62.1-104 - Definitions.
§ 62.1-104. Definitions.
(1) Except as modified below, the definitions contained in Title 1 shallapply in this chapter.
(2) "Board" means the State Water Control Board.
(3) "Impounding structure" means a man-made device, whether a dam across awatercourse or other structure outside a watercourse, used or to be used forthe authorized storage of flood waters for subsequent beneficial use.
(4) "Watercourse" means a natural channel having a well-defined bed andbanks and in which water flows when it normally does flow. For the purposeshereof they shall be limited to rivers, creeks, streams, branches, and otherwatercourses which are nonnavigable in fact and which are wholly within thejurisdiction of the Commonwealth.
(5) "Riparian land" is land which is contiguous to and touches awatercourse. It does not include land outside the watershed of thewatercourse. Real property under common ownership and which is not separatedfrom riparian land by land of any other ownership shall likewise be deemedriparian land, notwithstanding that such real property is divided into tractsand parcels which may not bound upon the watercourse.
(6) "Riparian owner" is an owner of riparian land.
(7) "Average flow" means the average discharge of a stream at a particularpoint and normally is expressed in cubic feet per second. It may bedetermined from actual measurements or computed from the most accurateinformation available.
(8) "Diffused surface waters" are those which, resulting fromprecipitation, flow down across the surface of the land until they reach awatercourse, after which they become parts of streams.
(9) "Floodwaters" means water in a stream which is over and above theaverage flow.
(10) "Court" means the circuit court of the county or city in which animpoundment is located or proposed to be located.
(Code 1950, § 62-94.1; 1956, c. 632; 1958, c. 638; 1968, c. 659; 1977, c. 26.)