Washington Administrative Code › Title 220 - Fish and Wildlife, Department of › ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS AND CONSERVATION › Chapter 220-660 - Hydraulic code rules › Section 220-660-030 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
The following are definitions for terms used in this
				  chapter.
(1) "Abandoning an excavation
				site" means not working an excavation site for forty-eight hours or
				longer.
(2) "Aggregate" means a
				mixture of minerals separable by mechanical or physical means.
(3) "Aquatic beneficial plant" means all
				native and nonnative aquatic plants except those on the state noxious weed
				lists in WAC
				16-750-005,
				16-750-011,
				and
				16-750-015.
(4) "Aquatic invasive species" means an
				invasive species of the animal kingdom with a life cycle that is at least
				partly dependent upon fresh, brackish, or marine waters. Examples include
				certain species of waterfowl, amphibians, fish, shellfish, and
				nutria.
(5) "Aquatic noxious weed"
				means an aquatic plant on the state noxious weed lists in WAC
				16-750-005,
				16-750011, and 16-750-015.
(6)
				"Aquatic plant" means a native or nonnative emergent, submersed, partially
				submersed, free-floating, or floating-leaved plant species that is dependent
				upon fresh, brackish, or marine water ecosystems and includes all stages of
				development and parts.
(7)
				"
Aquatic Plants and Fish
pamphlet" means a document that
				details the rules for aquatic noxious weed and aquatic beneficial plant removal
				and control activities and that serves as the hydraulic project approval for
				certain plant removal and control activities in Washington state.
(8) "Artificial materials" means clean, inert
				materials used to construct diversion structures for mineral
				prospecting.
(9) "Associated
				human-made agricultural drainage facilities" means dikes, drains, pumps,
				drainage tiles, and drainage pipe made by humans that protect agricultural
				land.
(10) "Authorized agent" means
				someone who is authorized by the applicant to act on behalf of the
				applicant.
(11) "Bank" means any
				land surface landward of the ordinary high water line next to a body of water
				and constrains the water except during floods. The term "bank" also includes
				all land surfaces of islands within a body of water that are below the flood
				elevation of the surrounding body of water.
(12) "Bankfull width" means the width of the
				surface of the water at the point where water just begins to overflow into the
				active flood plain. In streams where there is no flood plain it is often the
				width of a stream or river at the dominant channel forming flow that reoccurs
				every one to two years.
(13) "Beach
				area" means the beds between the ordinary high water line and extreme low
				water.
(14) "Bed" means the land
				below (waterward of) the ordinary high water lines of state waters. This
				definition does not include irrigation ditches, canals, stormwater runoff
				devices, or other artificial watercourses except where they exist in a natural
				watercourse that has been artificially altered.
(15) "Bed materials" means naturally
				occurring materials such as gravel, cobble, rock, rubble, sand, mud, and
				aquatic plants that form the beds of state waters. Bed materials are also found
				in deposits or bars above the wetted perimeter of water bodies.
(16) "Board" means the pollution control
				hearings board created in chapter 43.21B RCW.
(17) "Bottom barrier or screen" means sheets
				of synthetic or natural fiber material used to cover and kill plants growing on
				the bottom of a watercourse.
(18)
				"Boulder" means a stream substrate particle larger than ten inches in
				diameter.
(19) "Bridge shadow"
				means the area under a bridge defined by the shadow cast by the sun. This area
				may not receive enough light and rain to support the plant growth needed for
				biotechnical bank stabilization.
(20) "Channel bed width" means the width of
				the bankfull channel, although bankfull may not be well defined in some
				channels. For those streams which are nonalluvial or do not have flood plains,
				the channel width must be determined using features that do not depend on a
				flood plain.
(21) "Chronic danger"
				means a condition declared by the county legislative authority in which any
				property, except for property located on a marine shoreline, has experienced at
				least two consecutive years of flooding or erosion that has damaged or has
				threatened to damage a major structure, water supply system, septic system, or
				access to any road or highway.
(22)
				"Chronic danger HPA" means a written hydraulic project approval issued in
				response to a chronic danger declaration made by a county legislative
				authority.
(23) "Classify" means to
				sort aggregate by hand or through a screen, grizzly, or similar device to
				remove the larger material and concentrate the remaining aggregate.
(24) "Commission" means the Washington state
				fish and wildlife commission.
(25)
				"Compensatory mitigation" means the restoration, creation, enhancement, or
				preservation of aquatic resources to compensate for adverse impacts that remain
				after all appropriate and practicable avoidance and minimization has been
				achieved.
(26) "Concentrator" means
				a device used to physically or mechanically separate the valuable mineral
				content from aggregate.
(27)
				"Control" of an aquatic plant means to prevent all seed production and to
				prevent the dispersal of all propagative parts capable of forming new
				plants.
(28) "County legislative
				authority" means a county commission, council, or other legislative
				body.
(29) "Crevicing" means
				removing aggregate from cracks and crevices using hand-held mineral prospecting
				tools.
(30) "Critical food fish or
				shellfish habitats" means those habitats that are essential to fish life. These
				habitats include habitats of special concern listed in WAC
				220-660-100
				and
				220-660-320.
(31) "Department" means the department of
				fish and wildlife.
(32) "Design
				flood" means a stream discharge of a specific rate and probability best suited
				to ensure the project design creates and shapes habitat or protects property
				and structures to a given level of risk (e.g., the 100-year design
				flood).
(33) "Director" means the
				director of the department of fish and wildlife.
(34) "Ditch" means a wholly artificial
				watercourse or a natural watercourse (waters of the state) altered by
				humans.
(35) "Diver-operated
				dredging" means the use of portable suction or hydraulic dredges held by SCUBA
				divers to remove aquatic plants.
(36) "Dredging" means removal of bed material
				using other than hand-held tools. This does not include metals mining and
				milling operations as defined in chapter 78.56 RCW.
(37) "Dryland dredge" means a suction dredge
				with a nozzle capable of introducing water under pressure from the suction
				dredge pump to the tip of the nozzle.
(38) "Early infestation" of an aquatic
				noxious weed means a stage of development, life history, or area of coverage
				that makes one hundred percent control and eradication likely to
				occur.
(39) "Emergency" means an
				immediate threat to life, the public, property, or of environmental
				degradation.
(40) "Emergency HPA"
				means a verbal or written hydraulic project approval issued in response to a
				declaration of emergency.
(41)
				"Entrained" means the entrapment of fish into a watercourse diversion that has
				no screen, into high velocity water along the face of an improperly designed
				screen, or into the vegetation cut by a mechanical harvester.
(42) "Equipment" means any device powered by
				internal combustion; hydraulics; electricity, except less than one horsepower;
				or livestock used as draft animals, except saddle horses; and the lines,
				cables, arms, or extensions associated with the device.
(43) "Eradication" of an aquatic noxious weed
				means to eliminate it within an area of infestation.
(44) "Established ford" means a crossing
				place in a watercourse that was in existence and used annually before 1986 or
				permitted by the department in or after 1986, and has identifiable approaches
				on the banks.
(45) "Excavation
				line" means a line on the dry bed at or parallel to the water's edge. The
				department determines the distance from the water's edge for each project site.
				The excavation line may change with water level fluctuations.
(46) "Excavation site" means the pit, furrow,
				or hole from which aggregate is removed to process and recover minerals, or
				into which wastewater is discharged to settle out sediments.
(47) "Excavation zone" means the area between
				the excavation line and the bank or the center of the gravel bar.
(48) "Expedited HPA" means a written
				hydraulic project approval issued in those instances where when normal permit
				processing would result in a significant hardship for the applicant or
				unacceptable damage to the environment.
(49) "Farm and agricultural land" means those
				lands identified in
				RCW
				84.34.020.
(50) "Filter blanket" means one or more
				layers of pervious materials (organic, mineral, or synthetic) designed and
				installed to provide drainage, yet prevent the movement of soil particles by
				flowing water.
(51) "Fish
				conservation bank" means a habitat creation, restoration, or enhancement
				project intended to provide a bank of credits to compensate for unavoidable
				impacts to habitat that supports fish life from future development projects.
				Fish conservation banks are managed to optimize desired habitat for ESA-listed
				and at-risk fish species.
(52)
				"Fish habitat" or "habitat that supports fish life" means habitat, which is
				used by fish life at any life stage at any time of the year including potential
				habitat likely to be used by fish life, which could reasonably be recovered by
				restoration or management and includes off-channel habitat.
(53) "Fish habitat enhancement project" means
				a hydraulic project that meets criteria in
				RCW
				77.55.181(1)(a).
(54) "Fish habitat improvement structures" or
				"stream channel improvements" means natural materials such as large wood, rock,
				or synthetic materials such as chain or rope placed in or next to bodies of
				water to improve existing conditions for fish life. Examples are engineered
				logjams, large woody material, and boulders.
(55) "Fish guard" means a device installed at
				or near a surface water diversion head gate, or on the intake of any device
				used for removing water from fish-bearing waters, to prevent entrainment,
				injury, or death of fish life. Fish guards physically keep fish from entering
				the diversion or intake and do not rely on avoidance behavior.
(56) "Fish life" means all fish species,
				including food fish, shellfish, game fish, unclassified fish and shellfish
				species, and all stages of development of those species.
(57) "Fish passage improvement structure"
				means artificial structures that are used to provide passage through, over,
				and/or around artificial barriers. They provide a graduated change in gradient
				with refuge areas allowing fish to pass barriers.
(58) "Fish screen" means "fish
				guard."
(59) "Flood gate" means a
				structure to control flooding through which water flows freely in one direction
				but is prevented from flowing in the other direction.
(60) "Food fish" means those species of the
				classes Osteichthyes, Agnatha, and Chondrichthyes that must not be fished for
				except as authorized by rule of the commission.
(61) "Forest practices hydraulic project"
				means a hydraulic project that requires a forest practices application or
				notification under chapter 76.09 RCW.
(62) "Frequent scour zone" means the area
				between the wetted perimeter and the toe of the slope. The frequent scour zone
				is comprised of aggregate, boulders, or bedrock. Organic soils are not present
				in the frequent scour zone.
(63)
				"Freshwater area" means those state waters and associated beds waterward of the
				ordinary high water line that are upstream of stream and river mouths.
				Freshwater areas also include all lakes, ponds, and tributary streams and
				surface-water-connected wetlands that provide or maintain habitat that supports
				life. This definition does not include irrigation ditches, canals, stormwater
				treatment, and conveyance systems, or other entirely artificial watercourses,
				except where they exist in a natural watercourse that has been altered by
				humans.
(64) "Functional grating"
				means the percent open area of the grating that is not covered or blocked by
				any objects such as structural components, framing wood, flotation tubs, or
				objects placed on the surface of the grating.
(65) "Ganged equipment" means two or more
				pieces of mineral prospecting equipment coupled together to increase
				efficiency. An example is adding a second sluice to a high-banker.
(66) "General provisions" means those
				provisions that are in every HPA.
(67) "
Gold and Fish
pamphlet" means a document that details the rules for conducting small-scale
				and other prospecting and mining activities and that serves as the hydraulic
				project approval for certain mineral prospecting and mining activities in
				Washington state.
(68) "Gravity
				siphon aquatic mining" means any prospecting or mining activity that uses water
				drawn into a hose, pipe, or tube via the effects of gravity or siphon to
				excavate, concentrate, or process aggregate.
(69) "Habitat function" means the natural
				attributes of a given habitat that support the fish life that rely upon that
				habitat.
(70) "Habitat value" means
				an estimate of habitat quality, ecologically important functions and the
				relative value of the hydraulic project site within the watershed.
(71) "Hand-held equipment" means equipment
				held by hand and powered by internal combustion, hydraulics, pneumatics, or
				electricity. Examples are chainsaws, drills, and grinders.
(72) "Hand-held mineral prospecting tools"
				means
Tools used for mineral prospecting that are held by hand and
				  do not have moving parts powered, in whole or in part, by internal combustion,
				  electricity, hydraulics, or pneumatics. Examples include, but are not
				  necessarily limited to, shovels, picks, trowels, hammers, and pry bars.
(73) "Hand-held tools" means tools
				held by hand and are not powered by internal combustion, hydraulics,
				pneumatics, or electricity. Examples are shovels, rakes, hammers, pry bars, and
				cable winches. This definition does not apply to hand-held tools used for
				mineral prospecting. See "hand-held mineral prospecting tools."
(74) "Hatchery" means any water impoundment
				or facility used for the captive spawning, hatching, or rearing of fish
				life.
(75) "High-banker" means a
				stationary concentrator operated outside the wetted perimeter of the body of
				water from which the water is removed and that uses water supplied by hand or
				by pumping. A high-banker consists of a sluice box, hopper, and water supply.
				Aggregate is supplied to the high-banker by means other than suction dredging.
				This definition excludes rocker boxes. See Figure 1.
Click to view
				  image
(76)
				"High-banking" means using a high-banker to recover minerals.
(77) "Hydraulic drop" means an abrupt drop in
				water surface elevation.
(78)
				"Hydraulic project" means the construction or performance of work that will
				use, divert, obstruct, or change the natural flow or bed of any of the salt or
				freshwaters of the state.
(79)
				"Hydraulic project approval" or "HPA" means:
(a) A written approval for a hydraulic
				project issued under this chapter and signed by the director of the department
				or the director's designee; or
(b)
				A verbal approval for an emergency hydraulic project issued under this chapter
				by the director of the department or the director's designee; or
(c) The following printed pamphlet approvals:
(i) A "
Gold and Fish
"
				pamphlet issued under this chapter by the department, which identifies and
				authorizes specific small scale mineral prospecting and placer mining
				activities; or
(ii) An
				"
Aquatic Plants and Fish
" pamphlet issued under this chapter
				by the department, which identifies and authorizes specific aquatic plant
				removal and control activities.