Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes > Chapter 116G - Critical Areas

• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumptive use: means water that is withdrawn from its source for immediate further use in the area of the source and is not directly returned to the source.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
• 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.
• Director: means the director of the Division of Ecological and Water Resources of the Department of Natural Resources. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Majority: means with respect to an individual the period of time after the individual reaches the age of 18. See Minnesota Statutes 645.451
• 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
• 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

• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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 :

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

• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• 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
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• 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.
• Utility: means a sanitary sewer, storm sewer, potable water distribution, and transmission, distribution, or furnishing, at wholesale or retail, of natural or manufactured gas, electricity, telephone, or radio service or communications. 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
• 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 645.44