Oregon Administrative Rules › Chapter 603 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE › Division 95 - AGRICULTURAL WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM › Section 603-095-4005 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 7, July 1, 2024
As used in these rules unless the context requires
				otherwise:
(1) "Channel" means the
			 defined bed and bank that serve to confine where a stream of water runs.
(2) "Converted wetland" means
			 agriculturally managed wetlands that, on or before June 30, 1989, were brought
			 into commercial agricultural production by diking, draining, leveling, filling
			 or any similar hydrologic manipulation and by removal or manipulation of
			 natural vegetation, and that are managed for commercial agricultural purposes.
			 "Converted wetlands" does not include any stream, slough, ditched creek,
			 spring, lake or any other waters of this state that are located within or
			 adjacent to a converted wetland area.
(3) "Drainage ditch" means a manmade water
			 conveyance channel that is for the purpose of draining water away from lands. A
			 ditch that is used to drain water away from lands but may also be used to
			 convey water to lands for irrigation during certain times of the year is
			 considered a drainage ditch. Channels that are manipulated streams are not
			 considered ditches.
(4) "Dry
			 channel" means channel conditions where no flowing or standing water is present
			 in the area to be maintained at the commencement of or during the channel
			 maintenance activity, other than small quantities of water that may occur in
			 low areas of the channel as a direct result of active maintenance activities.
			 For the channel of a waterway that is subject to tidal influence, flowing or
			 standing water may not be present during all tidal conditions. A dry channel
			 that receives water from one or more precipitation events that results in
			 pooling or flow of water is no longer dry for the purposes of this definition.
(5) "Essential Indigenous
			 Anadromous Salmonid Habitat" means the streams designated pursuant to ORS
			 196.810 that are necessary to
			 prevent the depletion of indigenous anadromous salmonid species during their
			 life history stages of spawning and rearing, and any adjacent off-channel
			 rearing or high-flow refugia habitat with a permanent or seasonal surface water
			 connection to an ESH stream.
(6)
			 "Farming operations" means the use of land for the raising or production of
			 livestock or livestock products, poultry or poultry products, milk or milk
			 products, fur-bearing animals; or for the growing of crops such as, but not
			 limited to, grains, small grains, fruit, vegetables, forage, nursery stock,
			 Christmas trees; or any other agricultural or horticultural use or animal
			 husbandry or any combination thereof. Pasture and woodlands accompanying land
			 in the farming operations are also defined as part of the farming
			 operations.
(7) "Intermittent
			 Stream" means a stream or other waterway which flows during a portion of every
			 year.
(8) "Maintenance" or
			 "maintenance activity" means channel upkeep and removal from the channel of
			 sediment, vegetation or debris, in the minimum amount necessary to restore the
			 serviceability of the traditionally maintained channel for facilitating
			 drainage.
(9) "Material" means
			 rock, gravel, sand, silt and other inorganic substances and large woody debris,
			 removed from waters of this state and any materials organic or inorganic that
			 constitute fill placed in waters of this state.
(10) "Perennial Stream" means a stream that
			 has continuous flow in parts of its bed all year long during years of normal
			 precipitation.
(11) "Regional Dry
			 Maintenance Time Period" means that period of time designated by the Oregon
			 Department of Fish and Wildlife as the permissible time period for that region
			 in which to begin and complete maintenance activities for a traditionally
			 maintained channel.
(12)
			 "Routinely subject to maintenance" means the periodic upkeep of a traditionally
			 maintained channel to maintain the minimum drainage functions necessary to
			 facilitate drainage related to farming operations.
(13) "Serviceable for facilitating drainage"
			 as that term is used in the term "traditionally maintained channel" means a
			 channel that in the past five years has been used to facilitate drainage of
			 farming operations.
(14)
			 "Streambank" or "bank" means the physical container of the waters of this
			 state, bounded on freshwater bodies by the ordinary high water line or bankfull
			 stage, and in tidal bays and estuaries by the limits of the highest measured
			 tide. The "bed" is typically the horizontal section and includes non-vegetated
			 gravel bars. The "bank" is typically the vertical portion.
(15) "Traditionally maintained channel" means
			 the channel of a segment, set of segments or the entirety of a drainage ditch,
			 intermittent stream or perennial stream that:
(a) Has been routinely subject to maintenance
			 to facilitate drainage related to farming or ranching; and
(b) Has been serviceable for facilitating
			 drainage within the past five years.