Virginia Law

Unless a different meaning is required by the context, the following terms as used in this chapter shall have the following meanings:

"Applicant" means a person applying for a VWP individual or general permit.

"Board" means the State Water Control Board. When used outside the context of the promulgation of regulations, including regulations to establish general permits, "board" means the Department of Environmental Quality.

"Compensation" or "compensatory mitigation" means actions taken that provide some form of substitute aquatic resource for the impacted aquatic resource.

"Compensatory mitigation plan" means the written plan describing the proposed compensatory mitigation activities required by 9VAC25-210-80 of the Virginia Water Protection Permit Program Regulation.

"Department" means the Department of Environmental Quality.

"Director" means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) or an authorized representative.

"Dredging" means a form of excavation in which material is removed or relocated from beneath surface waters.

"Excavate" or "excavation" means ditching, dredging, or mechanized removal of earth, soil or rock.

"General permit" means a permit authorizing a specified category of activities.

"In-lieu fee fund" means a monetary fund operated by a nonprofit organization or governmental agency that receives financial contributions from persons impacting wetlands or streams pursuant to an authorized permitted activity and that expends the moneys received to provide consolidated compensatory mitigation for permitted wetland or stream impacts.

"Law" means the State Water Control Law of Virginia.

"Mitigation" means sequentially avoiding and minimizing impacts to the maximum extent practicable, and then compensating for remaining unavoidable impacts of a proposed action.

"Mitigation bank" means a site providing off-site, consolidated compensatory mitigation that is developed and approved in accordance with all applicable federal and state laws or regulations for the establishment, use and operation of mitigation banks, and is operating under a signed banking agreement.

"Permittee" means the person who holds a VWP individual or general permit.

"Person" means any firm, corporation, association, or partnership, one or more individuals, or any governmental unit or agency of it.

"Practicable" means available and capable of being done after taking into consideration cost, existing technology and logistics in light of overall project purposes.

"State waters" means all water, on the surface and under the ground, wholly or partially within or bordering the Commonwealth or within its jurisdiction, including wetlands.

"Surface water" means all state waters that are not ground water as defined in § 62.1-255 of the Code of Virginia.

"USACE" means the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

"VWP permit" means an individual permit issued by the department or a general permit issued as a regulation adopted by the board under § 62.1-44.15:5 of the Code of Virginia that authorizes activities otherwise unlawful under § 62.1-44.5 of the Code of Virginia or otherwise serves as the Commonwealth of Virginia's § 401 certification.

"Wetlands" means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.