1521.01 Division of water definitions.
1521.01 Division of water definitions.
As used in sections 1521.01 to 1521.05 and 1521.13 to 1521.18 of the Revised Code:
(A) “Consumptive use,” “diversion,” “Lake Erie drainage basin,” “other great lakes states and provinces,” “water resources,” and “waters of the state” have the same meanings as in section 1501.30 of the Revised Code.
(B) “Well” means any excavation, regardless of design or method of construction, created for any of the following purposes:
(1) Removing ground water from or recharging water into an aquifer, excluding subsurface drainage systems installed to enhance agricultural crop production or urban or suburban landscape management or to control seepage in dams, dikes, and levees;
(2) Determining the quantity, quality, level, or movement of ground water in or the stratigraphy of an aquifer, excluding borings for instrumentation in dams, dikes, levees, or highway embankments;
(3) Removing or exchanging heat from ground water, excluding horizontal trenches that are installed for water source heat pump systems.
(C) “Aquifer” means a consolidated or unconsolidated geologic formation or series of formations that are hydraulically interconnected and that have the ability to receive, store, or transmit water.
(D) “Ground water” means all water occurring in an aquifer.
(E) “Ground water stress area” means a definable geographic area in which ground water quantity is being affected by human activity or natural forces to the extent that continuous availability of supply is jeopardized by withdrawals.
(F) “Person” has the same meaning as in section 1.59 of the Revised Code and also includes the United States, the state, any political subdivision of the state, and any department, division, board, commission, agency, or instrumentality of the United States, the state, or a political subdivision of the state.
(G) “State agency” or “agency of the state” has the same meaning as “agency” in section 111.15 of the Revised Code.
(H) “Development” means any artificial change to improved or unimproved real estate, including the construction of buildings and other structures, any substantial improvement of a structure, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavating, and drilling operations, and storage of equipment or materials.
(I) “Floodplain” means the area adjoining any river, stream, watercourse, or lake that has been or may be covered by flood water.
(J) “Floodplain management” means the implementation of an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damage, including the collection and dissemination of flood information, construction of flood control works, nonstructural flood damage reduction techniques, and adoption of rules, ordinances, or resolutions governing development in floodplains.
(K) “One-hundred-year flood” means a flood having a one per cent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.
(L) “One-hundred-year floodplain” means that portion of a floodplain inundated by a one-hundred-year flood.
(M) “Structure” means a walled and roofed building, including, without limitation, gas or liquid storage tanks, mobile homes, and manufactured homes.
(N) “Substantial improvement” means any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds fifty per cent of the market value of the structure before the start of construction of the improvement. “Substantial improvement” includes repairs to structures that have incurred substantial damage regardless of the actual repair work performed. “Substantial improvement” does not include either of the following:
(1) Any project for the improvement of a structure to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications that have been identified by the state or local code enforcement official having jurisdiction and that are the minimum necessary to ensure safe living conditions;
(2) Any alteration of an historic structure designated or listed pursuant to federal or state law, provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure’s continued listing or designation as an historic structure.
(O) “Substantial damage” means damage of any origin that is sustained by a structure if the cost of restoring the structure to its condition prior to the damage would equal or exceed fifty per cent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.
(P) “National flood insurance program” means the national flood insurance program established in the “National Flood Insurance Act of 1968,” 82 Stat. 572, 42 U.S.C. 4001, as amended, and regulations adopted under it.
(Q) “Conservancy district” means a conservancy district established under Chapter 6101. of the Revised Code.
Effective Date: 06-14-2000; 04-06-2007; 2007 HB119 09-29-2007