22 Tex. Admin. Code § 851.10 - Definitions
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(1) Act --Texas Occupations
Code, Chapter 1002, cited as the Texas Geoscience Practice Act .
(2) Accredited institutions or programs --An
institution or program which holds accreditation or candidacy status from an
accreditation organization recognized by the Council for Higher Education
Accreditation (CHEA) or other appropriate accrediting entity accepted by the
Appointed Board .
(3) Address of
record --In the case of an individual or Firm licensed, certified, or registered
by the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists (TBPG ), the address which is
filed by the licensee with the TBPG .
(4) Advertising or Advertisement --Any
non-commercial or commercial message, including, but not limited, to verbal
statements, bids, web pages, signage, provider listings, and paid advertisement
that promotes geoscience services.
(5) Applicant --An individual making
application for a Professional Geoscientist (P.G.) license or a
Geoscientist-in-Training (GIT) certification or a firm and/or the Authorized
Official of a Firm making application for a Geoscience Firm (Firm)
registration.
(6) Application --The
forms, information, attachments, and fees necessary to obtain a license as a
Professional Geoscientist, the registration of a Firm , or a certification as a
Geoscientist-in-Training (GIT).
(7)
Appointed Board --Those persons who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed
by the Senate and qualify for office who may deliberate, vote, and be counted
as a member in attendance of the Texas Board of Professional
Geoscientists.
(8)
ASBOG® --Association of State Boards of Geology . ASBOG® serves as a
connective link among the individual state geology regulatory boards for the
planning and preparation of uniform procedures and the coordination of geologic
protective measures for the general public. One of ASBOG® 's principal
services is to develop standardized written examinations for determining
qualifications of applicants seeking licensure as professional geologists.
State boards of registration are provided with uniform examinations that are
valid measures of competency related to the practice of the
profession.
(9) Authorized Official
of a Firm (AOF) --The individual designated by a Geoscience Firm to be
responsible for submitting the application to TBPG for the initial registration
of the Firm ; ensuring that the Firm maintains compliance with the registration
requirements; ensuring that the Firm renews its registration status for as long
as the Firm offers or provides professional geoscience services; ensuring that
the designated geoscientist is a currently licensed P.G.; and communicating
with the TBPG regarding any matter.
(10) Board staff --The Executive Director and
all other staff employed by the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists
(administrative, investigative, and other support staff, etc.).
(11) Cheating --Attempting to obtain,
obtaining, providing, or using answers to examination questions by deceit,
fraud, dishonesty, or deception.
(12) Complainant --Any individual who has
submitted a complaint to the TBPG , as provided in this chapter.
(13) Complaint --An allegation or allegations
of wrongful activity related to the practice or offering of professional
geoscience services in Texas. A complaint is within the TBPG 's jurisdiction if
the complaint alleges a violation of statutes or rules applicable to the public
practice of geoscience or the requirements of licensure of a Professional
Geoscientist (P.G.) or registration by an individual, firm , or other legal
entity.
(14) Council of Soil
Scientist Examiners (CSSE) --The Council of Soil Science Examiners is a national
organization that creates, scores and maintains examinations for State Soil
Scientists regulatory programs. CSSE develops professional criteria to confirm
that individuals meet and exceed minimum qualifications to practice the
profession.
(15) Default --The
failure of the Respondent to respond in writing to a notice or appear in person
or by legal representative on the day and at the time set for hearing in a
contested case or informal conference, or the failure to appear by telephone,
e-mail, fax or other electronic media in accordance with the notice of hearing
or notice of informal conference. Default results in the actions being taken
that were described in the notice of the hearing for a contested case or
informal conference in the event of a failure to appear.
(16) Digital Signature --A digital
authentication attached to, or clearly associated with, an electronic document.
A digital signature that meets the requirements of board rules carries the same
weight, authority, and effects as an original signature.
(17) Direct supervision --Critical watching,
evaluating, and directing of geoscience activities with the authority to
review, enforce, and control compliance with all geoscience criteria,
specifications, and procedures as the work progresses. Direct supervision will
consist of an acceptable combination of: exertion of significant control over
the geoscience work, regular personal presence, reasonable geographic proximity
to the location of the performance of the work, and an acceptable employment
relationship with the supervised individual(s).
(18) Discipline --One of three recognized
courses of study under which an individual may qualify for a license as a
Professional Geoscientist. Geoscience is comprised of the following
disciplines: geology , geophysics , and soil science .
(19) Executive Director --The individual
appointed by the Appointed Board who shall be responsible for managing the day
to day affairs of the board , in accordance with the Act .
(20) Filed date --The date that the document
has been received by the TBPG or, if the document has been mailed to the TBPG ,
the postmark date of the document.
(21) Geology --The discipline of geoscience
that addresses the science of the origin, composition, structure, and history
of the Earth and its constituent soils, rocks, minerals, fossil fuels, solids,
fluids and gases, and the study of the natural and introduced agents, forces,
and processes that cause changes in and on the Earth, and is applied with
judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, those natural and introduced
agents, forces, and processes for the benefit of mankind. There are many
subdivisions of geology , which include, but are not limited to, the following:
historical geology , physical geology , economic geology , mineralogy,
paleontology, structural geology , mining geology , petroleum geology ,
physiography, geomorphology, geochemistry, hydrogeology, petrography,
petrology, volcanology, stratigraphy, engineering geology , and environmental
geology .
(22) Geophysics --Refers to
that science which involves the study of the physical Earth by means of
measuring its natural and induced fields of force, and its responses to natural
and induced energy or forces, the interpretation of these measurements, applied
with judgment to benefit or protect the public .
(23) Geoscience --The science of the Earth and
its origin and history, the investigation of the Earth's environment and its
constituent soils, rocks, minerals, fossil fuels, solids, and fluids, and the
study of the natural and introduced agents, forces, and processes that cause
changes in and on the Earth as applied with professional judgment to develop
ways to utilize, those natural and introduced agents, forces, and processes for
the benefit of the public .
(24)
Geoscience Firm (Firm) --A firm , corporation, or other business entity that
engages in or offers to engage in the practice of professional geoscience
before the public in the State of Texas and that is registered by the board to
engage in the public practice of geoscience .
(25) Geoscience services (also professional
geoscience services, and professional geoscience )--Services that must be
performed by or under the direct supervision of a Professional Geoscientist and
that meet the definition of the practice of geoscience as defined in the Texas
Occupations Code, §
1002.002(3).
A service shall be conclusively considered a professional geoscience service if
it is delineated in that section; other services requiring a Professional
Geoscientist by contract, or services where the adequate performance of that
service requires a geoscience education, training, or experience in the
application of special knowledge or judgment of the geological, geophysical or
soil sciences to that service shall also be conclusively considered a
professional geoscience service. These services may include consulting,
investigating, evaluating, analyzing, planning, mapping, and inspecting
geoscientific work, and the responsible supervision of those tasks.
(26) License --The legal authority granted the
holder to actively practice geoscience upon meeting the requirements as set out
in the Act and this chapter.
(27)
License certificate --Any certificate issued by the TBPG showing that a license ,
registration, or certificate has been granted by the TBPG . A certificate is not
valid unless it is accompanied by a card issued by the TBPG that shows the
expiration date of the license , registration or certification.
(28) License status --The status of a
Professional Geoscientist license , Geoscience Firm registration, or GIT
certification is one of the following:
(A)
Current license --A license , registration, or certification that has not
expired.
(B) Expired license --A
Professional Geoscientist license that has been expired for less than three
years and is therefore renewable, or a Geoscience Firm registration or GIT
certification that has been expired for less than one year and is therefore
renewable.
(C) Permanently expired
license --A license , registration, or certification that is no longer
renewable.
(29)
Licensee --An individual or other entity holding a current Professional
Geoscientist license , GIT certificate, or Firm registration.
(30) Meritless complaint --a complaint in
which the allegations are unfounded or groundless (no legitimate basis for the
allegation) or the allegations are unsubstantiated or unverified (no
determination could be made as to whether there was any basis for the
allegation).
(31)
Non-jurisdictional complaint --a complaint in which the TBPG has no jurisdiction
over the alleged conduct.
(32)
Person --Any individual, firm , partnership, corporation, association, or other
legal public or private entity, including a state agency or governmental
subdivision.
(33) Professional
Geoscientist or P.G .--An individual who holds a license as a Professional
Geoscientist issued by the TBPG .
(34) Practice for the public --
(A) Providing professional geoscience
services :
(i) For a governmental entity in
Texas;
(ii) To comply with a rule
established by the State of Texas or a political subdivision of the State of
Texas; or
(iii) For the public or a
firm or corporation in the State of Texas if the practitioner accepts ultimate
liability for the work product; and
(B) Does not include services provided for
the express use of a firm or corporation by an employee or consultant if the
firm or corporation assumes the ultimate liability for the work
product.
(35) The
Public --Any individual(s), client (s), business or public entities, or any
member of the general population whose normal course of life might reasonably
include an interaction of any sort with or be impacted by professional
geoscience services.
(36)
Registered Firm --A firm that is currently registered with the TBPG .
(37) Registrant --An individual whose
sole-proprietorship is currently registered with the TBPG or a firm that is
currently registered with the TBPG .
(38) Respondent --Any individual or firm ,
licensed or unlicensed, who has been charged with violating any provision of
the Act or a rule or order issued by the Appointed Board .
(39) Responsible charge --The independent
control and direction of geoscience services or the supervision of geoscience
services by the use of initiative, skill, and independent judgment.
(40) Rule or Board Rule --State agency rules
adopted by the Appointed Board and as published in the Texas Administrative
Code, Title 22, Part 39, Chapters 850 and 851.
(41) Soil Science --Soil science means the
science of soils, their classification, origin and history, the investigation
and interpretation of physical, chemical, morphological, and biological
characteristics of the soil including, among other things, their ability to
produce vegetation and the fate and movement of physical, chemical, and
biological contaminants.
(42) Sole
practitioner --An individual Professional Geoscientist who operates a geoscience
business and who is in responsible charge of all geoscience work performed by
or for the business.
(43) TBPG --The
Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists, as used in this chapter, is a
reference to the whole or any part of the entity that is the Texas Board of
Professional Geoscientists.
Notes
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