Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 391-3-7-.01 - Definitions
The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of these rules and regulations unless otherwise specifically stated.
(a) "Best Management
Practices" means a collection of structural measures and vegetative practices
which, when properly designed, installed and maintained, will provide effective
erosion and sedimentation control and are designed in accordance with the
design specifications contained in the "Manual for Erosion and Sediment Control
in Georgia." Best Management Practices also include, but are not limited to,
design specifications from the most recent publications of the Georgia
Stormwater Management Manual and Coastal Stormwater Supplement to the Georgia
Stormwater Management Manual.
(b)
"Buffer" and "Buffer Area" each mean the area of land immediately adjacent to
the banks of state waters in its natural state of vegetation, which facilitates
the protection of water quality and aquatic habitat.
(c) "Certification" means an action by the
Division that states in writing that a local issuing authority has met the
criteria established in these rules and regulations.
(d) "Certified Personnel" means any person
who meets or exceeds the education and training requirements of Code Section
12-7-19.
(e) "Coastal Marshlands" shall have the same
meaning as in Code Section
12-5-282.
(f) "Complaint Investigation Process" means a
process followed by a local issuing authority or the Division when dealing with
inquiries, complaints or concerns about land disturbing activities.
(g) "Decertification" means an action by the
Division that states in writing that a local issuing authority has failed to
meet the criteria established in these rules and regulations.
(h) "Department" means the Department of
Natural Resources of the State of Georgia.
(i) "Director" means the Director of the
Environmental Protection Division.
(j) "District" means the appropriate local
Soil and Water Conservation District.
(k) "Division" means the Environmental
Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources.
(l) "Erosion" means the process by which land
surface is worn away by the action of wind, water, ice, or gravity.
(m) "Erosion, Sedimentation and Pollution
Control Plan" or "Plan" means a plan for the control of soil erosion and
sediment resulting from a land disturbing activity.
(n) "Infrastructure Project" means
construction activities that are not part of a common development that include
the construction, installation and maintenance of roadway and railway projects
and conduits, pipes, pipelines, substations, cables, wires, trenches, vaults,
manholes, and similar or related structures or devices for the conveyance of
natural gas (or other types of gas), liquid petroleum products, electricity,
telecommunications (telephone, data television, etc.), water or
sewage.
(o) "Land Disturbing
Activity" means any activity which may result in soil erosion and the movement
of sediments into State waters or onto lands within the State, including but
not limited to clearing, dredging, grading, excavating, transporting, and
filling of land, but not including those practices to the extent described in
O.C.G.A. 12-7-17.
(p) "Local Issuing Authority" means the
governing authority of any county, municipality, water authority, or water and
sewer authority that is certified pursuant to these rules and regulations and
pursuant to the requirements of O.C.G.A.
12-7-8(a).
(q) "Maintenance" means actions necessary or
appropriate for retaining or restoring a currently serviceable improvement to
the specified operable condition to achieve its maximum useful life.
Maintenance includes emergency reconstruction of recently damaged parts of a
currently serviceable structure so long as it occurs within a reasonable period
of time after damage occurs. Maintenance does not include any modification that
changes the character, scope or size of the original design.
(r) "Major Buffer Impact" means any impact
that does not meet the definition of "Minor Buffer Impact."
(s) "Minor Buffer Impact" means an impact
that upon completion yields no additional above ground, man-made materials or
structures within the buffer, maintains the original grade, and results in less
than 5,000 square feet of buffer impacts per stream crossing and/or less than
5,000 square feet of buffer impacts per individual area of encroachment for
each project.
(t) "Permit" means
the authorization necessary to conduct a land disturbing activity under the
provisions of these rules and regulations.
(u) "Person" means any individual,
partnership, firm, association, joint venture, public or private corporation,
trust, estate, commission, board, public or private institution, utility,
cooperative, State agency, municipality or other political subdivision or the
State, any interstate body or any other legal entity.
(v) "Project" means the entire area of the
proposed development site, regardless of the size of the area to be
disturbed.
(w) "Sediment" means
solid material, both organic and inorganic, that is in suspension, is being
transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by wind, water, ice, or
gravity as a product of erosion.
(x) "Sedimentation" means the action or
process of forming or depositing sediment.
(y) "Serviceable" means usable in its current
state or with minor maintenance but not so degraded as to essentially require
reconstruction.
(z) "Soil and Water
Conservation District Approved Plan" means an erosion, sedimentation and
pollution control plan approved in writing by the Soil and Water Conservation
District in which the proposed land disturbing activity will take
place.
(aa) "Stabilization" means
the process of establishing an enduring soil cover of vegetation and/or mulch
or other ground cover and/or installing temporary or permanent structures for
the purpose of reducing to a minimum the erosion process and the resultant
transport of sediment by wind, water, ice or gravity.
(bb) "State Waters" means any and all rivers,
streams, creeks, branches, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, drainage systems, springs,
wells, and other bodies of surface or subsurface water, natural and artificial,
lying within or forming a part of the boundaries of the State which are not
entirely confined and retained completely upon the property of a single
individual, partnership, or corporation, except as may be defined in O.C.G.A.
12-7-17(7).
(cc) "Stream Bank" means the confining cut of
a stream channel and is usually identified as the point where the normal stream
flow has wrested the vegetation. For nontrout waters, the normal stream flow is
any stream flow that consists solely of base flow or consists of both base flow
and direct runoff during any period of the year. Base flow results from
groundwater that enters the stream channel through the soil. This includes
spring flows into streams. Direct runoff is the water entering stream channels
promptly after rainfalls or snow melts.
(dd) "Trout Streams" means all streams or
portions of streams within the watershed as designated by the Division under
the provisions of the Georgia Water Quality Control Act, O.C.G.A.
12-5-20 et seq. Streams designated
as primary trout waters are defined as water supporting a self-sustaining
population of rainbow, brown or brook trout. Streams designated as secondary
trout waters are those in which there is no evidence of natural trout
reproduction, but are capable of supporting trout throughout the year. First
order trout waters are streams into which no other streams flow except
springs.
(ee) "Water authority" or
"water and sewer authority" means a "local government authority", as that term
is defined in O.C.G.A. §
36-80-16, that has been properly
formed in accordance with applicable Georgia law and that provides water
services or water and sewer services to the public.
(ff) "Watercourse" means any natural or
artificial waterway, stream, river, creek, channel, ditch, canal, conduit,
culvert, drain, gully, ravine, or wash in which water flows either continuously
or intermittently, having a definite channel, bed and bank, and includes any
area adjacent thereto which is subject to inundation by reason of overflow or
floodwater.
(gg) "Water Quality"
means the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of the State's
water resources.
Notes
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