(A)
Purpose.
Chapter 901:13-1 of the Administrative
Code applies to the control of pollutants from areas within the state used for
agricultural production, including land being used for the production or
keeping of animals or for the production of agricultural crops.
Chapter 901:13-1 of the Administrative
Code establishes state standards for a level of management and conservation
practices in farming and animal feeding operations on farms in order to abate
excessive soil erosion or the pollution of waters of the state by soil sediment
including pollutants attached to the sediment and animal manure. This chapter
further defines Ohio's pollution abatement grant program for landowners or
operators to voluntarily install conservation practices.
The criteria in this chapter are
intended for use in determining the acceptability of the level of management
and conservation practices and for use by landowners and operators in planning,
applying and maintaining appropriate management measures and conservation
practices and to prevent the storage, handling, treatment, disposal, or land
application of animal manure such that it is polluting or has a potential to
pollute waters of the state contrary to these standards established by this
chapter. Technical determinations by a district or the director shall be
considered prima facie evidence of agricultural pollution.
(B)
Definitions. As used in rules Chapter 901:13-1 of the Administrative
Code:
(1)
"Agricultural pollution" means failure to use management or conservation
practices in farming operations to abate wind or water erosion of the soil or
to abate the degradation of waters of the state by animal manure or soil
sediment including substances attached thereto.
(2)
"Agricultural
production" means the commercial apiculture, animal husbandry or poultry
husbandry, the commercial production of field crops, tobacco, fruits,
vegetables, timber, nursery stock, sod or flowers or any combination of such
husbandry or production and includes the processing, drying, storage, and
marketing of food and fiber products and animals used for recreation, fur or
wildlife purposes.
(3)
"Agriculture animal" means any animal generally used
for food or in agricultural production, including cattle, sheep, goats,
rabbits, poultry, and swine; horses; alpacas; llamas; and any other animal
included by the director of the Ohio department of agriculture by rule.
"Agricultural animal" does not include fish or other aquatic animals regardless
of whether they are raised at fish hatcheries, fish farms, or other facilities
that raise aquatic animals.
(4)
"Animal feeding
operation" means an animal feedlot and animal manure management facilities and
land application areas for managing and disposal of animal manure. "Animal
feeding operation" does not include operations subject to Chapter 903. of the
Revised Code, Chapter 6111. of the Revised Code, or section 901:10 of the
Administrative Code.
(5)
"Animal feedlot" means a paved animal feeding or
holding area or other lot, pen, yard, or other feeding or holding area where
grass or other suitable vegetative cover is not maintained.
(6)
"Aquifer" means
an underground consolidated or unconsolidated geologic formation, or series of
formations that are hydraulically connected and that have the capability to
receive, store, and yield usable quantities of water to wells. "Aquifer" does
not include perched ground water.
(7)
"Best management
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
agricultural pollution sources to a level compatible with water quality goals.
BMPs may include structural and nonstructural practices, conservation practices
and operation and maintenance procedures.
(8)
"Conservation"
means the wise use and management of natural resources.
(9)
"Cost-share
monies" means state of Ohio public funds used for the purpose of sharing the
cost of establishing needed pollution abatement practices.
(10)
"Department"
means the Ohio department of agriculture.
(11)
"Director" means
director of the Ohio department of agriculture.
(12)
"Director's
designee" means any Ohio department of agriculture, soil and water conservation
district employee, or soil and water conservation district supervisor who the
director has given the responsibility to implement the agricultural pollution
abatement program.
(13)
"District" means a soil and water conservation
district, organized under Chapter 940. of the Revised Code.
(14)
"Ditch" means an
excavation, either dug or natural, for the purpose of drainage or irrigation
with intermittent flow.
(15)
"Diversion" means a channel constructed across the
slope for the purpose of intercepting surface runoff.
(16)
"Drainageway"
means an area of concentrated water flow other than river, stream, ditch, or
grassed waterway.
(17)
"Erosion" means:
(a)
The wearing away
of the land surface by running water, wind, ice or other geological agents,
including such processes as gravitational creep.
(b)
Detachment and
movement of soil or rock fragments by water, wind, ice, or
gravity.
(c)
Erosion includes:
(i)
"Gully erosion":
the erosion process whereby water accumulates in narrow channels during and
immediately after rainfall or snow or ice melt and actively removes the soil
from this narrow area to considerable depths such that the channel would not be
obliterated by normal smoothing or tillage operations.
(ii)
"Rill erosion":
an erosion process in which numerous small channels only several inches deep
are formed; occurs mainly on recently disturbed soils. The small channels
formed by rill erosion would be obliterated by normal smoothing or tillage
operations.
(iii)
"Sheet erosion": the removal of a fairly uniform layer
of soil from the land surface by wind or runoff water.
(18)
"Field Office Technical Guide" means the localized
document used by the soil and water conservation district and developed
(current edition) by the natural resources conservation service, United States
department of agriculture, which is available to all Ohio county soil and water
conservation districts, available at http://www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/ohio_eFOTG.html
and which provides:
(b)
Sound land use alternatives;
(c)
Adequate
conservation treatment alternatives;
(d)
Standards and
specifications of conservation practices;
(e)
Conservation
cost-return information;
(f)
Practice maintenance requirements;
(g)
Erosion
prediction procedures.
(19)
"Grassed
waterway" means a natural course or constructed channel that is shaped or
graded to required dimensions and established with suitable vegetation to
filter and convey runoff from fields, terraces, diversions or other
concentrated runoff without causing erosion or flooding.
(20)
"Ground water"
means any water below the surface of the earth in a zone of saturation, but
does not include a perched water table.
(21)
"Manure" means
any of the following wastes used in or resulting from the production of
agricultural animals or direct agricultural products such as milk or eggs:
animal excreta, discarded products, process waste water, process generated
waste water, waste feed, silage drainage, and compost products resulting from
mortality composting, on farm biodigester operation residue that includes at
least seventy-five per cent manure, or the composting of animal
excreta.
(22)
"Manure storage or treatment facility" means any area
or facilities used for the collection, storage, handling or treatment of
manure.
(23)
"Mortality composting" means the controlled
decomposition of organic solid material consisting of animal mortality that
stabilizes the organic fraction of the material.
(24)
"Ohio soil and
water conservation commission" means the seven member board that directs and
recommends conservation policies and programs as authorized under section
940.02
of the Revised Code.
(25)
"Ohio Livestock Manure Management Guide" means the 2006
edition of the "Ohio Livestock Manure Management Guide," bulletin 604, the Ohio
state university extension, which is available at all county offices of Ohio
state university extension, local soil and water conservation district offices,
and at http://ohioline.osu.edu/b604
.
(26)
"Operation and management plan" means a written record,
developed or approved by the district board of supervisors or the director, for
the owner or operator of agricultural land or animal feeding operations that
contains implementation schedules and operational procedures for a level of
management and best management practices which will abate the degradation of
the waters of the state by animal manure and by soil sediment including
attached pollutants.
(27)
"Permeability" means the quality of a soil horizon that
enables water or air to move through it. Terms used to describe it are as
follows: very slow, slow, moderately slow, moderate, moderately rapid, rapid,
and very rapid, measured in inches per hour or inches per day.
(28)
"Person" means
any individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, agency, unincorporated
association, or any combination thereof.
(29)
"Pollution"
means failure to use management or conservation practices in farming operations
to abate wind or water erosion of the soil or to abate the degradation of the
waters of the state by animal manure or soil sediment including pollutants
attached thereto.
(30)
"Prima facie evidence" means law evidence adequate to
establish a fact or raise a presumption of fact unless refuted.
(31)
"Primary contact
recreation resource water" means waters 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.
(32)
"RUSLE" means
the "Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation" which is a method used to estimate
soil loss by sheet and rill erosion and wind erosion. This will be estimated
using the current soil loss prediction technologies found in the "Field Office
Technical Guide."
(33)
"Saturated soil" means soil in which all voids between
soil particles are filled with liquid.
(34)
"Sediment" means
solid material, both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being
transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water, gravity,
or ice, and has come to rest on the earth's surface.
(35)
"Sloughing"
means a slip or downward movement of an extended layer of soil resulting from
the undermining action of water or the earth disturbing activity of
man.
(36)
"Snow pack manure" means the accumulation of snow and
ice when combined with manure from animal feedlot.
(37)
"Soil" means
unconsolidated, erodible earth material consisting of minerals and
organics.
(38)
"Soil horizon" means a layer of soil, approximately
parallel to the soil surface, with characteristics produced by soil-forming
processes.
(39)
"Soil loss" means soil moved from a given site by the
forces of erosion and redeposited at another site, on land or in a body of
water.
(40)
"Stream" means a body of water running or flowing on
the earth's surface or channel in which such flow occurs. Flow may be
seasonally intermittent.
(41)
"Substantial", when referring to compliance with the
provisions of an approved operation and management plan, means following the
approved schedule of conservation practice implementation.
(42)
"T" means the
soil loss tolerance expressed in tons per acre per year. This represents the
tons of soil (related to the specific soil series) which can be lost through
erosion annually without causing significant degradation of the soil or
potential for crop production.
(43)
"Useful life"
means the expected service life of a best management practice as defined by the
"Field Office Technical Guide" or by the director.
(44)
"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.
(45)
"Watershed in
Distress" means a watershed, and boundaries thereof as established by the
United States geological survey, which has aquatic life and health that is
impaired by nutrients or sediment from agricultural land uses and where there
is a threat to public health, drinking water supplies, recreation, or public
safety and welfare.
Replaces: 1501:15-5-01
Notes
Ohio Admin. Code 901:13-1-01
Effective:
4/1/2016
Five Year Review (FYR) Dates:
12/31/2017
Promulgated
Under:
119.03
Statutory Authority:
939.02
Rule Amplifies:
939.02
Prior Effective Dates: 11/1/79, 5/1/89, 5/7/92, 11/15/94, 6/1/00,
10/03/05, 12/23/2010