Code of Massachusetts Regulations
310 CMR - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Title 310 CMR 13.00 - Adopting Inland Wetlands Orders
Section 13.02 - Definitions
Act means M.G.L. c. 131, § 40A.
Agriculture purposes means one or more of the following activities or uses: raising, breeding or producing a specified type of animal or vegetable life, including, but not limited to, dairy cattle, beef cattle, poultry, sheep, swine, horses, ponies, mules, goats, bees, fur-bearing animals, and fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts and other foods for human consumption, feed for animals, tobacco, flowers, sod, trees, nursery or green house products, forest products, and ornamental plants, shrubs, fish and shellfish, provided that such activity or use results in or is or was clearlyintended to result ina product of demonstrable market value.
Altering means causing change, directly or indirectlywithinanyinland wetland or flood plain area and includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following actions:
(a) changing pre-existing drainage characteristics, flushing characteristics, salinity distribution, sedimentation patterns, flow patterns and flood storage retention areas;
(b) draining or otherwise disturbing surface or groundwater levels;
(c) degrading water quality;
(d) driving pilings or erecting buildings or structures of any kind;
(e) placing any obstruction to water flow;
(f) destroying plant life, but not including the limbing of trees;
(g) discharging, releasing, or causing to be released, any contaminating materials, including sediments, from any source directly into any inland wetland orflood plain area whether by overland flow or through a new or existing pipe or other conduit;
(h) causing adverse effects to wildlife, inland fisheries, or to their habitat;
(i) lowering, polluting, or otherwise changing the level, quantity, or quality of ground water by doing any work in an inland wetland or flood plain area.
Amendment means any change in the allowed or prohibited activities or uses contained in any Order adopted under M.G.L. c. 131, § 40A; any addition to or deletion of, including any change in the definition of, the types of inland wetlands defined in any Order; any addition to or deletion of any wetland or flood plain area; any change in the location of any wetland boundary or encroachment line which does not constitute a correction; or any addition to any list of assessed owners adopted as part of the Order. An amendment shall not include a correction as defined in 310 CMR 13.02.
Assessed owner means the personto whomland within an inland wetland or flood plain area affected by an Order was assessed in the last preceding annual tax levy.
Bank meansthe contiguous upland slope landward of any inland water or freshwater wetland up to and including the crest of the slope, which may or may not include vegetation characteristic of transitional zones(ecotones) orplantcommunities immediately adjacent to any inland water or freshwater wetland.
Commissioner means the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Correction means any minor change in the location of the inland wetland or flood plain area boundary or encroachment line on a plan, the substitution or deletion of any name or names from the list of assessed owners adopted as part of any Order, or any typographical, grammatical or other correction which does not change the sense or meaning of any Order.
Department means the Department of Environmental Protection.
Dredging means the removal of materials including, but not limited to, rock, bottom sediment, debris, loam, peat, soil, sand, refuse, plant or animal matter, in any excavating, grading, cleaning, deepening, widening or lengthening, either permanently or temporarily, of any inland wetland or flood plain area. Dredging shall include improvement dredging, maintenance dredging, back-filling orotherdredging and subsequent refilling.
Encroachment Line means any boundary line which is based upon an inland wetland boundary line beyond which no structures or other encroachments may be established in the direction of the waterway or flood-prone area.
Filling means the placing of any material that raises, either temporarily or permanently, the existing elevation of any inland wetland or flood plain area.
Flood Plains, means for the purposes of M.G.L. c. 131, § 40A, inland wetlands that are subject to flooding, and normally dry land areas which are subject to a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation by run off from surface water or by overflow of inland waters. Flood plains or flood plain areas may further include those areas of land which have been designated as being within the 100-year flood as determined by the Office of Federal Insurance and Hazard Mitigation within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Flood Plain Area means any inland wetland or flood plain delineated by a continuous boundary line which encloses that area.
Flooding means a local and temporary inundation or rise in the surface water level of any in land water such that it inundates or overflows land not usually under water.
Inland Wetlands means "freshwater wetlands" as defined in M.G.L. c. 131, § 40 and that portion of any bank which touches any inland waters or any freshwater wetland, and any freshwater wetland subject to flooding.
Improvement Dredging means any dredging in an area which has not previously been dredged or which extends the original dredged width, depth, length, or otherwise alters the original boundaries of a previously dredged area.
Inland Wetland affected by an Order means any inland wetland or flood plain area that is subject to any restriction under an Order.
Modification means any amendment as defined in 310 CMR 13.02Amendment.
Obstruction or Encroachment shall be defined as including, but not limited to, any structure, building, fence, wall, fixture, or other barrier.
Maintenance Dredging means any dredging under a License in any previously dredged area which does not extend the originally dredged width, depth, or length, but does not mean improvement dredging or backfilling.
National Map Accuracy Standards means meeting or exceeding the map accuracy standards established by the U.S. Bureau of the Budget on June 10, 1941, as revised April 26, 1943 and June 17, 1947, and as amended from time to time. For maps on publication scales larger than 1:20,000, not more than 10% of the points tested maybe in error by more than 1/30 inch (0.846mm) measured on the publication scale; for maps on publication scales of 1:20,000 or smaller, 1/50 inch (0.508mm). These limits of accuracy shall apply in all cases to positions of well-defined points only. Well-defined points are those that are easily visible or recoverable on the ground. In general, what is well-defined will also be determined by what is plottable on the scale of the map within 1/100 inch (0.254mm).
Order means any instrument issued by the Commissioner that imposes restrictions on any inland wetland or flood plain area in accordance with M.G.L. c. 131, § 40A.
Person means any individual, group of individuals, association, partnership, corporation, company, business organization, trust, estate, the Commonwealth or political subdivision thereof, any administrative agency, public or quasi-public corporation or body or any other legal entity or its legal representative, agents or assigns.
Person having an ownership interest means any assessed owner or any record holder of an easement, covenant, restriction or any other ownership interest, any lessee holding a lease of 25 years length or more and any mortgagor.
Plan means a map made by surveying techniques, a line and symbol photogrammetric map or an orthophoto map, which meets National Map Accuracy Standards, upon which inland wetlands and flood plain areas are delineated.
Polluting means, but is not limited to, the discharge, release or flow of any product, by-product, material or waste resulting from sewage, sewage processing, or from any industrial, commercial, or other man-made process, any man-made thermal discharge, run-off, leachate, or any other substance in any form, which is or can be drained, discharged or infiltrated, or otherwise introduced into any inland wetland or flood plain area, or any discharge or release of agricultural waste or chemicals for non-agricultural purposes.
Removing means to take away any type of material that alters the elevation of any inland wetland or flood plain area.
Repea l means the rescinding of any Order, including the plan or plans and list of assessed owners incorporated with the Order.
Restriction means any provision in any Order limiting activities or uses in or on inland wetlands or flood plain areas.
Wetland area means any inland wetland or flood plain delineated by a continuous boundary line which encloses that area.
