S.C. Code Regs. § § 61-119.B

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 11, November 22, 2024

Section 61-119.B - DEFINITIONS

Definitions as used in this regulation are as follows:

1. 'Administratively complete' means a determination by the Department that all elements of an application, as specified in the applicable regulation and including but not limited to all required signatures and tender of the application fee, where required, have been received.

2. 'Affected area' means that portion of a county or counties within a river basin that, under the circumstances, are determined by the Department to likely be affected by a proposed surface water withdrawal.

3. 'Agricultural use' means:

a. plowing, tilling, or preparing the soil at an agricultural facility;

b. planting, growing, fertilizing, or harvesting crops, ornamental horticulture, floriculture, and turf grasses;

c. application of pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals, compounds, or substances to crops, weeds, or soil in connection with the production of crops, livestock, animals, or poultry;

d. breeding, hatching, raising, producing, feeding, keeping, slaughtering, or processing livestock, hogs, aquatic animals, equines, chickens, turkeys, poultry, or other fowl normally raised for food, mules, cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits, or similar farm animals for commercial purposes;

e. producing and keeping honeybees, producing honeybee products, and honeybee processing facilities;

f. producing, processing, or packaging eggs or egg products;

g. manufacturing feed for poultry or livestock;

h. rotation of crops;

i. commercial aquaculture;

j. application of existing, changed, or new technology, practices, processes, or procedures to an agricultural use;

k. the operation of a roadside market; and

l. silviculture.

4. 'Agriculture facility' means any land, building, structure, pond, impoundment, appurtenance, machinery, or equipment which is used for the commercial production or processing of crops, trees, livestock, animals, poultry, honeybees, honeybee products, livestock products, poultry products, or products which are used in commercial aquaculture.

5. 'Consumptive use' means any use of water which is not a nonconsumptive use.

6. 'Department' means the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

7. 'Diffuse surface water' means water on the surface of the earth not located in defined courses, streams, or water bodies.

8. 'Drought contingency pond' means a pond or lake designated solely as a supplemental water source in a surface water withdrawer's operational and contingency plan.

9. 'Emergency withdrawal' means the withdrawal of water, for a period not exceeding thirty days, for the purpose of firefighting, hazardous substance waste spill response, or both, or other emergency withdrawal of water as determined by the Department.

10. 'Existing surface water withdrawer' means a surface water withdrawer withdrawing surface water as of January 1, 2011, or a proposed surface water withdrawer with its intakes under construction before January 1, 2011, or with all necessary applications for its intake permits deemed administratively complete before January 1, 2011.

11. 'Farm pond' means a pond completely situated on private property that is only used for providing water for agricultural uses.

12. 'Gaging station' means a site on a stream, canal, lake or reservoir where systematic observations of stage, discharge, or other hydrologic data are obtained. Gaging stations may be part of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) monitoring network or other Department approved measuring devices established by or at the direction of or approved by the Department, after consultation with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), utilizing appropriate, Department approved measuring devices.

13. 'Impoundment' means a dam, dike, natural structure, or any combination thereof that is designed to hold an accumulation of surface water or impede the flow of surface water.

14. 'Interbasin transfer' means the withdrawal of surface water from a river basin and the movement of that water to a river basin different from the source of the withdrawal.

15. 'Licensed or otherwise flow controlled impoundment' means an impoundment or waterbody for which approval to construct and/or operate has been given by an appropriate governmental authority or agency with said approval including regulated releases with required flows from the impoundment. Licensing agencies include, but are not limited to, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which incorporate in such federal licensing and permitting decisions the State of South Carolina water quality certification under Section401 of the Clean Water Act.

16. 'Mean annual daily flow' means the arithmetic mean of individual daily mean discharges (stream flow) for a period representative of the historic stream flow records, using flow measurements published by USGS or as determined by other Department approved, hydrologically valid data.

17. 'Minimal changes in water quantity' means that greater than ninety (90) percent of the water withdrawn by a surface water withdrawer, based upon the previous twenty-four (24) months of historical data, is returned to the waters of origin; provided, that either the amount of water not returned to the water source does not:

a. exceed three million (3,000,000) gallons during any one (1) month; or

b. significantly reduce the safe yield at the withdrawal point.

18. 'Minimum instream flow' means the flow that provides an adequate supply of water at the surface water withdrawal point to maintain the biological, chemical, and physical integrity of the stream taking into account the needs of downstream users, recreation, and navigation and that flow is set at forty (40) percent of the mean annual daily flow for the months of January, February, March, and April; thirty (30) percent of the mean annual daily flow for the months of May, June, and December; and twenty (20) percent of the mean annual daily flow for the months of July through November for surface water withdrawers as described in Section 49-4-150(A)(1). For surface water withdrawal points located on a surface water segment downstream of and influenced by a licensed or otherwise flow controlled impoundment, 'minimum instream flow' means the flow that provides an adequate supply of water at the surface water withdrawal point to maintain the biological, chemical, and physical integrity of the stream taking into account the needs of downstream users, recreation, and navigation and that flow is set in Section 49-4-150(A)(3).

19. 'Minimum water level' means the water level in an impoundment necessary to maintain the biological, chemical, and physical integrity of the surface water in the impoundment taking into account downstream uses, withdrawals from the impoundment, and recreational and navigational needs as established by an existing federal regulatory process or established through consultation between the Department and the operator of the impoundment.

20. 'Nonconsumptive use' means a use of surface water withdrawn in such a manner that it is returned to its waters of origin within the boundaries of contiguous property owned by the surface water withdrawer with no or minimal changes in water quantity.

21. 'Permit' or 'surface water withdrawal permit' means a written authorization issued to a person by the Department that allows the person to hold and exercise a water right to withdraw surface water pursuant to the terms of the permit and this regulation.

22. 'Permitted surface water withdrawer' means a person withdrawing surface water pursuant to a surface water withdrawal permit.

23. 'Permittee' means a person authorized to make withdrawals of surface water pursuant to a surface water withdrawal permit issued by the Department.

24. 'Person' means an individual, firm, partnership, trust, estate, association, public or private institution, municipality, or political subdivision, governmental agency, public water system, or a private or public corporation or other legal entity organized under the laws of this State or any other state or county.

25. 'Proposed registered surface water withdrawer' means a proposed surface water withdrawer whose planned operations would result in his withdrawals being subject to the reporting but not the permitting requirements of this regulation.

26. 'Public water system' means a water system as defined in Section 44-55-20 of the State Safe Drinking Water Act, Section 44-55-10 et seq., S.C. Code of Laws, 1976 as amended.

27. 'Registered surface water withdrawer' means a person who makes surface water withdrawals for agricultural uses at an agricultural facility that is filing a report pursuant to Section 49-4-50.

28. 'River basin' means the area drained by a river and its tributaries or through a specified point on a river, as determined in Section 49-4-80(K)(2).

29. 'Safe yield' means the amount of water available for withdrawal from a particular surface water source in excess of the minimum instream flow or minimum water level for that surface water source. Safe yield is determined by comparing the natural and artificial replenishment of the surface water to the existing or planned consumptive and nonconsumptive uses.

30. 'Supplemental water source' means a source of water different from the source of permitted withdrawal that will be used when an adequate amount of water is unavailable for withdrawal from the permitted source, including, but not limited to, ground water wells, aquifer storage and recovery projects, water storage facilities, drought contingency ponds, and connections to other water providers.

31. 'Surface water' means all water that is wholly or partially within the State, including the Savannah River, or within its jurisdiction, which is open to the atmosphere and subject to surface runoff, including, but not limited to, lakes, streams, ponds, rivers, creeks, runs, springs, and reservoirs, but not including water and wastewater treatment impoundments, off-stream supplemental operations related impoundments, or water storage structures constructed by the surface water withdrawer to provide adequate supplies of surface water during low flow conditions.

32. 'Surface water withdrawer' means a person withdrawing surface water in excess of three million (3,000,000) gallons during any one (1) month from a single intake or multiple intakes under common ownership within a one (1) mile radius from any one (1) existing or proposed intake.

33. 'Water Supply Only Reservoir' means a reservoir from which no permitted or registered consumptive withdrawals other than for public drinking water supply are allowed.

34. 'Withdrawal' means to remove surface water from its natural course or location, or exercising physical control over surface water in its natural course or location, regardless of whether the water is returned to its waters of origin, consumed, transferred to another river basin, or discharged elsewhere.

S.C. Code Regs. § 61-119.B