Alaska Administrative Code › Title 11 - Natural Resources › Part 6 - Lands › Chapter 93 - Water Management › Article 10 - General Provisions › 11 AAC 93.970 - Definitions

Current through May 31, 2024
Unless the context indicates otherwise, in this
					 chapter
(1) "adjudication" means the
				  administrative determination of the validity and amount of a water right and
				  includes the settlement of conflicting claims among competing appropriators of
				  record;
(2) "certificate of
				  appropriation" means an instrument granting the owner the right to appropriate
				  water, subject to the terms and conditions contained in it;
(3) deleted 11/7/90;
(4) "commissioner" means the commissioner of
				  the Department of Natural Resources or his or her delegate;
(5) deleted 11/7/90;
(6) deleted 11/7/90;
(7) "declaration of appropriation" or
				  "grandfather right" means a formal claim to a water right acquired under law or
				  custom before July 1, 1966, in existence on that date, and filed with the
				  department within the designated filing period;
(8) "department" means the Department of
				  Natural Resources;
(9) "division"
				  means the division of land and water management within the Department of
				  Natural Resources;
(10) "ground
				  water" is any water, except capillary moisture, beneath the land surface or
				  beneath the bed of a stream, lake, reservoir, or other body of surface water
				  within the boundaries of the state, whatever may be the geologic formation or
				  structure in which the water stands, flows, percolates, or otherwise
				  moves;
(11) "permit to appropriate
				  water" means an instrument granting the holder the right, limited to a definite
				  period of time and subject to the terms and conditions contained in it, to
				  construct works necessary to the appropriation of water and to establish a
				  beneficial use;
(12) "priority" as
				  between lawful appropriators means that first in time is first in
				  right;
(13) "public interest" means
				  public interest as determined by the criteria set out in
				  AS
				  46.15.080;
(14) repealed 8/20/2004;
(15) deleted 11/7/90;
(16) deleted 11/7/90;
(17) "well" means an artificial opening or
				  artificially altered natural opening by which ground water is sought or through
				  which ground water flows under natural pressure or is artificially withdrawn,
				  but does not include a hole or shaft drilled or dug for the purpose of
				  exploration or production of oil, gas, or valuable minerals unless the hole or
				  shaft is actually used for the production of water;
(18) "certificate of reservation" means an
				  instrument granting a reservation of water subject to the terms and conditions
				  contained in it;
(19) "instream
				  flow" means the amount of water flowing past a given point during one
				  second;
(20) "reservation of water"
				  means to appropriate water for maintaining a specified instream flow or level
				  of water at a specified point on a stream or water body or in a specified part
				  of a stream or water body for specified periods of time and for one or more
				  permissible purposes;
(21)
				  "methodology" means the scientific or technical procedures used to quantify
				  water;
(22) "water body" means
				  surface water in a depression of land, including intragravel water or sloughs,
				  that is supplied from drainage, upwellings, springs, or groundwater;
(23) "stream" means any body of flowing
				  water, including a river, creek, or tributary;
(24) "afy" means acre-feet per
				  year;
(25) "appropriators of
				  record" means applicants for, and permittees and certificate holders of, water
				  rights;
(26) "appurtenant" means
				  that a permit or certificate to appropriate is legally attached to the land or
				  place where the water is beneficially used, unless the water right is severed
				  under AS
				  46.15.160;
(27) "aquifer" means any geologic formation
				  that will yield water to a well in sufficient quantity for beneficial
				  use;
(28) "aquifer system" means a
				  heterogeneous body of interlayered permeable and poorly permeable material that
				  functions regionally as a water-yielding hydraulic unit and comprises two or
				  more permeable beds (aquifers) separated at least locally by aquatards
				  (confining units) that impede ground water movement but do not greatly affect
				  the regional hydraulic continuity of the system;
(29) "cfs" means cubic feet per
				  second;
(30) "drainage basin" means
				  a natural, distinct, and independent hydrologic area; surface or subsurface or
				  both; confined or unconfined;
(31)
				  "gpd" means gallons of water per day;
(32) "gpm" means gallons of water per
				  minute;
(33) "non-consumptive water
				  use" means the instream use of water, or the diversion of water where the
				  quantity of water diverted is not diminished except by evaporation or
				  transpiration and the water is returned to its original source at the original
				  point of diversion immediately after its use;
(34) "reasonably acquire" means that a
				  permittee or certificate holder can acquire adequate water to fulfill the
				  purposes of the appropriation from the source of water for which the water
				  right is permitted or certificated, even though changes in the condition of
				  water occurrence have taken place as a result of the withdrawal of water by
				  later appropriators;
(35)
				  "seawater" means water, taken from the sea or ocean, with a salinity of 35
				  parts per thousand or greater;
(36)
				  "statement of beneficial use" means a notarized statement of the actual
				  quantity of water being used from a permitted source of water for a specific
				  purpose;
(37) "water source" means
				  a water body, lake, stream, aquifer, or ice;
(38) "unduly affected" means that a prior
				  appropriator loses the ability to reasonably acquire an adequate quantity of
				  water to fulfill the purposes of the appropriation from the water source from
				  which the water right is permitted or certificated, except that a prior
				  appropriator has not been unduly affected if water can reasonably be obtained
				  by installing more efficient diversion works for the withdrawal of water or by
				  performing effective routine repair and maintenance of diversion works or water
				  well equipment in order to allow for the full development of the water
				  resource.
Authority:
AS
						46.15.020
AS 46.15.040
AS 46.15.050
AS 46.15.080
AS 46.15.133
AS
						46.15.145