Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes > Chapter 116D - Environmental Policy

• Agricultural land: means : land used for horticultural, row, close grown, pasture, and hayland crops; growing nursery stocks; animal feedlots; farm yards; associated building sites; and public and private drainage systems and field roads located on any of the foregoing. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appropriating: means withdrawal, removal, or transfer of water from its source regardless of how the water is used. 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
• Basin of origin: means the drainage basin of the Great Lakes, the Red River of the North, the Mississippi River, or the Missouri River. 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
• Constructed management facilities for stormwater: means ponds, basins, holding tanks, cisterns, infiltration trenches and swales, or other best management practices that have been designed, constructed, and operated to store or treat stormwater in accordance with local, state, or federal requirements. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Consumptive use: means water that is withdrawn from its source for immediate further use in the area of the source and is not directly returned to the source. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• 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.
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed; and "year" is equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• Municipality: means a home rule charter or statutory city. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Negative impact to surface waters: means a change in hydrology sufficient to cause aquatic ecosystem harm or alter riparian uses long term. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Once-through system: means a space heating, ventilating, air conditioning (HVAC), or refrigeration system used for any type of temperature or humidity control application, utilizing groundwater, that circulates through the system and is then discharged without reusing it for a higher priority purpose. 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
• 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
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Sustainable diversion limit: means a maximum amount of water that can be removed directly or indirectly from a surface water body in a defined geographic area on a monthly or annual basis without causing a negative impact to the surface water body. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• 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
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.