North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 15A - Environmental Quality › Chapter 01 - DEPARTMENTAL RULES › Subchapter C - CONFORMITY WITH NORTH CAROLINA ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT › Section .0100 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 01C .0103 - DEFINITIONS

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
The definition of any word or phrase used in rules of this
					 Subchapter is the same as given in
					 G.S.
					 113A-9. The following words and phrases have
					 the following meaning.
(1) "Channel
				  Disturbance" means activities that permanently remove or degrade the natural
				  functions of the stream such as culverting, relocation, channelization, or
				  streambank stabilization methods including gabions, rip rap, or similar hard
				  structures.
(2) "Cumulative
				  Impacts" means environmental impacts resulting from incremental effects of an
				  activity when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future
				  activities regardless of what entities undertake such other actions. Cumulative
				  impacts are the reasonably foreseeable impacts from individually minor but
				  collectively significant activities.
(3) "Direct Impacts" mean environmental
				  impacts which are caused by an activity and occurring at the same time and
				  place.
(4) "Disposal" means the
				  discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any
				  waste into or on any land or water so that the waste or any constituent part of
				  the waste may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged
				  into any waters, including groundwaters, or beneath or on the surface of the
				  land.
(5) "Ecosystem" means all the
				  interrelated organisms and their environment within a defined area.
(6) "Forestry Management Plan" means a
				  document that guides the practical and sustainable application of biological,
				  physical, quantitative, managerial, economic, social, and policy principles to
				  the regeneration, management, utilization, and conservation of forests to meet
				  specified goals, and objectives while maintaining the productivity of the
				  forest. Forest management includes management for aesthetics, fish, recreation,
				  urban values, water, wilderness, wildlife, wood products and other forest
				  resource values.
(7) "Hazardous
				  Waste" means a waste, or combination of wastes, in any state or form including
				  gas, liquid, or solid, that because of its quantity, concentration, or
				  physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may cause or contribute to an
				  increase in mortality or an increase in irreversible or incapacitating
				  reversible illness, or pose a present or potential hazard to human health or
				  the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or
				  otherwise managed.
(8) "High
				  Quality Waters (HQW)" has the same meaning as in
				  15A NCAC
				  02B .0224.
(9) "Inlet" means a waterway between islands
				  connecting a lagoon, estuary, sound, or similar water body with the
				  ocean.
(10) "Instream Flow" means
				  the amount of water needed in a stream to adequately provide for downstream
				  uses occurring within the stream channel, including some or all of the
				  following: aquatic habitat, recreation, wetlands maintenance, navigation,
				  hydropower, riparian vegetation, and water quality.
(11) "Land-Disturbing Activity" has the same
				  meaning as in
				  G.S.
				  113A-52.
(12) "Lead Division" means the division
				  within DEQ that has been appointed by the Secretary, pursuant to
				  15A NCAC
				  01C .0105, to have primary responsibility for
				  preparation of an environmental document when DEQ is the state project
				  agency.
(13) "Perennial Stream"
				  means a channel that contains water year round during a year of normal rainfall
				  with the aquatic bed located below the water table for most of the year.
				  Groundwater is the primary source of water for a perennial stream, but it also
				  carries stormwater runoff. A perennial stream exhibits the typical biological,
				  hydrological, and physical characteristics commonly associated with the
				  continuous conveyance of water.
(14) "Prime agricultural and forest land"
				  means lands that possess the best combination of physical and chemical
				  characteristics for producing food, feed, fiber (including forest products),
				  forage, oilseed, and other agricultural products (including livestock), without
				  intolerable soil erosion. This does not apply to lands that are already in or
				  committed to development projects such as water impoundment, transportation,
				  and urban development.
(15)
				  "Reclaimed Water" has the same meaning as in
				  15A NCAC
				  02U .0103.
(16) "Resource" means any natural product or
				  value, not necessarily economic, but including trees, minerals, wildlife, clean
				  air and water, fisheries, ecosystems, landscapes, and open space.
(17) "River Basin" means the watershed of a
				  major river system.
(18) "Secondary
				  Impacts" mean indirect impacts caused by and resulting from a specific activity
				  that occur later in time or further removed in distance than direct impacts,
				  but are reasonably foreseeable. Indirect impacts may include growth inducing
				  effects and other effects related to induced changes in the pattern of land
				  use, population density or growth rate, and related effects on air, water, and
				  other natural systems, including ecosystems.
(19) "Secretary" means the Secretary of
				  DEQ.
(20) "State Project Agency"
				  means the state department or council of state agency that has been designated
				  pursuant to
				  01 NCAC
				  25 .0210(a) for ensuring
				  compliance with NCEPA.
(21) "Stream
				  Enhancement" means the process of implementing stream rehabilitation practices
				  in order to improve water quality or ecological function. These practices are
				  typically conducted on the stream bank or in the flood prone area. Enhancement
				  activities may also include the placement of in-stream habitat
				  structures.
(22) "Stream
				  Restoration" means the process of converting an unstable, altered, or degraded
				  stream corridor, including adjacent riparian zone and flood prone areas to its
				  natural or referenced, stable conditions considering recent and future
				  watershed conditions. This process also includes restoring the geomorphic
				  dimension, pattern, and profile as well as biological and chemical integrity,
				  including transport of water and sediment produced by the stream's watershed in
				  order to achieve dynamic equilibrium.
(23) "Total Design Withdrawal" means the
				  pumping rate at which water can be removed from the contributing stream. It is
				  the sum of any pre-existing withdrawal capacity plus any withdrawal
				  increase.
(24) "Wetlands" has the
				  same meaning as in
				  15A NCAC
				  02B .0202.
Authority
					 G.S.
					 113A-2;
					 113A-6;
					 113A-9;
					 143B-10;
Eff. April
					 1, 2003;
Readopted Eff. June 1,
					 2022.