Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 310 CMR - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Title 310 CMR 13.00 - Adopting Inland Wetlands Orders › Section 13.02 - Definitions

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
Act
means M.G.L. c. 131, §
				40A.
Agriculture purposes
means one or more
				of the following activities or uses: raising, breeding or producing a specified
				type of animal or vegetable life, including, but not limited to, dairy cattle,
				beef cattle, poultry, sheep, swine, horses, ponies, mules, goats, bees,
				fur-bearing animals, and fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts and other foods for
				human consumption, feed for animals, tobacco, flowers, sod, trees, nursery or
				green house products, forest products, and ornamental plants, shrubs, fish and
				shellfish, provided that such activity or use results in or is or was
				clearlyintended to result ina product of demonstrable market value.
Altering
means causing change,
				directly or indirectlywithinanyinland wetland or flood plain area and includes,
				but is not limited to, one or more of the following actions:
(a) changing pre-existing drainage characteristics, flushing
				characteristics, salinity distribution, sedimentation patterns, flow patterns
				and flood storage retention areas;
(b) draining or otherwise disturbing surface or groundwater
				levels;
(c) degrading water quality;
(d) driving pilings or erecting buildings or structures of any
				kind;
(e) placing any obstruction to water flow;
(f) destroying plant life, but not including the limbing of
				trees;
(g) discharging, releasing, or causing to be released, any
				contaminating materials, including sediments, from any source directly into any
				inland wetland orflood plain area whether by overland flow or through a new or
				existing pipe or other conduit;
(h) causing adverse effects to wildlife, inland fisheries, or
				to their habitat;
(i) lowering, polluting, or otherwise changing the level,
				quantity, or quality of ground water by doing any work in an inland wetland or
				flood plain area.
Amendment
means any change in the
				allowed or prohibited activities or uses contained in any Order adopted under
				M.G.L. c. 131, § 40A; any addition to or deletion of, including any change
				in the definition of, the types of inland wetlands defined in any Order; any
				addition to or deletion of any wetland or flood plain area; any change in the
				location of any wetland boundary or encroachment line which does not constitute
				a correction; or any addition to any list of assessed owners adopted as part of
				the Order. An amendment shall not include a correction as defined in 310 CMR
				13.02.
Assessed owner
means the personto
				whomland within an inland wetland or flood plain area affected by an Order was
				assessed in the last preceding annual tax levy.
Bank
meansthe contiguous upland slope
				landward of any inland water or freshwater wetland up to and including the
				crest of the slope, which may or may not include vegetation characteristic of
				transitional zones(ecotones) orplantcommunities immediately adjacent to any
				inland water or freshwater wetland.
Commissioner
means the Commissioner of
				the Department of Environmental Protection.
Correction
means any minor change in
				the location of the inland wetland or flood plain area boundary or encroachment
				line on a plan, the substitution or deletion of any name or names from the list
				of assessed owners adopted as part of any Order, or any typographical,
				grammatical or other correction which does not change the sense or meaning of
				any Order.
Department
means the Department of
				Environmental Protection.
Dredging
means the removal of
				materials including, but not limited to, rock, bottom sediment, debris, loam,
				peat, soil, sand, refuse, plant or animal matter, in any excavating, grading,
				cleaning, deepening, widening or lengthening, either permanently or
				temporarily, of any inland wetland or flood plain area. Dredging shall include
				improvement dredging, maintenance dredging, back-filling orotherdredging and
				subsequent refilling.
Encroachment Line
means any boundary
				line which is based upon an inland wetland boundary line beyond which no
				structures or other encroachments may be established in the direction of the
				waterway or flood-prone area.
Filling
means the placing of any
				material that raises, either temporarily or permanently, the existing elevation
				of any inland wetland or flood plain area.
Flood Plains
, means for the purposes
				of M.G.L. c. 131, § 40A, inland wetlands that are subject to flooding, and
				normally dry land areas which are subject to a general and temporary condition
				of partial or complete inundation by run off from surface water or by overflow
				of inland waters. Flood plains or flood plain areas may further include those
				areas of land which have been designated as being within the 100-year flood as
				determined by the Office of Federal Insurance and Hazard Mitigation within the
				Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Flood Plain Area
means any inland
				wetland or flood plain delineated by a continuous boundary line which encloses
				that area.
Flooding
means a local and temporary
				inundation or rise in the surface water level of any in land water such that it
				inundates or overflows land not usually under water.
Inland Wetlands
means "freshwater
				wetlands" as defined in M.G.L. c. 131, § 40 and that portion of any bank
				which touches any inland waters or any freshwater wetland, and any freshwater
				wetland subject to flooding.
Improvement Dredging
means any
				dredging in an area which has not previously been dredged or which extends the
				original dredged width, depth, length, or otherwise alters the original
				boundaries of a previously dredged area.
Inland Wetland affected by an Order
means any inland wetland or flood plain area that is subject to any restriction
				under an Order.
Modification
means any amendment as
				defined in 310 CMR 13.02
Amendment
.
Obstruction or Encroachment
shall be
				defined as including, but not limited to, any structure, building, fence, wall,
				fixture, or other barrier.
Maintenance Dredging
means any
				dredging under a License in any previously dredged area which does not extend
				the originally dredged width, depth, or length, but does not mean improvement
				dredging or backfilling.
National Map Accuracy Standards
means
				meeting or exceeding the map accuracy standards established by the U.S. Bureau
				of the Budget on June 10, 1941, as revised April 26, 1943 and June 17, 1947,
				and as amended from time to time. For maps on publication scales larger than
				1:20,000, not more than 10% of the points tested maybe in error by more than
				1/30 inch (0.846mm) measured on the publication scale; for maps on publication
				scales of 1:20,000 or smaller, 1/50 inch (0.508mm). These limits of accuracy
				shall apply in all cases to positions of well-defined points only. Well-defined
				points are those that are easily visible or recoverable on the ground. In
				general, what is well-defined will also be determined by what is plottable on
				the scale of the map within 1/100 inch (0.254mm).
Order
means any instrument issued by
				the Commissioner that imposes restrictions on any inland wetland or flood plain
				area in accordance with M.G.L. c. 131, § 40A.
Person
means any individual, group of
				individuals, association, partnership, corporation, company, business
				organization, trust, estate, the Commonwealth or political subdivision thereof,
				any administrative agency, public or quasi-public corporation or body or any
				other legal entity or its legal representative, agents or assigns.
Person having an ownership interest
means any assessed owner or any record holder of an easement, covenant,
				restriction or any other ownership interest, any lessee holding a lease of 25
				years length or more and any mortgagor.
Plan
means a map made by surveying
				techniques, a line and symbol photogrammetric map or an orthophoto map, which
				meets National Map Accuracy Standards, upon which inland wetlands and flood
				plain areas are delineated.
Polluting
means, but is not limited
				to, the discharge, release or flow of any product, by-product, material or
				waste resulting from sewage, sewage processing, or from any industrial,
				commercial, or other man-made process, any man-made thermal discharge, run-off,
				leachate, or any other substance in any form, which is or can be drained,
				discharged or infiltrated, or otherwise introduced into any inland wetland or
				flood plain area, or any discharge or release of agricultural waste or
				chemicals for non-agricultural purposes.
Removing
means to take away any type
				of material that alters the elevation of any inland wetland or flood plain
				area.
Repea
l means the rescinding of any
				Order, including the plan or plans and list of assessed owners incorporated
				with the Order.
Restriction
means any provision in any
				Order limiting activities or uses in or on inland wetlands or flood plain
				areas.
Wetland area
means any inland wetland
				or flood plain delineated by a continuous boundary line which encloses that
				area.