2 Colo. Code Regs. § 402-8-4

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 1, January 10, 2025

Rule 2 CCR 402-8-4 - DEFINITIONS

4.1 Statutory Definitions- The terms listed below are defined by statute and have the identical meaning as in the referenced statutes:

4.1.1 Water Right Determination and Administration Act of 1969, C.R.S. 37-92-103: Beneficial use, divert, diversion, plan for augmentation, water right, and waters of the state.

4.1.2 Water Quality Control Act, C.R.S. 25-8-103: Control regulation, point source promulgate, state waters, and water quality standard,.

4.1.3 Colorado Ground Water Management Act, C.R.S. 37-90-103(21): Well.

4.1.4 C.R.S. 37-91-102: Board and well.

4.2 Definitions from other rules- The terms listed below are defined in other rules and have the identical meaning as in the referenced rules:

4.2.1 Rules and Regulations of the Board of Examiners of Water Well Construction and Pump Installation Contractors; 2 CCR 402-2: Casing.

4.3 Definitions:

(1) "Beneficial Use" is the use of that amount of water that is reasonable and appropriate under reasonably efficient practices to accomplish without waste the purpose for which the appropriation is lawfully made and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, includes the impoundment of water for recreational purposes, including fishery or wildlife. For the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations, "beneficial use" shall also include the appropriation by the state of Colorado in the manner prescribed by law of such minimum flows between specific points or levels for and on natural streams and lakes as are required to preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree.

(2) "Board" means the Board of Examiners of Water Well Construction and Pump Installation Contractors.

(3) "Casing" means the pipe installed in the borehole or excavation to provide unobstructed access to the water bearing formation. The term includes both nonperforated and perforated pipe and screen.

(4) "Control Regulation" means any regulation promulgated by the Water Quality Control Commission pursuant to C.R.S. 25-8-205.

(5) "Divert" or "Diversion" means removing water from its natural course or location, or controlling water in its natural course or location, by means of a ditch, canal, flume, reservoir, bypass, pipeline, conduit, well, pump, or other structure or device.

(6) "Implementing Agency" refers to any of the state agencies mentioned as such in C.R.S. 25-8-202(7).

(7) "Mass Balance Analysis" refers to a fundamental engineering approach used to quantify the chemical changes that take place in some definable water body. The mass balance equation is:

M2 = (M3Q3- M1Q1)/Q2

Where:

Q1 = Upstream low flow

Q2 = Average flow of the source as it enters the waterway

Q3 = Q1 + Q2 = Downstream flow

M1 = Upstream pollutant concentration

M2 = Known or unknown pollutant concentration

M3 = Known pollutant concentration, calculated resulting pollutant concentration, or Water Quality Standard of pollutant

Q3 may be measured at the location of the use to which the senior appropriation has normally been put, or at or near the point where the substituted supply enters the waterway. If Q3 is measured at the point of use of the senior appropriator, additional known quantities, with known concentrations of constituents, must be used if necessary to account for accretions and depletions between the point where the substitute supply is introduced and the location of use of the senior appropriation. This data must be provided by the applicant for the exchange, plan for augmentation, or substitute supply plan, if the applicant chooses to use the mass balance equation to show that the quality of water meets the requirements of use to the senior appropriator.

(8) "Mixing Zone" is that portion of a water body designated on a case-by-case basis by the State Engineer which is contiguous to a discharge of an activity regulated by the State Engineer and in which the water quality standards may not apply. The mixing zone is intended to serve as a zone of dilution between the place of introduction of a substitute supply and the point of diversion of the senior appropriator or, in the case of an existing water quality standard, in the immediate area of a discharge.

(9) "Plan for Augmentation" means a detailed program to increase the supply of water available for beneficial use in a diversion or portion thereof by the development of new or alternate means or points of diversion, by a pooling of water resources, by water exchange projects, by providing substitute supplies of water, by the development of new sources of water or by any other appropriate means. "Plan for augmentation" does not include the salvage of tributary waters by the eradication of phreatophytes, nor does it include the use of tributary water collected from land surfaces which have been made impermeable, thereby increasing the runoff but not adding to the existing supply of tributary water.

(10) "Point of Compliance" means one or more points or locations at which compliance with applicable ground water standards is the goal. For further definition see Rule 5.1.

(11) "Point Source" as defined in C.R.S. 25-8-103(14) means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. "Point source" does not include irrigation return flow. Pursuant to C.R.S. 25-8-503(5), point source discharges of pollution, under Article 25, Section 8, do not include activities such as diversion, carriage, and exchange of water from or into streams, lakes, reservoirs, or conveyance structures, or storage of water in or the release of water from lakes, reservoirs, or conveyance structures, in the exercise of water rights.

(12) "Promulgate" means and includes authority to adopt, and from time to time, amend, repeal, modify, publish, and put into effect.

(13) "Replacement Well" means a new well which replaces an existing well, and which shall be limited to the yield of the original well and shall take the date of priority of the original well, which shall be abandoned upon completion of the new well.

(14) "State Waters" pursuant to C.R.S. 25-8-103(19) means any and all surface and subsurface waters which are contained in or flow in or through this state, but does not include waters in sewage systems, waters in treatment works of disposal systems, waters in potable water distribution systems, and all water withdrawn for use until use and treatment have been completed.

(15) "Waters of the State" pursuant to C.R.S. 37-92-103(13) means all surface and underground water in or tributary to all natural streams within the state of Colorado, except waters referred to in C.R.S. 37-90-103(6).

(16) "Well" as defined in C.R.S. 37-90-103(21) means any structure or device used for the purpose or with the effect of obtaining ground water for beneficial use from an aquifer. For the purposes of Article 91, Section 37, "well" means any test hole or other excavation that is drilled, cored, bored, washed, fractured, driven, dug, jetted, or otherwise constructed when the intended use of such excavation is for the location, monitoring, dewatering, observation, diversion, artificial recharge, or acquisition of ground water or for conducting pumping equipment or aquifer tests. This definition of "well" does not include certain types of monitoring and observation wells, dewatering wells, and test holes that the board specifies in rules and regulations in order to allow for their construction, utilization, and abandonment by other than a well construction contractor, nor does such term include an excavation made for the purpose of obtaining or prospecting for minerals or those wells subject to the jurisdiction of the oil and gas conservation commission, as provided in Article 60 of Title 34, C.R.S., or those wells subject to the jurisdiction of the division of mined land reclamation, as provided in Article 33 of Title 34, C.R.S.

(17) "Water Right" means a right to use in accordance with its priority a certain portion of the waters of the state by reason of the appropriation of the same.

(18) "Water Quality Standard" means any standard promulgated pursuant to C.R.S. 25-8-204.

(19) "Water Quality Classification" means any classification promulgated pursuant to C.R.S. 25-8-203. Examples of water quality classifications include, but are not limited to, the following uses: domestic, agricultural, aquatic life and recreational.

2 CCR 402-8-4