Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes > Chapter 115E - Oil and Hazardous Substance Discharge Preparedness

• Abandon: means to give up the use and maintenance of structures or improvements to realty and to surrender them to deterioration. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• 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
• Board: means the Board of Water and Soil Resources. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Chair: includes chairman, chairwoman, and chairperson. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of natural resources. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• 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.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the director of the Division of Ecological and Water Resources of the Department of Natural Resources. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Division: means the Division of Ecological and Water Resources of the Department of Natural Resources. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Ecosystem harm: means to change the biological community and ecology in a manner that results in loss of ecological structure or function. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Electronic transmission: means the transfer of data or information through an electronic data interchange system consisting of, but not limited to, computer modems and computer networks. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• 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.
• Hayland: means an area that was mechanically harvested or that was planted with annually seeded crops in a crop rotation seeding of grasses or legumes in six of the last ten years prior to January 1, 1991. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• 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.
• Local government unit: means :

  (1) outside of the seven-county metropolitan area, a city council, county board of commissioners, or a soil and water conservation district or their delegate;

  (2) in the seven-county metropolitan area, a city council, a town board under section 368. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005

• Natural watercourse: means a natural channel that has definable beds and banks capable of conducting confined runoff from adjacent land. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Ordinary high-water level: means the boundary of water basins, watercourses, public waters, and public waters wetlands, and:

  (1) the ordinary high-water level is an elevation delineating the highest water level that has been maintained for a sufficient period of time to leave evidence upon the landscape, commonly the point where the natural vegetation changes from predominantly aquatic to predominantly terrestrial;

  (2) for watercourses, the ordinary high-water level is the elevation of the top of the bank of the channel; and

  (3) for reservoirs and flowages, the ordinary high-water level is the operating elevation of the normal summer pool. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005

• Pasture: means an area that was grazed by domesticated livestock or that was planted with annually seeded crops in a crop rotation seeding of grasses or legumes in six of the last ten years prior to January 1, 1991. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Political subdivision: means a county, city, town, school district, or other local government jurisdiction to which the state provides state aids or on which the state imposes state mandates. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Presettlement wetland: means a wetland or public waters wetland that existed in this state at the time of statehood in 1858. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Project: means a specific plan, contiguous activity, proposal, or design necessary to accomplish a goal as defined by the local government unit. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Public waters: means public waters as defined in section 103G. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• Public waters: means :

  (1) water basins assigned a shoreland management classification by the commissioner under sections 103F. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005

• Public waters wetlands: means all types 3, 4, and 5 wetlands, as defined in United States Fish and Wildlife Service Circular No. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Shallow lake: means a body of water, excluding a stream, that is greater than or equal to 50 acres in size and less than or equal to 15 feet in maximum depth. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Shoreland wetland protection zone: means :

  (1) for local government units that have a shoreland management ordinance approved under sections 103F. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005

• state: extends to and includes the District of Columbia and the several territories. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Water basin: means an enclosed natural depression with definable banks, capable of containing water, that may be partly filled with waters of the state and is discernible on aerial photographs. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Waters of the state: means surface or underground waters, except surface waters that are not confined but are spread and diffused over the land. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Watershed: means the 81 major watershed units delineated by the map, "State of Minnesota Watershed Boundaries - 1979. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Wetland type: means a wetland type classified according to Wetlands of the United States, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Circular 39 (1971 edition), as summarized in this subdivision. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Wetlands: means lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005