Or. Admin. Code § 603-095-4005

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 12, December 1, 2024

Section 603-095-4005 - Definitions

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.

(16) "Valid notice" or "Valid Notification" means a completed notification on a form provided by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, reviewed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and posted on the Oregon Department of Agriculture website.

(17) "Waters of This State" means natural waterways, tidal and non-tidal bays, intermittent streams, constantly flowing streams, lakes, wetlands, that portion of the Pacific Ocean that is in the boundaries of this state, all other navigable and non-navigable bodies of water in this state and those portions of the ocean shore, as defined in ORS 390.605, where removal-fill activities are regulated under a state-assumed permit program as provided in 33 U.S.C. 1344(g) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended.

(18) "Wetland" or "Wetlands" means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water 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.

Or. Admin. Code § 603-095-4005

DOA 17-2020, adopt filed 09/08/2020, effective 9/8/2020

Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 196.816

Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 196.816