Ohio Administrative Code › Title 901:13 - Water Pollution and Soil Erosion › Chapter 901:13-1 - Abatement › Section 901:13-1-01 - General provisions

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1, 2024
(A)
								Purpose.
Chapter 901:13-1 of the Administrative
				Code applies to the control of pollutants from areas within the state used for
				agricultural production, including land being used for the production or
				keeping of animals or for the production of agricultural crops.
Chapter 901:13-1 of the Administrative
				Code establishes state standards for a level of management and conservation
				practices in farming and animal feeding operations on farms in order to abate
				excessive soil erosion or the pollution of waters of the state by soil sediment
				including pollutants attached to the sediment and animal manure. This chapter
				further defines Ohio's pollution abatement grant program for landowners or
				operators to voluntarily install conservation practices.
The criteria in this chapter are
				intended for use in determining the acceptability of the level of management
				and conservation practices and for use by landowners and operators in planning,
				applying and maintaining appropriate management measures and conservation
				practices and to prevent the storage, handling, treatment, disposal, or land
				application of animal manure such that it is polluting or has a potential to
				pollute waters of the state contrary to these standards established by this
				chapter. Technical determinations by a district or the director shall be
				considered prima facie evidence of agricultural pollution.
(B)
								
			 Definitions. As used in rules Chapter 901:13-1 of the Administrative
			 Code:
(1)
									
			 "Agricultural pollution" means failure to use management or conservation
			 practices in farming operations to abate wind or water erosion of the soil or
			 to abate the degradation of waters of the state by animal manure or soil
			 sediment including substances attached thereto.
(2)
									"Agricultural
			 production" means the commercial apiculture, animal husbandry or poultry
			 husbandry, the commercial production of field crops, tobacco, fruits,
			 vegetables, timber, nursery stock, sod or flowers or any combination of such
			 husbandry or production and includes the processing, drying, storage, and
			 marketing of food and fiber products and animals used for recreation, fur or
			 wildlife purposes.
(3)
									"Agriculture animal" means any animal generally used
			 for food or in agricultural production, including cattle, sheep, goats,
			 rabbits, poultry, and swine; horses; alpacas; llamas; and any other animal
			 included by the director of the Ohio department of agriculture by rule.
			 "Agricultural animal" does not include fish or other aquatic animals regardless
			 of whether they are raised at fish hatcheries, fish farms, or other facilities
			 that raise aquatic animals.
(4)
									"Animal feeding
			 operation" means an animal feedlot and animal manure management facilities and
			 land application areas for managing and disposal of animal manure. "Animal
			 feeding operation" does not include operations subject to Chapter 903. of the
			 Revised Code, Chapter 6111. of the Revised Code, or section 901:10 of the
			 Administrative Code.
(5)
									"Animal feedlot" means a paved animal feeding or
			 holding area or other lot, pen, yard, or other feeding or holding area where
			 grass or other suitable vegetative cover is not maintained.
(6)
									"Aquifer" means
			 an underground consolidated or unconsolidated geologic formation, or series of
			 formations that are hydraulically connected and that have the capability to
			 receive, store, and yield usable quantities of water to wells. "Aquifer" does
			 not include perched ground water.
(7)
									"Best management
			 practice" or "BMP" means a practice or combination of practices that is
			 determined to be the most effective practicable (including technological,
			 economic, and institutional considerations) means of preventing or reducing
			 agricultural pollution sources to a level compatible with water quality goals.
			 BMPs may include structural and nonstructural practices, conservation practices
			 and operation and maintenance procedures.
(8)
									"Conservation"
			 means the wise use and management of natural resources.
(9)
									"Cost-share
			 monies" means state of Ohio public funds used for the purpose of sharing the
			 cost of establishing needed pollution abatement practices.
(10)
									"Department"
			 means the Ohio department of agriculture.
(11)
									"Director" means
			 director of the Ohio department of agriculture.
(12)
									"Director's
			 designee" means any Ohio department of agriculture, soil and water conservation
			 district employee, or soil and water conservation district supervisor who the
			 director has given the responsibility to implement the agricultural pollution
			 abatement program.
(13)
									"District" means a soil and water conservation
			 district, organized under Chapter 940. of the Revised Code.
(14)
									"Ditch" means an
			 excavation, either dug or natural, for the purpose of drainage or irrigation
			 with intermittent flow.
(15)
									"Diversion" means a channel constructed across the
			 slope for the purpose of intercepting surface runoff.
(16)
									"Drainageway"
			 means an area of concentrated water flow other than river, stream, ditch, or
			 grassed waterway.
(17)
									"Erosion" means:
(a)
										The wearing away
			 of the land surface by running water, wind, ice or other geological agents,
			 including such processes as gravitational creep.
(b)
										Detachment and
			 movement of soil or rock fragments by water, wind, ice, or
			 gravity.
(c)
										Erosion includes:
(i)
											"Gully erosion":
			 the erosion process whereby water accumulates in narrow channels during and
			 immediately after rainfall or snow or ice melt and actively removes the soil
			 from this narrow area to considerable depths such that the channel would not be
			 obliterated by normal smoothing or tillage operations.
(ii)
											"Rill erosion":
			 an erosion process in which numerous small channels only several inches deep
			 are formed; occurs mainly on recently disturbed soils. The small channels
			 formed by rill erosion would be obliterated by normal smoothing or tillage
			 operations.
(iii)
											"Sheet erosion": the removal of a fairly uniform layer
			 of soil from the land surface by wind or runoff water.
(18)
									"Field Office Technical Guide" means the localized
			 document used by the soil and water conservation district and developed
			 (current edition) by the natural resources conservation service, United States
			 department of agriculture, which is available to all Ohio county soil and water
			 conservation districts, available at
http://www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/ohio_eFOTG.html
and which provides:
(a)
										Soil
			 descriptions;
(b)
										Sound land use alternatives;
(c)
										Adequate
			 conservation treatment alternatives;
(d)
										Standards and
			 specifications of conservation practices;
(e)
										Conservation
			 cost-return information;
(f)
										Practice maintenance requirements;
(g)
										Erosion
			 prediction procedures.
(19)
									"Grassed
			 waterway" means a natural course or constructed channel that is shaped or
			 graded to required dimensions and established with suitable vegetation to
			 filter and convey runoff from fields, terraces, diversions or other
			 concentrated runoff without causing erosion or flooding.
(20)
									"Ground water"
			 means any water below the surface of the earth in a zone of saturation, but
			 does not include a perched water table.
(21)
									"Manure" means
			 any of the following wastes used in or resulting from the production of
			 agricultural animals or direct agricultural products such as milk or eggs:
			 animal excreta, discarded products, process waste water, process generated
			 waste water, waste feed, silage drainage, and compost products resulting from
			 mortality composting, on farm biodigester operation residue that includes at
			 least seventy-five per cent manure, or the composting of animal
			 excreta.
(22)
									"Manure storage or treatment facility" means any area
			 or facilities used for the collection, storage, handling or treatment of
			 manure.
(23)
									"Mortality composting" means the controlled
			 decomposition of organic solid material consisting of animal mortality that
			 stabilizes the organic fraction of the material.
(24)
									"Ohio soil and
			 water conservation commission" means the seven member board that directs and
			 recommends conservation policies and programs as authorized under section
			  940.02 
			 of the Revised Code.
(25)
									"Ohio Livestock Manure Management Guide" means the 2006
			 edition of the "Ohio Livestock Manure Management Guide," bulletin 604, the Ohio
			 state university extension, which is available at all county offices of Ohio
			 state university extension, local soil and water conservation district offices,
			 and at
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b604
.
(26)
									"Operation and management plan" means a written record,
			 developed or approved by the district board of supervisors or the director, for
			 the owner or operator of agricultural land or animal feeding operations that
			 contains implementation schedules and operational procedures for a level of
			 management and best management practices which will abate the degradation of
			 the waters of the state by animal manure and by soil sediment including
			 attached pollutants.
(27)
									"Permeability" means the quality of a soil horizon that
			 enables water or air to move through it. Terms used to describe it are as
			 follows: very slow, slow, moderately slow, moderate, moderately rapid, rapid,
			 and very rapid, measured in inches per hour or inches per day.
(28)
									"Person" means
			 any individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, agency, unincorporated
			 association, or any combination thereof.
(29)
									"Pollution"
			 means failure to use management or conservation practices in farming operations
			 to abate wind or water erosion of the soil or to abate the degradation of the
			 waters of the state by animal manure or soil sediment including pollutants
			 attached thereto.
(30)
									"Prima facie evidence" means law evidence adequate to
			 establish a fact or raise a presumption of fact unless refuted.
(31)
									"Primary contact
			 recreation resource water" means waters that, during the recreation season of
			 May first to October fifteenth, are suitable for full-body contact recreation
			 such as, but not limited to, swimming, canoeing and scuba diving with minimal
			 threat to public health as a result of water quality.
(32)
									"RUSLE" means
			 the "Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation" which is a method used to estimate
			 soil loss by sheet and rill erosion and wind erosion. This will be estimated
			 using the current soil loss prediction technologies found in the "Field Office
			 Technical Guide."
(33)
									"Saturated soil" means soil in which all voids between
			 soil particles are filled with liquid.
(34)
									"Sediment" means
			 solid material, both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being
			 transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water, gravity,
			 or ice, and has come to rest on the earth's surface.
(35)
									"Sloughing"
			 means a slip or downward movement of an extended layer of soil resulting from
			 the undermining action of water or the earth disturbing activity of
			 man.
(36)
									"Snow pack manure" means the accumulation of snow and
			 ice when combined with manure from animal feedlot.
(37)
									"Soil" means
			 unconsolidated, erodible earth material consisting of minerals and
			 organics.
(38)
									"Soil horizon" means a layer of soil, approximately
			 parallel to the soil surface, with characteristics produced by soil-forming
			 processes.
(39)
									"Soil loss" means soil moved from a given site by the
			 forces of erosion and redeposited at another site, on land or in a body of
			 water.
(40)
									"Stream" means a body of water running or flowing on
			 the earth's surface or channel in which such flow occurs. Flow may be
			 seasonally intermittent.
(41)
									"Substantial", when referring to compliance with the
			 provisions of an approved operation and management plan, means following the
			 approved schedule of conservation practice implementation.
(42)
									"T" means the
			 soil loss tolerance expressed in tons per acre per year. This represents the
			 tons of soil (related to the specific soil series) which can be lost through
			 erosion annually without causing significant degradation of the soil or
			 potential for crop production.
(43)
									"Useful life"
			 means the expected service life of a best management practice as defined by the
			 "Field Office Technical Guide" or by the director.
(44)
									"Waters of the
			 state" means all streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, watercourses, waterways,
			 wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and all other bodies or
			 accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial,
			 regardless of the depth of the strata in which underground water is located,
			 which are situated wholly or partly within, or border upon, this state, or are
			 within its jurisdiction, except those private waters which do not combine or
			 effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters.
(45)
									"Watershed in
			 Distress" means a watershed, and boundaries thereof as established by the
			 United States geological survey, which has aquatic life and health that is
			 impaired by nutrients or sediment from agricultural land uses and where there
			 is a threat to public health, drinking water supplies, recreation, or public
			 safety and welfare.
Replaces: 1501:15-5-01