Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A)
Purpose.
Rules 1501:3-12-01 to
1501:3-12-06
of the Administrative Code to apply to the control of pollutants from areas
within the state used for silvicultural operations, including land being used
as private, industrial, commercial, and public woodlands.
Rules 1501:3-12-01 to
1501:3-12-06
of the Administrative Code establish state standards for a level of management
and conservation practices for silvicultural operations in order to abate
excessive soil erosion of the pollution of waters of the state by soil sediment
including pollutants attached to the sediment. These rules further define
Ohio's forestry pollution abatement fund for landowners or operators to
voluntarily install best management practices.
These rules are intended for the use in
determing the acceptability of best management practices used by landowners and
operators of silvilcultural operations. Technical determinations by a district,
chief, or chief's designee shall be considered prima facie evidence of forestry
pollution.
(B)
Definitions. As used in rules 1501:3-12-01 to
1501:3-12-06
of the Administrative Code:
(1)
"Best managment practice" or "BMP" means a practice or
combination of practices that is determined to be the most effective
practicable (including technological, economic, and institutional
considerations) means of preventing or reducing forestry pollution sources to a
level compatible with water quality goals. BMPs may include structural and
nonstructural practices, conservation practices, and operation and maintenance
procedures.
(2)
"BMPs for Erosion Control for Logging Procedures in
Ohio" means the current edition of "BMPs for Erosion Control for Logging
Practices in Ohio" prepared by the division of forestry, Ohio department of
natural resources. Copies of this publication are available at local soil and
water conservation district offices.
(3)
"Chief" means
chief of the division of forestry, department of natural
resources.
(4)
"Chief's designee" means any division of forestry
employee, soil and water conservation district employee, or soil and water
conservation district supervisor who the chief has given the responsibility to
implement the forestry pollution abatement program.
(5)
"Conservation"
means the wise use and management of natural resources.
(6)
"Cost-share
monies" means state of Ohio public funds used for the purpose of sharing the
cost of establishing needed pollution abatement practices.
(7)
"District" means
a soil and water conservation district and has the same meaning as section
940.01 of the Revised
Code.
(8)
"Division" means the division of forestry, department
of natural resources.
(9)
"Forestry pollution" means failure to use management or
conservation practices in silvicultural operations to abate wind or water
erosion of the soil or to abate the degradation of the waters of the state by
soil sediment, including attached substances, from silvicultural
operations.
(10)
"Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation,
business trust, estate, trust association or other legal entity, or any
political subdivision, instrumentality or agency of the state or the United
States.
(11)
"Prime facie evidence" means law evidence adequate to
establish a fact or raise a presumption of fact unless refuted.
(12)
"Primary contact
recreation resource water" means water that, during the recreation season of
May first to October fifteenth, are suitable for full-body contact recreation
such as, but not limited to, swimming, canoeing, and scuba diving with minimal
threat to public health as a result of water quality.
(13)
"Silvicultural"
means the theory and practice of planning, planting, thinning, pruning,
growing, and harvesting of trees.
(14)
"Silvicultural
operation" means forest management activities including but not limited to
harvesting of timber, including the felling, skidding, on-site processing, and
loading of trees or logs onto trucks; construction, maintenance and closure of
forest roads and trails; thinning of trees; and planting of trees, including
preparation and maintenance.
(15)
"Timber harvest
plan" means a written record, developed or approved by the chief of the
division of forestry, the chief's designee, or the soil and water conservation
district that contains implemenatation schedules and operational procedures for
a level of land and water management that will abate wind or water erosion of
the soil or abate the degredation of the waters of the state by soil sediment
from silvicultural operations and descriptions of timber harvest methods. The
procedures in this plan should be consistent with "BMPs for erosion control for
logging practices in Ohio".
(16)
"Waters of the
state" means all streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, watercourses, waterways,
wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and all other bodies or
accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial,
regardless of the depth of the strata in which underground water is located,
which are situated wholly or partly within, or border upon, this state, or are
within its jurisdiction, except those private waters which do not combine or
effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters.
