Virginia Administrative Code › Title 9 - ENVIRONMENT › Agency 25 - STATE WATER CONTROL BOARD › Chapter 770 - VIRGINIA FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR MITIGATION ASSOCIATED WITH TIDAL DREDGING PROJECTS › Part I - Definitions › Section 9VAC25-770-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
Unless a different meaning is required by the context, the
					 following terms as used in this chapter shall have the following
					 meanings:
"Applicant" means a person applying for a VWP individual or
					 general permit.
"Board" means the State Water Control Board. When used
					 outside the context of the promulgation of regulations, including regulations
					 to establish general permits, "board" means the Department of Environmental
					 Quality.
"Compensation" or "compensatory mitigation" means actions
					 taken that provide some form of substitute aquatic resource for the impacted
					 aquatic resource.
"Compensatory mitigation plan" means the written plan
					 describing the proposed compensatory mitigation activities required by
					 9VAC25-210-80
					 of the Virginia Water Protection Permit Program Regulation.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental
					 Quality.
"Director" means the Director of the Department of
					 Environmental Quality (DEQ) or an authorized representative.
"Dredging" means a form of excavation in which material is
					 removed or relocated from beneath surface waters.
"Excavate" or "excavation" means ditching, dredging, or
					 mechanized removal of earth, soil or rock.
"General permit" means a permit authorizing a specified
					 category of activities.
"In-lieu fee fund" means a monetary fund operated by a
					 nonprofit organization or governmental agency that receives financial
					 contributions from persons impacting wetlands or streams pursuant to an
					 authorized permitted activity and that expends the moneys received to provide
					 consolidated compensatory mitigation for permitted wetland or stream
					 impacts.
"Law" means the State Water Control Law of Virginia.
"Mitigation" means sequentially avoiding and minimizing
					 impacts to the maximum extent practicable, and then compensating for remaining
					 unavoidable impacts of a proposed action.
"Mitigation bank" means a site providing off-site,
					 consolidated compensatory mitigation that is developed and approved in
					 accordance with all applicable federal and state laws or regulations for the
					 establishment, use and operation of mitigation banks, and is operating under a
					 signed banking agreement.
"Permittee" means the person who holds a VWP individual or
					 general permit.
"Person" means any firm, corporation, association, or
					 partnership, one or more individuals, or any governmental unit or agency of
					 it.
"Practicable" means available and capable of being done
					 after taking into consideration cost, existing technology and logistics in
					 light of overall project purposes.
"State waters" means all water, on the surface and under
					 the ground, wholly or partially within or bordering the Commonwealth or within
					 its jurisdiction, including wetlands.
"Surface water" means all state waters that are not ground
					 water as defined in § 62.1-255 of the Code of Virginia.
"USACE" means the United States Army Corps of
					 Engineers.
"VWP permit" means an individual permit issued by the
					 department or a general permit issued as a regulation adopted by the board
					 under § 62.1-44.15:5 of the Code of Virginia that authorizes activities
					 otherwise unlawful under § 62.1-44.5 of the Code of Virginia or otherwise
					 serves as the Commonwealth of Virginia's § 401 certification.
"Wetlands" means those areas that are inundated or
					 saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to
					 support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of
					 vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands
					 generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.
Statutory Authority: § 62.1-44.15 of the Code of
						Virginia.