2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XIV - Public Ways and Works › Chapter 92a1/2 - Watershed Management › Section 1 - Definitions

Section 1. As used in this chapter, the following words, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, shall have the following meanings:—
''Advisory committee'', the watershed system advisory committee for the appropriate watershed system.
''Alteration'', draining, dumping, dredging, damning, discharging, excavating, filling or grading; the erection, reconstruction or substantial expansion of any buildings or structures; the driving of pilings; the construction or reconstruction or paving of roads and other ways; the construction or reconstruction of utilities; the changing of run-off characteristics; the intercepting or diverting of ground waters, surface waters, reservoirs, tributaries, or aquifers; the installation or substantial expansion of drainage, sewage and water systems.
''Aquifer'', a geological formation, group of formations, or part of a formation in the Wachusett watershed that is capable of yielding a significant amount of water to a well or spring, as determined by reference to maps generated by the Massachusetts geographic information service based on the United States Geological Survey water resource atlases or any other source determined to be more accurate pursuant to subsection (m) of section 5. The land directly overlaying an aquifer shall be deemed to be a part of said aquifer.
''Authority'', the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
''Bonds'', any bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness.
''Bordering vegetated wetland'', a wet meadow, except meadows used for the grazing of livestock, marsh, swamp, bog, or other area, hydrologically connected to and bordering on a tributary, reservoir, flood plain, or surface water, which supports at least 50 per cent wetland species.
''Department'', the department of conservation and recreation.
''Division'', the division of water supply protection.
''Flood plain'', the land adjoining a tributary, reservoir or surface water, which is subject to inundation from a flood having a 1 per cent chance of being equalled or exceeded in any given year, commonly known as the 100 year flood plain, as determined by reference to the most recent edition of the flood hazard boundary maps issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or any other source determined to be more accurate pursuant to subsection (m) of section 107A.
''Ground water'', water below the land surface in a saturated zone, including perched ground water.
''Hazardous material or waste'', any material or waste, in whatever form, which because of its quantity, concentration, corrosivity, flammability, reactivity, toxicity, or infectious, chemical, or radioactive characteristics, either separately or in combination with any substance or substances, constitutes a present or potential threat to human health, safety, welfare, or to the environment. Hazardous material or waste shall include those materials listed in section 261 of title 40 of the code of federal regulations, or 310 CMR 40.900 Appendix I.
''Pollutant'', any substance, man-made or resulting from human activities, that can alter the biological, chemical, physical, or radiological character of water.
''Quabbin watershed advisory committee'', the committee established by section 13.
''Revenues'', charges, reimbursements and other receipts derived by the division from operation of the watershed system and from all other activities or properties of the division including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, proceeds of grants, gifts, investments, earnings and proceeds of insurance or condemnation.
''Surface water'', water in the watersheds, including any lake, spring, impoundment, and pond, as determined by reference to the most recent edition of maps generated by the Massachusetts geographic information service based on the United States Geological Survey 1 to 25,000 scale quadrangle maps or any other map determined to be more accurate pursuant to subsection (m) of section 5. Surface water shall include the land located thereunder and the banks thereto. Surface water shall exclude all reservoirs, tributaries, aquifers, ground waters, and man-made farm ponds used for irrigation, as well as all so-called great ponds of the commonwealth which do not drain into a tributary or a reservoir.
''Tributary'', a body of running water, including, a river, stream, brook and creek, which moves in a definite channel in the ground due to a hydraulic gradient and which flows ultimately into a reservoir in the watersheds or the Ware river above the Ware river intake, as determined by reference to the most recent edition of maps generated by the Massachusetts geographic information service based on the United States Geological Survey one to 25,000 scale quadrangle maps or any other map determined to be more accurate pursuant to subsection (m) of section 5. A tributary shall include the land over which the water therein runs and the banks thereto.
''Ware river watershed advisory committee'', the committee established by section 14.
''Watershed system'', (i) all real and personal property interests held by or on behalf of the commonwealth immediately prior to the effective date of this act in and for the former metropolitan district commission water system which were part of or appurtenant to the Quabbin watershed, Quabbin reservoir, Ware river watershed, Wachusett watershed, Wachusett reservoir, North and South Sudbury watersheds, Sudbury reservoir, Framingham reservoirs 1, 2 and 3, Blue Hills reservoir, Bear Hill reservoir, Spot Pond reservoir, Fells reservoir, Weston reservoir, Norumbega reservoir, Chestnut Hill reservoir, including land, easements, buildings, structures, all equipment, machinery, vehicles, and appliances, improvements, water rights and rights in source of water supply and (ii) all enlargements and additions to the former metropolitan district commission water system acquired or constructed by the division for the purposes of the watershed system, including land, easements, buildings, structures, equipment, machinery, vehicles, and appliances, improvements, reservoirs, dams, water rights and rights in sources of water supply, but excluding the waterworks system of the authority.
''Watersheds'', the natural basin from within which water drains or in natural course would drain into the Quabbin reservoir, the Wachusett reservoir, or the Ware river upstream of the Ware river intake.