New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 21 - Miscellaneous › Chapter XXIX - Susquehanna River Basin Commission › Part 1806 - Review And Approval Of Projects › General Provisions › Section 1806.3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
For purposes of Parts 1806, 1807 and 1808 of this Title,
					 unless the context indicates otherwise, the words listed in this section are
					 defined as follows:
(a) Agricultural
				  water use. A water use associated primarily with the raising of food, fiber or
				  forage crops, trees, flowers, shrubs, turf products, livestock and poultry. The
				  term shall include aquaculture.
(b)
				  Application. A written request for action by the commission including without
				  limitation thereto a letter, referral by any agency of a member jurisdiction,
				  or an official form prescribed by the commission.
(c) Basin. The area of drainage of the
				  Susquehanna River and its tributaries into the Chesapeake Bay to the southern
				  edge of the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge between Havre de Grace and Perryville,
				  Maryland.
(d) Change of ownership.
				  A change in ownership shall mean any transfer by sale or conveyance of the real
				  or personal property comprising a project.
(e) Commission. The Susquehanna River Basin
				  Commission, as established in article 2 of the compact, including its
				  commissioners, officers, employees, or duly appointed agents or
				  representatives.
(f) Commissioner.
				  Member or alternate member of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission as
				  prescribed by article 2 of the compact.
(g) Compact. The Susquehanna River Basin
				  Compact, Pub. L. 91-575, 84 stat. 1509 et seq.
(h) Comprehensive plan. The comprehensive
				  plan prepared and adopted by the commission pursuant to articles 3 and 14 of
				  the compact.
(i) Construction. To
				  physically initiate assemblage, installation, erection or fabrication of any
				  facility involving or intended for the withdrawal, conveyance, storage or
				  consumptive use of waters of the basin. For purposes of natural gas well
				  development projects subject to review and approval pursuant to section
				  1806.4(a)(8) of
				  this Part, initiation of construction shall be deemed to commence upon the
				  drilling (spudding) of a gas well, or the initiation of construction of any
				  water impoundment or other water-related facility to serve the project,
				  whichever comes first.
(j)
				  Consumptive use. The loss of water transferred through a manmade conveyance
				  system or any integral part thereof (including such water that is purveyed
				  through a public water supply or wastewater system), due to transpiration by
				  vegetation, incorporation into products during their manufacture, evaporation,
				  injection of water or wastewater into a subsurface formation from which it
				  would not reasonably be available for future use in the basin, diversion from
				  the basin, or any other process by which the water is not returned to the
				  waters of the basin undiminished in quantity.
(k) Diversion. The transfer of water into or
				  out of the basin.
(l) Executive
				  director. The chief executive officer of the commission appointed pursuant to
				  article 15, section 15.5, of the compact.
(m) Facility. Any real or personal property,
				  within or without the basin, and improvements thereof or thereon, and any and
				  all rights of way, water, water rights, plants, structures, machinery, and
				  equipment acquired, constructed, operated, or maintained for the beneficial use
				  of water resources or related land uses or otherwise including, without
				  limiting the generality of the foregoing, any and all things and appurtenances
				  necessary, useful, or convenient for the control, collection, storage,
				  withdrawal, diversion, release, treatment, transmission, sale, or exchange of
				  water; or for navigation thereon, or the development and use of hydroelectric
				  energy and power, and public recreational facilities; of the propagation of
				  fish and wildlife; or to conserve and protect the water resources of the basin
				  or any existing or future water supply source, or to facilitate any other uses
				  of any of them.
(n) Flowback. The
				  return flow of water and formation fluids recovered from the wellbore of an
				  unconventional natural gas or hydrocarbon development well following the
				  release of pressures induced as part of the hydraulic fracture stimulation of a
				  target geologic formation, and until the well is placed into
				  production.
(o) Formation fluids.
				  Fluids in a liquid or gaseous physical state, present within the pore spaces,
				  fractures, faults, vugs, caverns, or any other spaces of formations, whether or
				  not naturally occurring or injected therein.
(p) Governmental authority. A Federal or
				  State government, or any political subdivision, public corporation, public
				  authority, special purpose district, or agency thereof.
(q) Groundwater. Water beneath the surface of
				  the ground within a zone of saturation, whether or not flowing through known
				  and definite channels or percolating through underground geologic formations,
				  and regardless of whether the result of natural or artificial recharge. The
				  term includes water contained in quarries, pits and underground mines having no
				  significant surface water inflow, aquifers, underground water courses and other
				  bodies of water below the surface of the earth. The term also includes a spring
				  in which the water level is sufficiently lowered by pumping or other means of
				  drainage to eliminate the surface flow. All other springs are considered to be
				  surface water.
(r) Hydrocarbon
				  development. Activity associated with the drilling, casing, cementing,
				  stimulation and completion of wells, including but not limited to
				  unconventional natural gas development wells, undertaken for the purpose of
				  extraction of liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons from geologic
				  formations.
(s) Hydrocarbon water
				  storage facility. An engineered barrier or structure, including but not limited
				  to tanks, pits or impoundments, constructed for the purpose of storing water,
				  flowback or production fluids for use in hydrocarbon development.
(t) Member jurisdiction. The signatory
				  parties as defined in the compact, comprised of the states of Maryland and New
				  York, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the United States of
				  America.
(u) Member state. The
				  states of Maryland and New York, and the Commonwealth of
				  Pennsylvania.
(v) Person. An
				  individual, corporation, partnership, unincorporated association, and the like
				  and shall have no gender and the singular shall include the plural. The term
				  shall include a governmental authority and any other entity which is recognized
				  by law as the subject of rights and obligations.
(w) Pre-compact consumptive use. The maximum
				  average daily quantity or volume of water consumptively used over any
				  consecutive 30-day period prior to January 23, 1971.
(x) Production fluids. Water or formation
				  fluids recovered at the wellhead of a producing hydrocarbon well as a
				  by-product of the production activity.
(y) Project. Any work, service, activity, or
				  facility undertaken, which is separately planned, financed or identified by the
				  commission, or any separate facility undertaken or to be undertaken by the
				  commission or otherwise within a specified area, for the conservation,
				  utilization, control, development, or management of water resources, which can
				  be established and utilized independently, or as an addition to an existing
				  facility, and can be considered as a separate entity for purposes of
				  evaluation. For purposes of hydrocarbon development activity, including that
				  related to unconventional natural gas development, the project shall be
				  considered to be the drilling pad upon which one or more exploratory or
				  production wells are undertaken, and all water-related appurtenant facilities
				  and activities related thereto.
(z)
				  Project sponsor. Any person who owns, operates or proposes to undertake a
				  project. The singular shall include the plural.
(aa) Public water supply. A system, including
				  facilities for collection, treatment, storage and distribution, that provides
				  water to the public for human consumption, that:
(1) serves at least 15 service connections
				  used by year-round residents of the area served by the system; or
(2) regularly serves at least 25 year-round
				  residents.