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The following words and phrases when used in this Chapter shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

(1)  “Applicant” means any person seeking to practice geoscience in the state of Louisiana who has applied to the board for authority to practice the respective profession and render such professional geoscience services in the state of Louisiana, or an individual who has applied to the board for certification as a geoscientist in training.

(2)  “Board” means the Louisiana Board of Professional Geoscientists, provided for by this Chapter.

(3)  “Certification”, “certified”, or “certificate holder” means the recognition granted by the board and its issuance of a certificate to any individual seeking such recognition as a geoscientist in training, who has been successfully examined and is otherwise in good standing with the board.

(4)  “Engineer” or “professional engineer” means an individual who, by reason of his special knowledge and ability to apply the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences and the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, acquired by an engineering education and engineering experience, is qualified to practice engineering, as evidenced by his licensure as such by the Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying Board, as set forth in Chapter 8 of this Title.

(5)  “Geoscience” means the science of the earth and its origin and history, the investigation of the earth’s environment and its constituent soils, rocks, minerals, solids, and fluids, and the study of the natural and introduced agents, forces, and processes that cause changes in and on the earth.

(6)  “Geoscientist” means a person qualified to engage in the practice of geoscience because of the person’s knowledge, acquired through education and practical experience, of geoscience, mathematics, and the supporting physical, chemical, mineralogical, morphological, and life sciences.

(7)  “Geoscientist in training” means a person registered by the board on the basis of education and who meets other requirements established by the board but who is not fully qualified to be a licensed geoscientist under this Chapter.

(8)  “Licensed geoscientist” or “professional geoscientist” means a person who holds a license issued by the board under this Chapter.

(9)  “Licensee” means any person practicing or seeking to practice geoscience in the state of Louisiana who has received a license from the board and is otherwise in good standing with the board.  The term is often used synonymously with the term “registrant”.

(10)  “Licensed” or “licensure” means the recognition granted by the board and its issuance of a license to any person to practice geoscience in the state of Louisiana. These terms are often used synonymously with the terms “registered” or “registration”.

(11)  “Person” means any individual.

(12)(a)  “Practice of engineering” means responsible professional service which may include consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, designing, or inspection of construction in connection with any public or private utilities, structures, machines, equipment, processes, works, or projects wherein the public welfare or the safeguarding of life, health, and property is concerned or involved, when such professional service requires the application of engineering principles and the interpretation of engineering data.

(b)  A person shall be construed to practice or offer to practice engineering who practices in any discipline of the profession of engineering, or who, by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card, or in any other way represents himself to be a professional engineer, or who represents himself as able to perform, or who does perform any engineering service or work or any other professional service designated by the practitioner or recognized by educational authorities as engineering.  The practice of engineering shall not include the work ordinarily performed by a person who himself operates or maintains machinery or equipment.

(13)  “Practice of geoscience” means the practice for the public of geoscientific services or work, including consulting, investigating, evaluating, analyzing, planning, mapping, and inspecting geoscientific work and the responsible supervision of those tasks.

(14)(a)  “Practice of land surveying” includes the measuring of areas, land surfaces, streams, bodies of water, and swamps for correct determination and description, for the establishment, reestablishment, ascertainment, or description of land boundaries, corners, divisions, distances, and directions, the plotting and monumenting of lands and subdivisions thereof, and mapping and topographical work.

(b)  A person shall be construed to practice or offer to practice land surveying who engages in land surveying and who by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card, or in any other way represents himself to be a land surveyor, or who represents himself as able to perform or who does perform any land surveying service or work, or any other service designated by the practitioner which is recognized as land surveying.

(15)  “Responsible charge” means the independent control and direction of geoscientific work or the supervision of geoscientific work by the use of initiative, skill, and independent judgment.

(16)  “Water well driller” or “licensed water well driller” means a person, firm, or corporation licensed to drill a water well, as set forth in La. Rev. Stat. 38:3098.

Acts 2010, No. 974, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2011; Acts 2012, No. 308, §1, eff. May 25, 2012.