Terms Used In Ohio Code > Chapter 1521 - Division of Water Resources

• 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.
• Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Aquifer: means a consolidated or unconsolidated geologic formation or series of formations that are hydraulically interconnected and that have the ability to receive, store, or transmit water. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Cone of depression: means a depression or low point in the water table or potentiometric surface of a body of ground water that develops around a location from which ground water is being withdrawn. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Conservancy district: means a conservancy district established under Chapter 6101 of the Revised Code. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Consumptive use: means a use of water resources, other than a diversion, that results in a loss of that water to the basin from which it is withdrawn and includes, but is not limited to, evaporation, evapotranspiration, and incorporation of water into a product or agricultural crop. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• 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.
• Development: means any artificial change to improved or unimproved real estate, including the construction of buildings and other structures, any substantial improvement of a structure, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavating, and drilling operations, and storage of equipment or materials. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Diversion: means a withdrawal of water resources from either the Lake Erie or Ohio river drainage basin and transfer to another basin without return. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• 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.
• Floodplain: means the area adjoining any river, stream, watercourse, or lake that has been or may be covered by flood water. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Floodplain management: means the implementation of an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damage, including the collection and dissemination of flood information, construction of flood control works, nonstructural flood damage reduction techniques, and adoption of rules, ordinances, or resolutions governing development in floodplains. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Ground water: means all water occurring in an aquifer. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Ground water stress area: means a definable geographic area in which ground water quantity is being affected by human activity or natural forces to the extent that continuous availability of supply is jeopardized by withdrawals. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Hydrologic study area: means the area within a four-mile radius from the boundary of the withdrawal area. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• National flood insurance program: means the national flood insurance program established in the "National Flood Insurance Act of 1968" 82 Stat. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• One-hundred-year flood: means a flood having a one per cent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• One-hundred-year floodplain: means that portion of a floodplain inundated by a one-hundred-year flood. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Other great lakes states and provinces: means states other than this state that are parties to the great lakes basin compact under Chapter 6161 of the Revised Code and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
• state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Structure: means a walled and roofed building, including, without limitation, gas or liquid storage tanks and manufactured homes. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Substantial damage: means damage of any origin that is sustained by a structure if the cost of restoring the structure to its condition prior to the damage would equal or exceed fifty per cent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Substantial improvement: includes repairs to structures that have incurred substantial damage regardless of the actual repair work performed. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Water resources: means any waters of the state that are available or may be made available to agricultural, industrial, commercial, and domestic users. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Waters of the state: includes all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial, regardless of the depth of the strata in which underground water is located, that are situated wholly or partly within or bordering upon this state or are within its jurisdiction. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Well: means any excavation, regardless of design or method of construction, created for any of the following purposes:

  (1) Removing ground water from or recharging water into an aquifer, excluding subsurface drainage systems installed to enhance agricultural crop production or urban or suburban landscape management or to control seepage in dams and levees;

  (2) Determining the quantity, quality, level, or movement of ground water in or the stratigraphy of an aquifer, excluding borings for instrumentation in dams, levees, or highway embankments;

  (3) Removing or exchanging heat from ground water, excluding horizontal trenches that are installed for water source heat pump systems. See Ohio Code 1521.01

• Well field: means a contiguous land area containing two or more wells that provide water to a facility. See Ohio Code 1521.01
• Whoever: includes all persons, natural and artificial; partners; principals, agents, and employees; and all officials, public or private. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Withdrawal area: means the proposed well or well field location or locations. See Ohio Code 1521.01