11 AAC 93.970. Definitions

Unless the context indicates otherwise, in this chapter

(1) "adjudication" means the administrative determination of the validity and amount of a water right and includes the settlement of conflicting claims among competing appropriators of record;

(2) "certificate of appropriation" means an instrument granting the owner the right to appropriate water, subject to the terms and conditions contained in it;

(3) deleted 11/7/90;

(4) "commissioner" means the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources or his or her delegate;

(5) deleted 11/7/90;

(6) deleted 11/7/90;

(7) "declaration of appropriation" or "grandfather right" means a formal claim to a water right acquired under law or custom before July 1, 1966, in existence on that date, and filed with the department within the designated filing period;

(8) "department" means the Department of Natural Resources;

(9) "division" means the division of land and water management within the Department of Natural Resources;

(10) "ground water" is any water, except capillary moisture, beneath the land surface or beneath the bed of a stream, lake, reservoir, or other body of surface water within the boundaries of the state, whatever may be the geologic formation or structure in which the water stands, flows, percolates, or otherwise moves;

(11) "permit to appropriate water" means an instrument granting the holder the right, limited to a definite period of time and subject to the terms and conditions contained in it, to construct works necessary to the appropriation of water and to establish a beneficial use;

(12) "priority" as between lawful appropriators means that first in time is first in right;

(13) "public interest" means public interest as determined by the criteria set out in AS 46.15.080 ;

(14) repealed 8/20/2004;

(15) deleted 11/7/90;

(16) deleted 11/7/90;

(17) "well" means an artificial opening or artificially altered natural opening by which ground water is sought or through which ground water flows under natural pressure or is artificially withdrawn, but does not include a hole or shaft drilled or dug for the purpose of exploration or production of oil, gas, or valuable minerals unless the hole or shaft is actually used for the production of water;

(18) "certificate of reservation" means an instrument granting a reservation of water subject to the terms and conditions contained in it;

(19) "instream flow" means the amount of water flowing past a given point during one second;

(20) "reservation of water" means to appropriate water for maintaining a specified instream flow or level of water at a specified point on a stream or water body or in a specified part of a stream or water body for specified periods of time and for one or more permissible purposes;

(21) "methodology" means the scientific or technical procedures used to quantify water;

(22) "water body" means surface water in a depression of land, including intragravel water or sloughs, that is supplied from drainage, upwellings, springs, or groundwater;

(23) "stream" means any body of flowing water, including a river, creek, or tributary;

(24) "afy" means acre-feet per year;

(25) "appropriators of record" means applicants for, and permittees and certificate holders of, water rights;

(26) "appurtenant" means that a permit or certificate to appropriate is legally attached to the land or place where the water is beneficially used, unless the water right is severed under AS 46.15.160 ;

(27) "aquifer" means any geologic formation that will yield water to a well in sufficient quantity for beneficial use;

(28) "aquifer system" means a heterogeneous body of interlayered permeable and poorly permeable material that functions regionally as a water-yielding hydraulic unit and comprises two or more permeable beds (aquifers) separated at least locally by aquatards (confining units) that impede ground water movement but do not greatly affect the regional hydraulic continuity of the system;

(29) "cfs" means cubic feet per second;

(30) "drainage basin" means a natural, distinct, and independent hydrologic area; surface or subsurface or both; confined or unconfined;

(31) "gpd" means gallons of water per day;

(32) "gpm" means gallons of water per minute;

(33) "non-consumptive water use" means the instream use of water, or the diversion of water where the quantity of water diverted is not diminished except by evaporation or transpiration and the water is returned to its original source at the original point of diversion immediately after its use;

(34) "reasonably acquire" means that a permittee or certificate holder can acquire adequate water to fulfill the purposes of the appropriation from the source of water for which the water right is permitted or certificated, even though changes in the condition of water occurrence have taken place as a result of the withdrawal of water by later appropriators;

(35) "seawater" means water, taken from the sea or ocean, with a salinity of 35 parts per thousand or greater;

(36) "statement of beneficial use" means a notarized statement of the actual quantity of water being used from a permitted source of water for a specific purpose;

(37) "water source" means a water body, lake, stream, aquifer, or ice;

(38) "unduly affected" means that a prior appropriator loses the ability to reasonably acquire an adequate quantity of water to fulfill the purposes of the appropriation from the water source from which the water right is permitted or certificated, except that a prior appropriator has not been unduly affected if water can reasonably be obtained by installing more efficient diversion works for the withdrawal of water or by performing effective routine repair and maintenance of diversion works or water well equipment in order to allow for the full development of the water resource.

History: Eff. 2/8/67, Register 23; am 12/29/79, Register 72; am 9/11/83, Register 87; am 11/7/90, Register 116; am 9/16/92, Register 123; am 8/20/2004, Register 171

Authority: AS 46.15.020

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