11 AAC 93.970 - Definitions
Unless the context indicates otherwise, in this chapter
(1) "adjudication" means the
administrative determination of the validity and amount of a water right and
includes the settlement of conflicting claims among competing appropriators of
record;
(2) "certificate of
appropriation" means an instrument granting the owner the right to appropriate
water, subject to the terms and conditions contained in it;
(3) deleted 11/7/90;
(4) "commissioner" means the commissioner of
natural resources, or the commissioner's delegate;
(5) deleted 11/7/90;
(6) deleted 11/7/90;
(7) "declaration of appropriation" or
"grandfather right" means a formal claim to a water right acquired under law or
custom before July 1, 1966, in existence on that date, and filed with the
department within the designated filing period;
(8) "department" means the Department of
Natural Resources;
(9) "division"
means the division of mining, land and water within the Department of Natural
Resources;
(10) "ground water" is
any water, except capillary moisture, beneath the land surface or beneath the
bed of a stream, lake, reservoir, or other body of surface water within the
boundaries of the state, whatever may be the geologic formation or structure in
which the water stands, flows, percolates, or otherwise moves;
(11) "permit to appropriate water" means an
instrument granting the holder the right, limited to a definite period of time
and subject to the terms and conditions contained in it, to construct works
necessary to the appropriation of water and to establish a beneficial
use;
(12) "priority" as between
lawful appropriators means that first in time is first in right;
(13) "public interest" means public interest
as determined by the criteria set out in
AS
46.15.080;
(14) repealed 8/20/2004;
(15) deleted 11/7/90;
(16) deleted 11/7/90;
(17) "well" means an artificial opening or
artificially altered natural opening by which ground water is sought or through
which ground water flows under natural pressure or is artificially withdrawn,
but does not include a hole or shaft drilled or dug for the purpose of
exploration or production of oil, gas, or valuable minerals unless the hole or
shaft is actually used for the production of water;
(18) "certificate of reservation" means an
instrument granting a reservation of water subject to the terms and conditions
contained in it;
(19) "instream
flow" means the amount of water flowing past a given point during one
second;
(20) "reservation of water"
means to appropriate water for maintaining a specified instream flow or level
of water at a specified point on a stream or water body or in a specified part
of a stream or water body for specified periods of time and for one or more
permissible purposes;
(21)
"methodology" means the scientific or technical procedures used to quantify
water;
(22) "water body" means
surface water in a depression of land, including intragravel water or sloughs,
that is supplied from drainage, upwellings, springs, or groundwater;
(23) "stream" means any body of flowing
water, including a river, creek, or tributary;
(24) "afy" means acre-feet per
year;
(25) "appropriators of
record" means holders of permits to appropriate water, certificates of
appropriation, certificates of reservation, or change permits;
(26) "appurtenant" means that a permit or
certificate to appropriate is legally attached to the land or place where the
water is beneficially used, unless the water right is severed under
AS
46.15.160;
(27) "aquifer" means any geologic formation
that will yield water to a well in sufficient quantity for beneficial
use;
(28) "aquifer system" means a
heterogeneous body of interlayered permeable and poorly permeable material that
functions regionally as a water-yielding hydraulic unit and comprises two or
more permeable beds (aquifers) separated at least locally by aquatards
(confining units) that impede ground water movement but do not greatly affect
the regional hydraulic continuity of the system;
(29) "cfs" means cubic feet per
second;
(30) "drainage basin" means
a natural, distinct, and independent hydrologic area; surface or subsurface or
both; confined or unconfined;
(31)
"gpd" means gallons of water per day;
(32) "gpm" means gallons of water per
minute;
(33) "non-consumptive water
use" means the instream use of water, or the diversion of water where the
quantity of water diverted is not diminished except by evaporation or
transpiration and the water is returned to its original source at the original
point of diversion immediately after its use;
(34) "reasonably acquire" means that a
permittee or certificate holder can acquire adequate water to fulfill the
purposes of the appropriation from the source of water for which the water
right is permitted or certificated, even though changes in the condition of
water occurrence have taken place as a result of the withdrawal of water by
later appropriators;
(35)
"seawater" means water, taken from the sea or ocean, with a salinity of 35
parts per thousand or greater;
(36)
"statement of beneficial use" means a notarized statement of the actual
quantity of water being used from a permitted source of water for a specific
purpose;
(37) "water source" means
a water body, lake, stream, aquifer, or ice;
(38) "unduly affected" means that a prior
appropriator loses the ability to reasonably acquire an adequate quantity of
water to fulfill the purposes of the appropriation from the water source from
which the water right is permitted or certificated, except that a prior
appropriator has not been unduly affected if water can reasonably be obtained
by installing more efficient diversion works for the withdrawal of water or by
performing effective routine repair and maintenance of diversion works or water
well equipment in order to allow for the full development of the water
resource.
Notes
Authority: AS 46.15.020
AS 46.15.040
AS 46.15.050
AS 46.15.080
AS 46.15.133
AS 46.15.145
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