The words, terms and phrases listed below, for
the purpose of this chapter, shall be defined and interpreted in the
following way:
Town of Southborough Board of Health.
The pipe which begins 10 feet outside the inner face of the
building wall and extends to a public sewer, septic tank or other
place of sewage disposal.
The inside of the cellar wall above the footing and below
the ground surface.
A covered pit with open-jointed lining in its bottom portion
into which raw sewage is discharged, the liquid portion of the sewage
being disposed of by seepage or leaching into the surrounding porous
soil and the solids or sludge being retained in the pit to undergo
partial decomposition before occasional or intermittent removal.
The earth materials placed on top of the leaching facilities
to bring the area to finish grade.
An open pit dug to a minimum of 10 feet to permit the examination
of the soil and to determine the groundwater elevation.
A person registered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
as a professional engineer.
Any person, firm, contractor or corporation licensed by the
Town of Southborough who installs, alters, constructs or repairs individual
sewage disposal systems.
A watertight structure which receives settled sewage and
distributes it in substantially equal portions to two or more lines
leading to the leaching area.
The pipe used for the dispersion of sewage into leaching
trenches or leaching fields.
A watertight structure placed between a septic tank and distribution
box and equipped with a siphon or pump designed to discharge settled
sewage intermittently to a leaching facility and to provide a rest
period between such discharges.
The earth materials placed beneath and around the leaching
facility.
A watertight structure in which grease is separate from sewage.
Sanitary sewage, excluding waste discharges from a water
closet, i.e., any water-carried putrescible waste resulting from the
discharge of laundry tubs, washing machines, sinks, showers, dishwashers
or any other sources.
The elevation at which water is observed weeping or flowing
from the walls of or standing in a deep observation hole.
Standard H-20 truck loadings as specified by the American
Association of State Highway Officials.
A self-contained toilet from which no liquid or solid waste
materials are regularly discharged and from which a humus-like end
product is produced.
Material having a percolation rate greater than 30 minutes
per inch for uses up to 2,000 gallons per day and 20 minutes per inch
for uses over 2,000 gallons per day.
A subsurface sewage disposal system owned and operated by
a person as defined in this section.
Any water-carried or liquid waste resulting from any process
of industry, manufacture, trade or business or from the development
or recovery of any natural resources.
The lowest portion of the internal cross section of a pipe.
An area of land in one ownership with definite boundaries.
The height of the groundwater table when it is at its maximum
level of elevation. This level is usually reached during the months
of December through April, and allowances should be made, therefore,
at other times of the year.
The average of the (tidal) high waters reached over a nineteen-year
period.
A septic tank containing more than one settling compartment
in series and requiring the approval of the Massachusetts Department
of Environmental Quality Engineering.
When more than one dwelling unit is placed on one lot, each
such dwelling unit shall be served by a separate subsurface disposal
system. Publicly financed housing projects for the elderly and dwelling
units for no more than two related families are exempt from this provision,
provided that it can be shown that the system has adequate capacity.
Any ditch used for the conveyance of water.
Every person who, alone, jointly or severally with others,
has legal title to any dwelling or dwelling unit or has care, charge
or control of any dwelling or dwelling unit as agent, executor, executrix,
administrator, administratrix, trustee, lessee or guardian of the
estate of the holder of the legal title. Each such person thus representing
the holder of the legal title is bound to comply with the provisions
of these minimum standards as if he were the "owner." "Owner" also
means every person who operates a rooming house.
A means of determining the suitability of the soil for the
subsurface disposal of sewage.
Every individual, partnership, corporation, firm, associate
or group, including a city, town, county, the commonwealth or other
governmental unit, owning property or carrying on an activity regulated
by this chapter.
A structure used for the disposal of excreta without water
transport. It consists of a shelter built above a pit or vault in
the ground into which excrement is deposited.
An additional area, of at least equal capacity as the original
sewage disposal area, suitable for the subsurface disposal and upon
which no permanent structures will be constructed.
Any water-carried putrescible waste resulting from the discharge
of water closets, laundry tubs, washing machines, sinks, showers,
dishwashers or any other source.
A pipe which carries sewage without storm-, surface or ground
waters.
A mass of solids floating at the surface of the septic tank.
The material removed from any part of an individual sewage
disposal system.
A watertight receptacle which receives the discharge of sewage
from a building sewer and which is designed and constructed so as
to permit the retention of sludge and scum, the digestion of the organic
matter and the discharge of the liquid portion to a leaching facility.
Sanitary sewage.
The area used for the subsurface dispersion of the liquid
portion of sewage.
Any underground conduit used for the conveyance of water,
including curtain drain.
Any natural or man-made stream, pond, lake, wetland, coastal
wetland, swamp or other body of water, and shall include wet meadows,
marshes, swamps, bogs and areas where groundwater, floating or standing
water or ice provide a significant part of the supporting substrate
for a plant community for at least five months of the year. "Swamp"
shall also mean areas where groundwater is at or near the surface
of the ground for a significant part of the growing season or where
runoff water from surface drainage frequently collects above the soil
surface.
