Or. Admin. Code § 690-300-0010 - Definitions
The following definitions apply in OAR chapter 690, divisions 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, and 380 and to any permits, certificates, limited licenses, or transfers issued under these rules:
(1) "Affected Local Government" means any local government as
defined in OAR 690-005-0015 within whose jurisdiction water is or would be diverted, conveyed, or used under
a proposed or approved permit, water right transfer, or certificate.
(2) "Agricultural Water Use" means the use of water related to the
production of agricultural products. These uses include, but are not limited to, construction, operation and
maintenance of agricultural facilities and livestock sanitation at farms, ranches, dairies and nurseries.
Examples of these uses include, but are not limited to, dust control, temperature control, animal waste
management, barn or farm sanitation, dairy operation, and fire control. Such use shall not include
irrigation.
(3) "Aquatic Life Water Use" means the use of water
to support natural or artificial propagation and sustenance of fish and other aquatic life.
(4) "Artificial Groundwater Recharge" means the intentional addition of
water to a groundwater reservoir by diversion from another source.
(5) "Beneficial Use" means the reasonably efficient use of water without
waste for a purpose consistent with the laws, rules and the best interests of the people of the
state.
(6) "Commercial Water Use" means use of water related to
the production, sale or delivery of goods, services or commodities by a public or private entity. These uses
include, but are not limited to, construction, operation and maintenance of commercial facilities. Examples
of commercial facilities include, but are not limited to, an office, resort, recreational facility, motel,
hotel, gas station, kennel, store, medical facility, and veterinary hospital. Examples of water uses in such
facilities include, but are not limited to, human consumption, sanitation, food processing, and fire
protection. Such uses shall not include irrigation or landscape maintenance of more than 1/2 acre.
Notwithstanding this definition, exempt commercial water use under Division 340 does not include irrigation
or landscape maintenance.
(7) "Comment" means a written statement
concerning a particular proposed water use. The comment may identify elements of the application which, in
the opinion of the commenter, would conflict with an existing water right or would impair or be detrimental
to the public interest.
(8) "Commission" means the Water
Resources Commission.
(9) "Contested Case" means a hearing before
the Department or Commission as defined in ORS 183.310(2) and conducted according to the procedures described
in ORS Chapter 53, ORS 183.413 - 183.497 and OAR chapter 690, division 2.
(10) "Cranberry Use" means all necessary beneficial uses of water for
growing, protecting and harvesting cranberries. Examples of these uses include, but are not limited to,
irrigation of cranberries or other crops in rotation, chemical application, flooding for harvesting or pest
control, and temperature control.
(11) "Deficiency of Rate Right"
means an additional right allowed from the same source for the same use at the same place of use when an
earlier right does not allow a full duty or rate of flow of water.
(12) "Department" means the Water Resources Department.
(13) "Director" means the Director of the Department.
(14) "Domestic Water Use" means the use of water for human consumption,
household purposes, domestic animal consumption that is ancillary to residential use of the property or
related accessory uses.
(15) "Domestic Use Expanded" means the
use of water, in addition to that allowed for domestic use, for watering up to 1/2-acre of lawn or
noncommercial garden.
(16) "Drainage Basin", as used in OAR
690-340-0020, 690-340-0030 and 690-340-0050, means hydrologic unit delineated as a cataloging unit by the US
geological Survey Office of Water Data Coordination on the State Hydrologic Unit map.
(17) "Fire Protection Water Use" means the use and storage of water for the
purpose of extinguishing fires or reducing the potential outbreak of fires.
(18) "Fish Bypass Structure", as used in OAR 690-340-0010, means any pipe,
flume, open channel or other means of conveyance that transports fish that have entered a water diversion
structure back to the body of water from which the fish were diverted.
(19) "Fish Screen", as used in OAR 690-340-0010, means a screen, bar, rack
trap or other barrier at a water diversion to entrap or provide adequate protection for fish populations,
including related improvements necessary to insure its effective operation.
(20) "Fishway," as used in OAR 690-340-0010, means any structure, facility
or device used to facilitate upstream or downstream passage of fish through, over or around any man-made or
natural barrier to free movement.
(21) "Forestland and Rangeland
Management," as used in Chapter 595, Oregon Laws 1993, means water used for operations conducted on or
pertaining to forestlands and rangelands. Such uses may include, but are not limited to, reforestation, road
construction and maintenance, harvesting, vegetation management, and disposal of slash. Such use shall not
include irrigation.
(22) "Groundwater Reservoir" means a
designated body of standing or moving groundwater as defined in ORS 537.515(5).
(23) "Group Domestic Water Use" means the use of water for domestic water
use by more than one residence or dwelling unit.
(24) "Human
Consumption" means the use of water for the purposes of drinking, cooking, and sanitation.
(25) "Industrial Water Use" means the use of water associated with the
processing or manufacture of a product. These uses include, but are not limited to, construction, operation
and maintenance of an industrial site, facilities and buildings and related uses. Examples of these uses
include, but are not limited to, general construction; road construction; non-hydroelectric power production,
including down-hole heat exchange and geothermal; agricultural or forest product processing; and fire
protection. Such use shall not include irrigation or landscape maintenance of more than 1/2 acre.
Notwithstanding this definition, exempt industrial water use under Division 340 does not include irrigation
or landscape maintenance.
(26) "Irrigation" means the artificial
application of water to crops or plants by controlled means to promote growth or nourish crops or plants.
Examples of these uses include, but are not limited to, watering of an agricultural crop, commercial garden,
tree farm, orchard, park, golf course, play field or vineyard and alkali abatement.
(27) "Mining Water Use" means the use of water for extraction, preliminary
grading, or processing of minerals or aggregate at a mining site or construction, operation and maintenance
of a mining site. These uses include, but are not limited to, general construction, road construction, and
dust control. Examples of mining include, but are not limited to, aggregate, hard rock, heap leach and placer
mining.
(28) "Municipal Corporation" means any county, city, town
or district as defined in ORS 198.010 or 198.180(5) that is authorized by law to supply water for usual and
ordinary municipal water uses.
(29) "Municipal Water Use" means
the delivery and use of water through the water service system of a municipal corporation for all water uses
usual and ordinary to such systems. Examples of these water uses shall include but are not limited to
domestic water use, irrigation of lawns and gardens, commercial water use, industrial water use, fire
protection, irrigation and other water uses in park and recreation facilities, and street washing. Such uses
shall not include generation of hydroelectric power.
(30)
"Nursery Operations Use" means the use of water for operation of a commercial nursery which may include
temperature control, watering of containerized stock, soil preparation, application of chemicals or
fertilizers, watering within greenhouses and uses to construct, operate and maintain nursery facilities. The
use of water within plant nursery operations constitutes a different use from field irrigation, although that
may be a part of nursery use. If used for field irrigation for nursery stock, such use is not restricted to
the defined agricultural irrigation season.
(31) "Off-Channel"
means outside a natural waterway of perceptible extent which, during average water years, seasonally or
continuously contains moving water that flows off the property owned by the applicant and has a definite bed
and banks which serve to confine the water. "Off-channel" may include the collection of storm water run-off,
snow melt or seepage which, during average water years, does not flow through a defined channel and does not
flow off the property owned by the applicant.
(32) "Planned"
means a determination has been made for a specific course of action either by a legislative, administrative
or budgetary action of a public body, or by engineering, design work, or other investment toward approved
construction by both the public and private sector.
(33) "Planned
Uses" means the use or uses of water or land which has/have been planned as defined in this section. Such
uses include, but are not limited to, the uses approved in the policies, provisions, and maps contained in
acknowledged city and county comprehensive plans and land use regulations.
(34) "Pollution Abatement or Pollution Prevention Water Use" means the use
of water to dilute, transport or prevent pollution.
(35) "Power
Development Water Use" means the use of the flow of water to develop electrical or mechanical power. Examples
of these uses include, but are not limited to, the use of water for the operation of a hydraulic ram or water
wheel and hydroelectric power production.
(36) "Primary Right"
means the right to store water in a reservoir or the water right designated by the commission as the
principal water supply for the authorized use, or if no designation has been made, the first in time or
initial appropriation.
(37) "Proposed Certificate" means a draft
version of a water right certificate describing the elements and extent of the water right developed under
the terms of a permit or transfer approval order, as determined by field investigation.
(38) "Protest" means a written statement expressing disagreement with a
proposed final order that is filed in the manner and has the content described in ORS 537.145 to
537.240.
(39) "Public Corporation" means a corporation which
operates subject to control by a local government entity or officers of a local government and which, at
least in part, is organized to serve a public purpose of, and receives public funds or other support having
monetary value, from such government.
(40) "Quasi-Municipal Water
Use" means the delivery and use of water through the water service system of a corporation other than a
public corporation created for the purpose of operating a water supply system, for those uses usual and
ordinary to municipal water use, or a federally recognized Indian tribe that operates a water supply system
for uses usual and ordinary to a municipal water use. A quasi-municipal water right shall not be granted the
statutory municipal preferences given to a municipality under ORS 537.190(2), 537.230(1), 537.352,
537.410(2), 540.510(3), 540.610(2), (3), or those preferences over minimum streamflows designated in a basin
program.
(41) "Rate and Duty of Water for Irrigation" means the
maximum flow of water in cubic feet per second or gallons per minute (instantaneous rate) and the total
volume of water in acre-feet per acre per year that may be diverted for irrigation.
(42) "Recharge Permit" means a permit for the appropriation of water for
the purpose of artificial groundwater recharge.
(43) "Recreation
Water Use" means the use of water for play, relaxation or amusement. Examples of these uses include, but are
not limited to boating, fishing, wading, swimming, and scenic values.
(44) "Riparian Area" means a zone of transition from an aquatic ecosystem
to a terrestrial ecosystem, dependent upon surface or subsurface water, that reveals through the zone's
existing or potential soil-vegetation complex, the influence of such surface or subsurface water. A riparian
area may be located adjacent to a lake, reservoir, estuary, pothole, spring, bog, wet meadow, or ephemeral,
intermittent or perennial stream.
(45) "Secondary Groundwater
Permit" means a permit for the appropriation of groundwater which was stored through the exercise of a
recharge permit or certificate.
(46) "Stockwater Use" means the
use of water for consumption by domesticated animals and wild animals held in captivity as pets or for
profit.
(47) "Storage" means the retention or impoundment of
surface or groundwater by artificial means for public or private uses and benefits.
(48) "Stored Recharge Water" means groundwater which results from
artificial groundwater recharge.
(49) "Storage Account" means a
net volume of artificially recharged groundwater which is calculated for a single recharge activity from a
formula specified in a single recharge permit which records additions to a groundwater reservoir by
artificial recharge and depletions from a groundwater reservoir by pumping and natural losses.
(50) "Storm Water Management Water Use" means the use or storage of water
in any structure or drainage way that is designed, constructed and maintained to collect and filter, retain
or detain surface water runoff during and after a storm event for the purpose of water quality improvement,
flood control or property protection. It may also include, but is not limited to, existing features such as
wetlands, water quality swales, and ponds which are maintained as storm water quality facilities.
(51) "Stream or Riparian Area Enhancement Water Use" means the use of water
to restore or enhance a stream or riparian area.
(52)
"Supplemental Water Right or Supplemental Water Use Permit" means an additional appropriation of water to
make up a deficiency in supply from an existing water right. A supplemental water right is used in
conjunction with a primary water right.
(53) "Surplus Waters"
means all waters in excess of those needed to satisfy current existing rights and minimum streamflows
established by the Commission.
(54) "Temperature Control" means
the use of water to protect a growing crop from damage from extreme temperatures.
(55) "Transfer" means a change of use or place of use or point of diversion
of a water right.
(56) "Wastewater" means water that has been
diverted under an authorized water right after it is beyond the control of the owner or that right but has
not yet returned to the channel of a natural stream. In an irrigation district, the wastewater of an
individual user is not subject to appropriation until it leaves the boundaries of the district. Wastewater
abandoned to the channel of a natural stream becomes a part of that stream and is subject to
appropriation.
(57) "Water is Available," when used in OAR
690-310-0080, 690-310-0110, 690-310-0130, and 690-410-0070 means:
(a) The
requested surface water source is not over-appropriated under OAR 690-400-0010 and 690-410-0070 during any
period of the proposed use; or
(b) If the requested surface water
source is already over-appropriated for any portion of the period of use proposed in a new application:
(A) The applicant can show the proposed use requires water only during the
period of time in which the requested source is not already over-appropriated;
(B) The applicant has obtained or has shown the applicant can obtain
authorization to use water from an alternate source to provide water needed during any period of use in which
the source is over-appropriated; or
(C) If the applicant has
shown they can obtain authorization to use water from an alternate source during the time water is
unavailable, the department conditions the approval of the application to require that prior to diversion of
water the applicant obtains authorization for use of water from the alternate source.
(c) For surface water applications received before July 17, 1992, the
provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall apply except that the determination of whether a requested
source is over-appropriated under OAR 690-400-0010 and 690-410-0070 shall be based upon whether the quantity
of water available during a specified period is not sufficient to meet the expected demands for all water
rights at least 50 percent of the time during that period.
(d)
The proposed groundwater source exhibits Reasonably Stable Groundwater Levels, as defined in OAR
690-008-0001; and
(e) The total requested rate of groundwater
allocation is obtainable by the expected yield of the well(s) proposed in the application given best
available information; and
(f) The proposed groundwater use does
not have the Potential for Substantial Interference (OAR 690-009-0020(5)) with a surface water source that:
(A) is already over-appropriated during any period of the year;
or
(B) is administratively or statutorily withdrawn; or
(C) is restrictively classified in an applicable basin program rule;
or
(D) is the source for one or more existing surface water
rights that have been regulated off due to insufficient supply to satisfy senior surface water rights;
or
(E) is subject to a rotation agreement among existing surface
water right holders to address limited surface water supplies; or
(F) has a minimum perennial streamflow or instream water right that is
unmet during any period of the year.
(58)
"Water Availability Analysis" means the investigation of stream flow or groundwater measurement records,
watermaster distribution records, flow requirements of existing water rights, stream flow modeling in
ungauged basins, minimum perennial streamflows, or scenic waterway flow requirements to determine if water is
available to support the proposed water use.
(59) "Water Right
Subject to a Transfer" means a right established by a court decree or evidenced by a valid water right
certificate, or a right for which proof of beneficial use of water under a water right permit or transfer has
been submitted to and approved by the Director but for which a certificate has not yet been issued.
(60) "Wetland" means an area that is inundated or saturated by surface or
groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do
support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
(61) "Wetland Enhancement Water Use" means the use of water to restore,
create, or enhance or maintain wetland resources.
(62) "Wildlife
Water Use" means the use of water by or for sustaining wildlife species and their habitat.
Notes
Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 536.027, ORS 537.505-537.795 & ORS 537.992
Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 536, ORS 537, ORS 539, ORS 540, ORS 541, ORS 183 & ORS 198
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