The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

1. (1) Agricultural or Agriculture--Any of the following activities:

   1. (A) cultivating the soil to produce crops for human food, animal feed, or planting seed or for the production of fibers;
   2. (B) the practice of floriculture, viticulture, silviculture, and horticulture, including the cultivation of plants in containers or non-soil media by a nursery grower;
   3. (C) raising, feeding, or keeping animals for breeding purposes or for the production of food or fiber, leather, pelts, or other tangible products having a commercial value;
   4. (D) raising or keeping equine animals;
   5. (E) wildlife management; and
   6. (F) planting cover crops, including cover crops cultivated for transplantation, or leaving land idle for the purpose of participating in any governmental program or normal crop or livestock rotation procedure.
2. (2) Agricultural use--Any use or activity involving agriculture, including irrigation.
3. (3) Conservation--Those practices, techniques, and technologies that reduce the consumption of water, reduce the loss or waste of water, improve the efficiency in the use of water, or increase the recycling and reuse of water so that a water supply is made available for future or alternative uses.
4. (4) Drought contingency plan--A strategy or combination of strategies for temporary supply and demand management responses to temporary and potentially recurring water supply shortages and other water supply emergencies. A drought contingency plan may be a separate document identified as such or may be contained within another water management document(s).
5. (5) Industrial use--The use of water in processes designed to convert materials of a lower order of value into forms having greater usability and commercial value, commercial fish production, and the development of power by means other than hydroelectric, but does not include agricultural use.
6. (6) Irrigation--The agricultural use of water for the irrigation of crops, trees, and pastureland, including, but not limited to, golf courses and parks which do not receive water through a municipal distribution system.
7. (7) Irrigation water use efficiency--The percentage of that amount of irrigation water which is beneficially used by agriculture crops or other vegetation relative to the amount of water diverted from the source(s) of supply. Beneficial uses of water for irrigation purposes include, but are not limited to, evapotranspiration needs for vegetative maintenance and growth, salinity management, and leaching requirements associated with irrigation.
8. (8) Mining use--The use of water for mining processes including hydraulic use, drilling, washing sand and gravel, and oil field repressuring.
9. (9) Municipal per capita water use--The sum total of water diverted into a water supply system for residential, commercial, and public and institutional uses divided by actual population served.
10. (10) Municipal use--The use of potable water within or outside a municipality and its environs whether supplied by a person, privately owned utility, political subdivision, or other entity as well as the use of sewage effluent for certain purposes, including the use of treated water for domestic purposes, fighting fires, sprinkling streets, flushing sewers and drains, watering parks and parkways, and recreational purposes, including public and private swimming pools, the use of potable water in industrial and commercial enterprises supplied by a municipal distribution system without special construction to meet its demands, and for the watering of lawns and family gardens.
11. (11) Municipal use in gallons per capita per day--The total average daily amount of water diverted or pumped for treatment for potable use by a public water supply system. The calculation is made by dividing the water diverted or pumped for treatment for potable use by population served. Indirect reuse volumes shall be credited against total diversion volumes for the purpose of calculating gallons per capita per day for targets and goals.
12. (12) Nursery grower--A person engaged in the practice of floriculture, viticulture, silviculture, and horticulture, including the cultivation of plants in containers or nonsoil media, who grows more than 50% of the products that the person either sells or leases, regardless of the variety sold, leased, or grown. For the purpose of this definition, grow means the actual cultivation or propagation of the product beyond the mere holding or maintaining of the item prior to sale or lease, and typically includes activities associated with the production or multiplying of stock such as the development of new plants from cuttings, grafts, plugs, or seedlings.
13. (13) Pollution--The alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any water in the state that renders the water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation, or property, or to the public health, safety, or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose.
14. (14) Public water supplier--An individual or entity that supplies water to the public for human consumption.
15. (15) Regional water planning group--A group established by the Texas Water Development Board to prepare a regional water plan under Texas Water Code, §16.053.
16. (16) Retail public water supplier--An individual or entity that for compensation supplies water to the public for human consumption. The term does not include an individual or entity that supplies water to itself or its employees or tenants when that water is not resold to or used by others.
17. (17) Reuse--The authorized use for one or more beneficial purposes of use of water that remains unconsumed after the water is used for the original purpose of use and before that water is either disposed of or discharged or otherwise allowed to flow into a watercourse, lake, or other body of state-owned water.
18. (18) Water conservation plan--A strategy or combination of strategies for reducing the volume of water withdrawn from a water supply source, for reducing the loss or waste of water, for maintaining or improving the efficiency in the use of water, for increasing the recycling and reuse of water, and for preventing the pollution of water. A water conservation plan may be a separate document identified as such or may be contained within another water management document(s).
19. (19) Wholesale public water supplier--An individual or entity that for compensation supplies water to another for resale to the public for human consumption. The term does not include an individual or entity that supplies water to itself or its employees or tenants as an incident of that employee service or tenancy when that water is not resold to or used by others, or an individual or entity that conveys water to another individual or entity, but does not own the right to the water which is conveyed, whether or not for a delivery fee.

Source Note:The provisions of this §288.1 adopted to be effective May 3, 1993, 18 TexReg 2558; amended to be effective February 21, 1999, 24 TexReg 949; amended to be effective April 27, 2000, 25 TexReg 3544; amended to be effective August 15, 2002, 27 TexReg 7146; amended to be effective October 7, 2004, 29 TexReg 9384.