30 Tex. Admin. Code § 297.1 Definitions

• Library: Texas Administrative Code
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through Reg. 48, No. 52; December 29, 2023
• Citation: 30 Tex. Admin. Code § 297.1
• Year: 2023

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter and in Chapters 288 and 295 of this title (relating to Water Conservation Plans, Drought Contingency Plans, Guidelines and Requirements; and Water Rights, Procedural, respectively), shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

(1) Agriculture or agricultural--Any of the following activities:

(A) cultivating the soil to produce crops for human food, animal feed, or planting seed or for the production of fibers;

(B) the practice of floriculture, viticulture, silviculture, and horticulture including the cultivation of plants in containers or non-soil media by a nursery grower;

(C) raising feeding, or keeping animals for breeding purposes or for the production of food or fiber, leather, pelts, or other tangible products having a commercial value;

(D) raising or keeping equine animals;

(E) wildlife management;

(F) planting cover crops, including cover crops cultivated for transplantation, or leaving land idle for the purpose of participating in any governmental program or normal crop or livestock rotation procedure; and

(G) aquaculture as defined in Texas Agriculture Code, § Agriculture Codeundefined134.001, which reads "'aquaculture' or 'fish farming' means the business of producing and selling cultured species raised in private facilities. Aquaculture or fish farming is an agricultural activity."

(2) Agricultural use--Any use or activity involving agriculture, including irrigation.

(3) Appropriations--The process or series of operations by which an appropriative right is acquired. A completed appropriation thus results in an appropriative right; the water to which a completed appropriation in good standing relates is appropriated water.

(4) Appropriative right--The right to impound, divert, store, take, or use a specific quantity of state water acquired by law.

(5) Aquifer recharge project--A project involving the intentional recharge of an aquifer by means of an injection well or other means of infiltration, as described in Texas Water Code, § Water Codeundefined27.201(1).

(6) Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project--A project involving the injection of water into a geologic formation for the purpose of subsequent recovery and beneficial use by the project operator.

(7) Baseflow or normal flow--The portion of streamflow uninfluenced by recent rainfall or flood runoff and is comprised of springflow, seepage, discharge from artesian wells or other groundwater sources, and the delayed drainage of large lakes and swamps. (Accountable effluent discharges from municipal, industrial, agricultural, or other uses of ground or surface waters may be included at times.)

(8) Beneficial inflows--Freshwater inflows providing for a salinity, nutrient, and sediment loading regime adequate to maintain an ecologically sound environment in the receiving bay and estuary that is necessary for the maintenance of productivity of economically important and ecologically characteristic sport or commercial fish and shellfish species and estuarine life upon which such fish and shellfish are dependent.

(9) Beneficial use--Use of the amount of water which is economically necessary for a purpose authorized by law, when reasonable intelligence and reasonable diligence are used in applying the water to that purpose and shall include conserved water.

(10) Certificate of adjudication--An instrument evidencing a water right issued to each person adjudicated a water right in conformity with the provisions of Texas Water Code, § Water Codeundefined11.323, or the final judgment and decree in State of Texas v. Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement District No. 18, 443 S.W.2d 728 (Texas Civil Appeals - Corpus Christi 1969, writ ref. n.r.e.).

(11) Certified filing--A declaration of appropriation or affidavit which was filed with the State Board of Water Engineers under the provisions of the 33rd Legislature, 1913, General Laws, Chapter 171, §14, as amended.

(12) Claim--A sworn statement filed under Texas Water Code, § Water Codeundefined11.303.

(13) Commencement of construction--An actual, visible step beyond planning or land acquisition, which forms the beginning of the on-going (continuous) construction of a project in the manner specified in the approved plans and specifications, where required, for that project. The action must be performed in good faith with the bona fide intent to proceed with the construction.

(14) Conservation--Those practices, techniques, and technologies that will reduce the consumption of water, reduce the loss or waste of water, improve the efficiency in the use of water, or increase the recycling and reuse of water so that a water supply is made available for future or alternative uses.

(15) Conserved water--That amount of water saved by a water right holder through practices, techniques, or technologies that would otherwise be irretrievably lost to all consumptive beneficial uses arising from the storage, transportation, distribution, or application of the water. Conserved water does not mean water made available simply through its non-use without the use of such practices, techniques, or technologies.

(16) Dam--Any artificial structure, together with any appurtenant works, which impounds or stores water. All structures which are necessary to impound a single body of water shall be considered as one dam. A structure used only for diverting water from a watercourse by gravity is a diversion dam.

(17) Diffused surface water--Water on the surface of the land in places other than watercourses. Diffused water may flow vagrantly over broad areas coming to rest in natural depressions, playa lakes, bogs, or marshes. (An essential characteristic of diffused water is that its flow is short-lived.)

(18) District--Any district or authority created by authority of the Texas Constitution, either Article III, §52, (b), (1) and (2), or Article XVI, §59.

(19) Domestic use--Use of water by an individual or a household to support domestic activity. Such use may include water for drinking, washing, or...