2005 West Virginia Code - §22-26-2. — Definitions.

§22-26-2. Definitions.
For purposes of this article, the following words have the meanings assigned unless the context indicates otherwise:
(a) "Beneficial use" means uses that include, but are not limited to, public or private water supplies, agriculture, tourism, commercial, industrial, coal, oil and gas and other mineral extraction, preservation of fish and wildlife habitat, maintenance of waste assimilation, recreation, navigation and preservation of cultural values.
(b) "Consumptive withdrawal" means any withdrawal of water which returns less water to the water body than is withdrawn.
(c) "Farm use" means irrigation of any land used for general farming, forage, aquiculture, pasture, orchards, nurseries, the provision of water supply for farm animals, poultry farming or any other activity conducted in the course of a farming operation.
(d) "Interbasin transfer" means the permanent removal of water from the watershed from which it is withdrawn.
(e) "Maximum potential" means the maximum designed capacity of a facility to withdraw water under its physical and operational design.
(f) "Person", "persons" or "people" means an individual, public and private business or industry, public or private water service and governmental entity.
(g) "Nonconsumptive withdrawal" means any withdrawal of water which is not a consumptive withdrawal as defined in this section.
(h) "Secretary" means the secretary of the department of environmental protection or his or her designee.
(i) "Water resources", "water" or "waters" means any and all water on or beneath the surface of the ground, whether percolating, standing, diffused or flowing, wholly or partially within this state, or bordering this state and within its jurisdiction, and includes, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, natural or artificial lakes, rivers, streams, creeks, branches, brooks, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, wells, watercourses and wetlands: Provided, That farm ponds, industrial settling basins and ponds and waste treatment facilities are excluded from the waters of the state.
(j) "Watershed" means a hydrologic unit utilized by the United States department of interior's geological survey, adopted in 1974, as a framework for detailed water and related land-resource planning, denoted by an eight digit hydrologic unit code, and by which West Virginia is, as of the effective date of the act, divided into thirty-two separate hydrologic units.
(k) "Withdrawal" means the removal or capture of water from a water resource of the state regardless of whether it is consumptive or nonconsumptive: Provided, That water encountered during coal, oil, gas or other mineral extraction and diverted, but not used for any purpose and not a factor in low flow conditions for any surface water or groundwater, is not deemed a withdrawal.