Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 45 > Chapter 1 > Article 9 - General Adjudication of Water Rights

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• Department: means the department of water resources. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• Director: means the director of water resources, who is also the director of the department. See Arizona Laws 45-101
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• Law clerk: Assist judges with research and drafting of opinions.
• 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, 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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

• 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 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.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215