Guam § 48101 - Definitions.

§ 48101. Definitions.

(a) “Cesspool” means an excavation which receives or is intended to receive untreated sewage and

from which liquid seeps or leaches into the surrounding porous soil.

(b) “Privy” means a structure and excavation for the disposal of human excreta by non-water carriage

methods and includes the term pit privy, trench latrine, and bored-hole latrine.

COL 2024-12-05

(c) “Septic tank” means a water-tight receptacle which receives the discharge of untreated sewage

designed and constructed so as to retain solids, digest organic matter through a period of detention, and

allows the liquids to discharge into an exterior soil absorption system. They shall be fabricated or

constructed of welded steel, monolithic concrete, fiberglass or an approved material. Tanks shall be

watertight and fabricated to constitute an individual structure and shall be designed and constructed to

withstand anticipated loads. The design of prefabricated septic tanks, the materials from which septic tanks

may be constructed or fabricated, and the approval of plans for site-constructed tanks prior to construction

shall be approved by the Guam EPA.

(d) “Sewage” includes untreated or insufficiently treated human excreta, food wastes disposed of

through sewers, waste water, liquid wastes from residences, commercial buildings, public buildings and

industrial establishments and such diluting water as may have entered the waste disposal system.

(e) “Leaching system” means a subsurface system of open-joint or perforated piping where septic tank

effluent may seep or leach into the surrounding porous soil.

(f) “Administrator” for the purpose of this Chapter is the Administrator of the Guam Environmental

Protection Agency.

(g) “Board” for the purpose of this Chapter is the Board of Directors of the Guam Environmental

Protection Agency.

(h) “Fund” for the purpose of this Chapter means the Sewage Disposal Assistance and the NGLA

Study Fund formed pursuant to this Chapter.

(i) “GEPA” shall mean the Guam Environmental Protection Agency.

(j) “Private sewage disposal system” means a sewage treatment and disposal system serving a single

structure with a septic tank and soil absorption field located on the same parcel as the structure. This term

also means an alternative sewage disposal system, including a substitute for the septic tank or soil

absorption field, a holding tank, a system serving more than one structure, or a system located on a different

parcel than the structure. A private sewage disposal system is permitted to be owned by the property owner.

A private sewage disposal system excludes cesspools.

(k) “Advanced nitrogen-reducing onsite disposal system” means an onsite wastewater treatment and

disposal system that reduces total nitrogen in effluent by at least fifty percent (50%) and that is certified by

the Guam Environmental Protection Agency.

(l) “Soil absorption system” means a subsurface system of piping where effluent from septic tanks and

other approved treatment tanks may seep into the surrounding porous soil by gravity. The piping is

backfilled with the finished grade blending into adjacent grade level. This term can encompass leaching

systems, as well as other systems for soil absorption.