The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, have the following meanings.

1. (1) Agronomic rate--The dairy waste application rate designed:

   1. (A) to provide the amount of nitrogen needed by the crop or vegetation grown on the land; and
   2. (B) to minimize the amount of nitrogen in the dairy waste that passes below the root zone of the crop or vegetation grown on the land.
2. (2) Agricultural land--Cropland, grassland, rangeland, pasture, or other specific land areas that are solely devoted to being used for growing crops, hay, or forage.
3. (3) Dairy Operation--Any entity involved in milk production, collection, transportation, receiving, transfer, or processing.
4. (4) Dairy Waste--Milk, milk by-products, or milk processing waste that is spilled, spoiled, adulterated, unmarketable, stranded, or otherwise unfit for human consumption produced by a dairy operation. For the purposes of this rule, dairy waste does not include solid or semi-solid milk products.

5. (5) Emergency Conditions--Instances where dairy waste is generated at any point along the dairy supply chain due to a reasonably unforeseeable situation, including but not limited to:

   1. (A) fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or wind, rain, ice, or snowstorm;
   2. (B) power failure, transportation failure, mechanical failure, or interruption of communication facilities;
   3. (C) epidemic;
   4. (D) riot, civil disturbance, enemy attack, or other actual or threatened act of lawlessness or violence; or
   5. (E) any other situation deemed by the executive director to qualify as an emergency.
6. (6) Land application--The act of applying dairy waste to agricultural land for beneficial use by crops, hay, or forage. Beneficial use includes the addition of nutrients from dairy waste, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, and the water content of dairy waste used to enhance moisture content of the soil.
7. (7) Water in the state--Groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of America, inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.

Source Note:The provisions of this §321.405 adopted to be effective July 31, 2025, 50 TexReg 4937.