2011 Vermont Code
Title 10 Conservation and Development
Chapter 49 PROTECTION OF NAVIGABLE WATERS AND SHORELANDS
§ 1422 Definitions

§ 1422. Definitions

In this chapter, unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

(1) "Agency" means the agency of natural resources.

(2) "Board" means the water resources panel of the natural resources board.

(3) "Department" means department of environmental conservation.

(4) "Navigable water" or "navigable waters" means Lake Champlain, Lake Memphremagog, the Connecticut River, all natural inland lakes within Vermont and all streams, ponds, flowages, and other waters within the territorial limits of Vermont, including the Vermont portion of boundary waters, which are boatable under the laws of this state.

(5) "Public shorelands" means state-owned lands adjacent to navigable waters.

(6) "Public waters" means navigable waters excepting those waters in private ponds and private preserves as set forth in sections 5204, 5205, 5206, and 5210 of this title.

(7) "Secretary" means the secretary of natural resources or the secretary's duly authorized representative.

(8) "Shorelands" means the lands being between the normal mean water level of a lake, pond, or impoundment exceeding 20 acres and a line not less than 500 feet nor more than 1,000 feet from such mean water level.

(9) "Outstanding resource waters" mean waters of the state designated by the board as having exceptional natural, recreational, cultural, or scenic values.

(10) "Buffer" means an undisturbed area consisting of trees, shrubs, ground cover plants, duff layer, and generally uneven ground surface that extends a specified distance horizontally across the surface of the land from the mean water level of an adjacent lake or from the top of the bank of an adjacent river or stream, as determined by the secretary of natural resources.

(11) "Lake" means a body of standing water, including a pond or a reservoir, which may have natural or artificial water level control. Private ponds as defined under section 5210 of this title, and reservoirs specifically constructed for the following purposes shall not be considered lakes: snowmaking storage, golf course irrigation, stormwater management, and fire suppression.

(12) "River corridor" means the land area adjacent to a river that is required to accommodate the dimensions, slope, planform, and buffer of the naturally stable channel, and necessary to maintain or restore fluvial equilibrium conditions and minimize fluvial erosion hazards, as delineated by the agency of natural resources in accordance with river corridor protection procedures.

(13) "River" means the full length and width, including the bed and banks, of any watercourse, including rivers, streams, creeks, brooks, and branches, which experience perennial flow. "River" does not mean constructed drainageways, including water bars, swales, and roadside ditches. (Added 1969, No. 281 (Adj. Sess.), { 13; amended 1973, No. 147 (Adj. Sess.), { 1; 1987, No. 67, { 2; No. 76, { 18; 2003, No. 115 (Adj. Sess.), { 34, eff. Jan. 31, 2005; 2009, No. 110 (Adj. Sess.), { 3.)