As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:
"Agricultural irrigation" means irrigation that is used to support any operation devoted to the bona fide production of crops, animals, or fowl, including the production of fruits and vegetables of any kind; meat, dairy, and poultry products; nuts, tobacco, nursery, and floral products; and the production and harvest of products from silvicultural activity.
"Beneficial use" includes domestic (including public water supply), agricultural, commercial, and industrial uses.
"Board" means the State Water Control Board.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental Quality.
"Eastern Shore Groundwater Management Area" means the ground water management area declared by the Board encompassing the Counties of Accomack and Northampton.
"Ground water" means any water, except capillary moisture, beneath the land surface in the zone of saturation or beneath the bed of any stream, lake, reservoir or other body of surface water wholly or partially within the boundaries of the Commonwealth, whatever the subsurface geologic structure in which such water stands, flows, percolates or otherwise occurs.
"Ground water withdrawal permit" means a certificate issued by the Board permitting the withdrawal of a specified quantity of ground water in a ground water management area.
"Irrigation" means the controlled application of water through man-made systems to supply water requirements not satisfied by rainfall to assist in the growing or maintenance of vegetative growth.
"Nonagricultural irrigation" means all irrigation other than agricultural irrigation.
"Person" means any and all persons, including individuals, firms, partnerships, associations, public or private institutions, municipalities or political subdivisions, governmental agencies, or private or public corporations organized under the laws of the Commonwealth or any other state or country.
"Surficial aquifer" means the upper surface of a zone of saturation, where the body of ground water is not confined by an overlying impermeable zone.
1992, c. 812; 2018, c. 427; 2019, c. 755; 2020, c. 670.