, including preparing a facilities plan. (b) Performing engineering, architectural, geotechnical, hydrogeological, environmental, archaeological, biological, fiscal, or economic investigations or studies. (c) Identifying illicit discharges to an MS4, a BMP, or a wastewater treatment works if the identification work is directly related to the scored project. (d) Preparing surveys, designs, plans, bidding documentation, working drawings, specifications, or as-built drawings. (e) Coordinating, observing, inspecting, or supervising any of the activities under pars. (a) to (d) or under sub. (16) . (25) “Equipment replacement fund” means a separate fund established by a municipality for the purpose of making expenditures for major repair or replacement of equipment necessary for continuing operation of wastewater or runoff treatment works, or for maintenance of a BMP. (26) “Financial assistance” includes one or more of the following actions taken by the department and DOA under ss. 281.58 and 281.59 , Stats.: (a) Providing a loan, principal forgiveness, interest rate subsidies, a guarantee, or credit enhancement to a municipality. (b) Refinancing a municipality’s interim debt obtained for the scored project. (c) Purchasing insurance for a municipality. (27) “Financial assistance agreement” means a written agreement between a municipality, the department, and DOA that contains the terms and conditions of the financial assistance provided to the municipality under subch. II or III . (28) “Financial assistance agreement amendment” means a formal, written change to an existing financial assistance agreement executed by all parties to the original agreement. (29) “Force account work” means engineering, construction, or other project-specific activities performed by a municipality’s paid employees or use of equipment owned by the municipality in construction of the project, or both. (30) “Groundwater” has the meaning given in s. 160.01 (4) , Stats. (31) “Illicit discharge” has the meaning given in s. NR 216.002 (11) .