Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0400-40-07-.03 - DEFINITIONS
As used in this chapter and in any ARAP issued pursuant to this chapter, the following terms have these meanings:
(1) "Act" means The Tennessee Water Quality
Control Act of 1977, as amended, T.C.A. §§
69-3-101
et seq.
(2) "Activity" means any
and all work or acts associated with the performance, or carrying out of a
project or a plan, or construction of a structure.
(3) "Appreciable permanent loss of resource
values" means a reduction in resource values that is expected to continue
without fundamental change and is large enough to be observed and measured as
resulting in more than minimal adverse effects.
(4) "Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit" or
"ARAP" means a permit issued pursuant to T.C.A. §
69-3-108 of
the Act, which authorizes the alteration of properties of waters of the state
that result from activities other than discharges of wastewater through a pipe,
ditch, or other conveyance.
(5)
"Best management practices" or "BMPs" means a schedule of activities,
prohibition of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management
practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the state. BMPs
include methods, measures, practices, and design and performance
standards.
(6) "Certification"
means an Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit under the Act, when required by
§ 401 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act, which certifies, either
unconditionally or through imposition of terms under which the activity must be
carried out, that the activity will comply with applicable provisions of
§§ 301, 302, 303, 306, and 307 of the federal Water Pollution Control
Act and Chapter 0400-40-01 of the rules of the Board of Water Quality, Oil and
Gas and the Department of Environment and Conservation and the Act.
(7) "Channelization" means the alteration of
stream channels including but not limited to straightening, widening, or
enlarging.
(8) "Constructed
wetland" means a wetland intentionally designed, built and operated on
previously nonwetland sites for the primary purpose of wastewater treatment or
stormwater retention; such wetlands are not created to provide mitigation for
adverse impacts or other wetlands.
(9) "Cumulative impacts" means the impact on
resource values which results from the incremental impact of the action when
added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future
actions.
(10) "Debris" means woody
materials, trash, flotsam, dislodged vegetation, and other potentially mobile
materials which may, when located within a stream channel, contribute to flow
blockage. This does not include gravel, sand, soil or its constituents such as
silt, clay, or other sediments.
(11) "Ditch" means a man-made excavation for
the purpose of conveying water. Ditches do not include streams, modified
streams, or canals.
(12) "Division"
means the Division of Water Resources within the Tennessee Department of
Environment and Conservation.
(13)
"Dredging" (sand and gravel dredging) means the removal of sand, gravel, and
similar sediments or deposits from a stream, river, or lake bed or wetland by
any method.
(14) "Emergency" means
a situation where life, public health, the environment, or substantive
improvements to real property is in immediate danger.
(15) "Erosion" means the process by which the
land surface is worn away by the action of water, wind, gravity, chemicals, or
a combination thereof.
(16)
"Existing conditions" means the biological, chemical, bacteriological,
radiological, and physical conditions of a stream or wetland at the time the
project is proposed as measured by a quantitative assessment tool or other
defensible scientific method as approved or determined by the
Division.
(17) "General Permit"
means a permit issued under the Act and this rule authorizing an alteration to
state waters within the state for a specified category of activities that are
substantially similar in nature.
(18) "Ground water" means water beneath the
surface of the ground within the zone of saturation, whether or not flowing
through known and definite channels.
(19) "HUC" means the hydrologic unit code
assigned by the United States Geological Survey.
(20) "Individual Permit" means a permit
issued by the Division to a specified person to conduct specified activities at
a specified location. This type of permit does not authorize an activity by a
class of persons or the public in general.
(21) "In the dry" means in such a manner that
no equipment or dredged material is in contact with the stream or wetland and
that the soil water boundary is not disturbed by equipment or that no
infiltration is pumped to the stream from the dredge site.
(22) "Minimal impacts" means an activity for
which the scope is very limited in area, the impact is very short in duration,
and that has no appreciable impact to waters just downstream of the location of
the activity.
(23) "Mitigation"
means the restoration, creation, enhancement, and/or preservation of aquatic
resources to compensate for unavoidable impacts as provided by paragraph (7) of
Rule
0400-40-07-.04.
(24) "Practicable alternative" is an
alternative that is available and capable of being done after taking into
consideration cost, existing technology, and logistics in light of overall
project purposes.
(25) "Resource
values" are the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the water
resource that help maintain classified uses. These properties may include, but
are not limited to, the ability of the water resource to:
(a) Filter, settle and/or eliminate
pollutants;
(b) Prevent the entry
of pollutants into downstream waters;
(c) Assist in flood prevention;
(d) Provide habitat for fish, aquatic life,
and wildlife;
(e) Provide drinking
water for wildlife and livestock;
(f) Provide and support recreational and
navigational uses; and
(g) Provide
both safe quality and adequate quantity of water for domestic water supply and
other applicable classified uses.
(26) "Sediment" means soil or its
constituents that has been deposited in water, is in suspension in water, is
being transported, or has otherwise been removed or disturbed from its site of
origin.
(27) "Sedimentation" or
"Siltation" mean the process by which sediment is deposited in or by the waters
of the state.
(28) "Stabilize"
means the proper placing, grading, and/or covering of soil, rock, or earth to
insure their resistance to erosion, sliding, or other movement.
(29) "Stream" means a surface water that is
not a wet weather conveyance. For purposes of this chapter, and permits issued
pursuant to this chapter, a wetland is not a stream. See definition of
wetland.
(30) "Structure" means any
building, pier, wharf, dolphin, weir, boom, breakwater, bulkhead, revetment,
riprap, jetty, mooring structure, moored floating vessel, piling, aid to
navigation, bridge, culvert, or any other obstacle or obstruction.
(31) "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 does support, a
prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil
conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar
areas.
(32) "Wet weather
conveyances" are man-made or natural watercourses, including natural
watercourses that have been modified by channelization, that flow only in
direct response to precipitation runoff in their immediate locality, whose
channels are at all times above the groundwater table, that are not suitable
for drinking water supplies, and in which hydrological and biological analyses
indicate that, under normal weather conditions, due to naturally occurring
ephemeral or low flow there is not sufficient water to support fish, or
multiple populations of obligate lotic aquatic organisms whose life cycle
includes an aquatic phase of at least two months.
Terminology not specifically defined herein shall be defined in accordance with the Act and the rules adopted thereunder.
Notes
Authority: T.C.A. §§ 4-5-201, et seq., and 69-3-101, et seq.
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