(a) Definitions.

(1) Affected property--The entire area (i.e., on-site and off-site; including all environmental media) which contains releases of chemicals of concern at concentrations equal to or greater than the assessment level applicable for residential land use and groundwater classification.

(2) Alternate point of exposure--A location other than the prescribed point of exposure where an individual human or population will be assumed to have a reasonable potential to come into contact with chemicals of concern based on property-specific considerations.

(3) Assessment level--A critical protective concentration level for a chemical of concern used for affected property assessments where the human health protective concentration level is established under a Tier 1 evaluation as described in §350.75(b) of this title (relating to Tiered Human Health Protective Concentration Level Evaluation), except for the protective concentration level for the soil-to-groundwater exposure pathway which may be established under Tier 1, 2, or 3 as described in §350.75(i)(7) of this title, and ecological protective concentration levels which are developed, when necessary, under Tier 2 and/or 3 in accordance with §350.77(c) and/or (d), respectively, of this title (relating to Ecological Risk Assessment and Development of Ecological Protective Concentration Levels).

(4) Attenuation action level--The maximum concentration of a chemical of concern which can be present at an attenuation monitoring point and not exceed the applicable critical protective concentration level at the points of exposure over time.

(5) Attenuation monitoring point--A location within the migration pathway of a chemical of concern which is used to verify that the critical PCL will not be exceeded at the points of exposure.

(6) Background--A population of concentrations characterized from samples in an environmental medium containing a chemical of concern that is naturally occurring (i.e., the concentration is not due to a release of chemicals of concern from human activities) or anthropogenic (i.e., the presence of a chemical of concern in the environment which is due to human activities, but is not the result of site-specific use or release of waste or products, or industrial activity). Examples of anthropogenic sources include non-site specific sources such as lead from automobile emissions, arsenic from use of defoliants, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons resulting from combustion of hydrocarbons. There are some commonalities regardless of the activity; specifically, the chemicals of concern have resulted from the use of a product in its intended manner and may be present at generally low levels over large areas (tens of square miles up to hundreds of square miles). Background is required for use in a statistical model appropriate for testing the hypothesis that the background area characterized by these kinds of models has the same concentrations of the chemical of concern as the affected property. The background area characterized is as "close" as possible to the affected property, in either space or time, as required.

(7) Bedrock--The solid rock (i.e., consolidated, coherent, and relatively hard naturally formed material that cannot normally be excavated by manual methods alone) that underlies gravel, soil or other surficial material.

(8) Bioaccumulative chemical of concern--A chemical of concern which has the tendency to accumulate in the tissues of an organism as a result of food consumption or dietary exposure and/or direct exposure (e.g., gills and epithelial tissue) to an environmental medium.

(9) Carcinogen--A chemical of concern which causes an increased incidence of benign or malignant neoplasms, or substantially decreases the time to develop neoplasms, in animals or humans (a chemical of concern can act as both a carcinogen and a noncarcinogen).

(10) Carcinogenic risk level--The probability of development of a neoplasm due to continuous lifetime exposure to a single carcinogen acting through an individual or combined exposure pathway.

(11) Chemical of concern--Any chemical that has the potential to adversely affect ecological or human receptors due to its concentration, distribution, and mode of toxicity. Depending on the program area, chemicals of concern may include the following: solid waste, industrial solid waste, municipal solid waste, and hazardous waste as defined in the Texas Health and Safety Code, §361.003, as amended; hazardous constituents as listed in 40 Code of Federal Regulations Part 261, Appendix VIII, as amended; constituents on the groundwater monitoring list in 40 Code of Federal Regulations Part 264, Appendix IX, as amended; constituents as listed in 40 Code of Federal Regulations Part 258 Appendices I and II, as amended; pollutant as defined in Texas Water Code, §26.001, as amended; hazardous substance as defined in the Texas Health and Safety Code, §361.003, as amended, and Texas Water Code, §26.263, as amended; other substances as defined in Texas Water Code, §26.039(a), as amended; and daughter products of the aforementioned constituents.

(12) Closure--The act of permanently taking a waste management unit or facility out of service.

(13) Commercial/industrial land use--Any real property or portions of a property not used for human habitation or for other purposes with a similar potential for human exposure as defined for residential land. Examples of commercial/industrial land use include manufacturing; industrial research and development; utilities; commercial warehouse operations; lumber yards; retail gas stations; auto service stations; auto dealerships; equipment repair and service stations; professional offices (lawyers, architects, engineers, real estate, insurance, etc.); medical/dental offices and clinics (not including hospitals); financial institutions; office buildings; any retail business whose principal activity is the sale of food or merchandise; personal service establishments (health clubs, barber/beauty salons, mortuaries, photographic studios, etc.); churches (not including churches providing day care or school services other than during normal worship services); motels/hotels (not including those which allow residence); agricultural lands; and portions of government-owned land (local, state, or federal) that have commercial/industrial activities occurring. Land use activities consistent with this classification have the North American Industrial Classification System code numbers 11 - 21 inclusive; 22 except 22131; 23 - 56 inclusive; 61 except 61111, 61121, and 61131; 62 except 62211, 62221, 62231, 62311, 62322, 623311, 623312, 62399, and 62441; 71 except 71219; 72 except 721211 and 72131; 81 except 814; and 92 excluding 92214.

(14) Community--An assemblage of plant and animal populations occupying the same habitat in which the various species interact via spatial and trophic relationships (e.g., a desert community or a pond community).

(15) Compensatory ecological restoration--The creation of ecological services by or through restoration or the setting aside of, preferably, a comparable type of habitat as that which is impacted to offset residual ecological risk at an affected property. A net environmental benefits analysis or similar evaluation of ecological services may be used in the determination of the appropriate level of compensation.

(16) Complete exposure pathway--An exposure pathway where a human or ecological receptor is exposed to a chemical of concern via an exposure route (e.g., incidental soil ingestion, inhalation of volatiles and particulates, consumption of prey, etc.).

(17) Construction zone--The typical depth of construction within soil for an affected property considering the planned or historical installation of subsurface utilities, foundations, basements, or other such subsurface structures within the vicinity of the affected property not to extend below the top of bedrock.

(18) Control--To apply physical or institutional controls to prevent exposure to chemicals of concern. Control measures must be combined with appropriate maintenance, monitoring, and any necessary further response action to be protective of human health and the environment.

(19) Critical protective concentration level--The lowest protective concentration level for a chemical of concern within a source medium determined from all of the applicable human health exposure pathways as described in §350.71 of this title (relating to General Requirements), and when necessary, protective concentration levels for applicable ecological exposure pathways as required in §350.77 of this title (relating to Ecological Risk Assessment and Development of Ecological Protective Concentration Levels).

(20) Cumulative carcinogenic risk--The aggregate risk due to exposure of an individual human receptor to multiple carcinogens originating from a single affected property and acting through an individual or combined exposure pathway.

(21) Decontaminate--Application or occurrence of a permanent and irreversible treatment process to a waste or environmental medium so that the threat of release of chemicals of concern at concentrations above the critical protective concentration levels is eliminated.

(22) Deed notice--An instrument filed in the real property records of the county where the affected property is located that is intended to provide to owners, prospective buyers and others notice and information regarding, but which does not, by itself, restrict use of the affected property.

(23) De minimus --The description of an area of affected property comprised of one acre or less where the ecological risk is considered to be insignificant because of the small extent of contamination, the absence of protected species, the availability of similar unimpacted habitat nearby, and the lack of adjacent sensitive environmental areas.

(24) Ecological benchmark--A state standard, federal guideline, or other exposure level for a chemical of concern in water, sediment, or soil that represents a protective threshold from adverse ecological effects. An ecological benchmark may also be a toxicity reference value that is established by the person based on scientific studies in the literature.

(25) Ecological hazard index--The sum of individual ecological hazard quotients of COCs within a class of compounds that exert ecological effects which have the same toxicological mechanism or endpoint (e.g., PAHs, PCBs).

(26) Ecological hazard quotient--The ratio of an exposure level to a chemical of concern to a toxicity value selected for the risk assessment for that chemical of concern (e.g., a no observed adverse effects level).

(27) Ecological protective concentration level--The concentration of a chemical of concern at the point of exposure within an exposure medium (e.g., soil, sediment, groundwater, or surface water) which is determined in accordance with §350.77(c) or (d) of this title (relating to Ecological Risk Assessment and Development of Ecological Protective Concentration Levels) to be protective for ecological receptors. These concentration levels are primarily intended to be protective for more mobile or wide-ranging ecological receptors and, where appropriate, benthic invertebrate communities within the waters in the state. These concentration levels are not intended to be directly protective of receptors with limited mobility or range (e.g., plants, soil invertebrates, and small rodents), particularly those residing within active areas of a facility, unless these receptors are threatened/endangered species or unless impacts to these receptors result in disruption of the ecosystem or other unacceptable consequences for the more mobile or wide-ranging receptors (e.g., impacts to an off-site grassland habitat eliminate rodents which causes a desirable owl population to leave the area).

(28) Ecological risk assessment--The process that evaluates the likelihood that adverse ecological effects may occur or are occurring as a result of exposure to one or more stressors; however, as used in this context, only chemical stressors (i.e., COCs) are evaluated.

(29) Ecological services--The physical, chemical, or biological functions of natural resources that one natural resource provides for another or to the public. Examples include provision of food, protection from predation, and nesting habitat, among others.

(30) Ecological services analysis--A measurement of the potential change in ecological services based on considerations which may include, but are not limited to: the percent change in ecological services at the affected property that are attributable to COCs and/or potential response actions; the spatial extent of the affected property; and the recovery period.

(31) Environmental medium--A material found in the natural environment such as soil (including non-waste fill materials), groundwater, air, surface water, and sediments, or a mixture of such materials with liquids, sludges, gases, or solids, including hazardous waste which is inseparable by simple mechanical removal processes, and is made up primarily of natural environmental material.

(32) Exclusion criteria--Those conditions at an affected property which preclude the need to establish a protective concentration level for an ecological exposure pathway because the exposure pathway between the chemical of concern and the ecological receptors is not complete or is insignificant.

(33) Exposure area--The smallest property surface area within which it is believed that exposure to chemicals of concern in soil or air by a receptor would be limited under reasonably anticipated current or future use scenarios.

(34) Exposure medium--The environmental medium or biologic tissue in which or by which exposure to chemicals of concern by ecological or human receptors occurs.

Cont'd...