Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 45 > Chapter 1 - Administration and General Provisions

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Affected county: means each existing county affected by a proposed formation of new counties. See Arizona Laws 11-131
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Appropriator: means the person or persons initiating or perfecting the right to use appropriable water based on state law, or the person's successor or successors in interest. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assessed valuation: means the net assessed valuation used for purposes of levying primary property taxes for the tax year immediately preceding the filing of the petition for the formation of counties. See Arizona Laws 11-131
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Beneficial use: includes but is not limited to use for domestic, municipal, recreation, wildlife, including fish, agricultural, mining, stockwatering and power purposes. See Arizona Laws 45-181
• Body of water: means a body of water in an active management area established under chapter 2 of this title, including a lake, pond, lagoon or swimming pool, that has a surface area greater than twelve thousand three hundred twenty square feet and that is filled or refilled for landscape, scenic or recreational purposes. See Arizona Laws 45-131
• Commission: means the county formation commission established pursuant to section 11-136. See Arizona Laws 11-131
• Community water system: means a public water system that serves at least fifteen service connections used by year-round residents of the area served by the system or that regularly serves at least twenty-five year-round residents of the area served by the system. See Arizona Laws 45-341
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Consumptive use: means , for any water user for any program year, the consumptive use as recorded in the final accounting for the most recent calendar year for which a final accounting is available, or if none is recorded, the amount of diversions so recorded. See Arizona Laws 45-331
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of water resources. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the director of water resources, who is also the director of the department. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Domestic use: means a single appropriative water right serving a residence, or multiple residences up to a maximum of three residential connections, for household purposes with associated irrigation of lawns, gardens or landscape in an amount of not more than one-half acre per residence. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Effluent: means water that has been collected in a sanitary sewer for subsequent treatment in a facility that is regulated pursuant to Title 49, Chapter 2. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Final accounting: means , for any calendar year, the United States bureau of reclamation's final compilation of records of Colorado river diversions, return flows and consumptive uses for the year, compiled pursuant to article V(b) of the decree of the United States supreme court in Arizona v. See Arizona Laws 45-331
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• General adjudication: means an action for the judicial determination or establishment of the extent and priority of the rights of all persons to use water in any river system and source. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Groundwater: means water under the surface of the earth regardless of the geologic structure in which it is standing or moving. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Large community water system: means a community water system that serves water to more than one thousand eight hundred fifty persons. See Arizona Laws 45-341
• Law clerk: Assist judges with research and drafting of opinions.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• New county: means a county which has been approved by the voters at an election on formation held pursuant to section 11-137. See Arizona Laws 11-131
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual, public or private corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, society, estate or trust, any other private organization or enterprise, the United States, any state, territory or country or a governmental entity, political subdivision or municipal corporation organized under or subject to the constitution and laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 45-311
• Person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Person: means any individual, partnership, association, public or private corporation, city or other municipality, county or state agency, a recognized Indian tribe and the United States of America when claiming water rights established under the laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 45-181
• person: means an individual, public or private corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, society, estate, trust, any other private organization or enterprise, the United States, any state, territory or country or a governmental entity, political subdivision or municipal corporation organized under or subject to the constitution and laws of the United States, this state or any other state. See Arizona Laws 45-291
• Person: means an individual, a partnership, a corporation, a municipal corporation, the state of Arizona or any political subdivision, the United States of America, an Indian tribe or a community or any other legal entity, public or private. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Plumbing fixture: means a lavatory faucet, lavatory faucet replacement aerator, kitchen faucet, kitchen faucet replacement aerator, shower head, urinal, water closet, evaporative cooler or decorative fountain. See Arizona Laws 45-311
• Population: means the population according to the most recent United States decennial census. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Potential claimant: means all persons claiming water rights or on whose behalf claims to water rights are asserted. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Prior decree: means any judgment or decree that is entered by a court of competent jurisdiction and that applies to the water right claim or use that is subject to adjudication. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Prior filing: means a notice of appropriation recorded with the county recorder or the recorder's predecessor, an application to appropriate filed pursuant to section 45-152, a statement of claim filed pursuant to article 7 of this chapter or a claim of water right filed pursuant to article 10 of this chapter, any or all of which reasonably relate to the water right claim or use that is subject to adjudication. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• program: means the cooperative effort among agencies of the federal government and agencies and political subdivisions of the states of Arizona, California and Nevada and other local public and private parties with a common interest in the water and related resources of the lower Colorado river, including the historic floodplain and reservoirs to the full pool elevations, to provide the basis for compliance with sections 7 and 10(a)(1)(B) of the endangered species act of 1973 (P. See Arizona Laws 45-331
• Program year: means the twelve month period beginning October 1 of any calendar year and ending September 30 of the following calendar year. See Arizona Laws 45-331
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• PSI: means pounds per square inch of water pressure. See Arizona Laws 45-311
• Public water system: means an entity that distributes or sells water and that qualifies as a public water system under section 49-352, subsection B. See Arizona Laws 45-341
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Registered mail: includes certified mail. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• residential dwelling: means buildings used for temporary or permanent human habitation, including single family residences and accessory guest houses, multi-family dwellings, townhouses, condominiums, apartments, the sleeping quarters of hotels and motels, dormitories and group housing units. See Arizona Laws 45-311
• Riparian area: means a geographically delineated area with distinct resource values, that is characterized by deep-rooted plant species that depend on having roots in the water table or its capillary zone and that occurs within or adjacent to a natural perennial or intermittent stream channel or within or adjacent to a lake, pond or marsh bed maintained primarily by natural water sources. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• River system and source: means all water appropriable under section 45-141 and all water subject to claims based on federal law. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Sanitary sewer: means any pipe or other enclosed conduit that carries, among other substances, any water-carried wastes from the human body from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants or institutions. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Small community water system: means a community water system that does not qualify as a large community water system. See Arizona Laws 45-341
• Small water use claim: means any claim for a stockpond, stock watering use or water well that is identified in a statement of claimant filed in the adjudication pursuant to section 45-254 and the claim is for any of the following specific conditions:

  (a) A stockpond having a capacity of not more than fifteen acre feet that is used solely for watering livestock or wildlife and that contains water that is appropriable under section 45-141, subsection A. See Arizona Laws 45-251

• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Stock watering use: means the consumption of water by livestock and wildlife, either:

  (a) Directly from a naturally occurring body of water, such as an undeveloped spring, cienega, seep, bog, lake, depression, sink or stream. See Arizona Laws 45-251

• stockpond: means a pond having a capacity of not more than fifteen acre feet that is used solely for watering livestock or wildlife. See Arizona Laws 45-271
• Stockpond: means an on-channel or off-channel impoundment of any size that stores water that is appropriable under section 45-141, subsection A and that is for the sole purpose of watering livestock and wildlife. See Arizona Laws 45-251
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Surface water: means the waters of all sources, flowing in streams, canyons, ravines or other natural channels, or in definite underground channels, whether perennial or intermittent, floodwater, wastewater or surplus water, and of lakes, ponds and springs on the surface. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Swimming pool: means an artifically constructed pool for swimming purposes that meets the applicable design standards and specifications for swimming pools prescribed by the director of environmental quality pursuant to section 49-104, subsection B, paragraph 12. See Arizona Laws 45-131
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Urinal: means a fixture that consists of a water flushed bowl, and any associated flush valve, and that is used for the disposal of human urine. See Arizona Laws 45-311
• water: means waters of all sources flowing in streams, canyons, ravines or other natural channels or in definite underground channels, whether perennial or intermittent, flood, waste or surplus water, and of lakes, ponds and springs on the surface. See Arizona Laws 45-181
• Water closet: means a fixture that consists of a water flushed bowl, and any associated flush valve, and that is used for the disposal of all wastes from the human body. See Arizona Laws 45-311
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215