1501:15-5-01 General provisions.

(A) Purpose.

Rules 1501:15-5-01 to 1501:15-5-18 of the Administrative Code apply to the control of pollutants from areas within the state used for agricultural production or silvicultural operations, including land being used for the production or keeping of animals or for the production of agricultural crops or private, industrial, commercial, and public woodlands.

Rules 1501:15-5-01 to 1501:15-5-18 of the Administrative Code establish state standards for a level of management and conservation practices in farming, silvicultural operations and concentrated 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 waste. These rules further define Ohio’s pollution abatement grant program for landowners or operators to voluntarily install conservation practices.

The criteria in these rules 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 waste such that it is polluting or has a potential to pollute waters of the state contrary to these standards established by these rules. Technical determinations by a district or the chief shall be considered prima facie evidence of agricultural pollution.

(B) Definitions. As used in rules 1501:15-5-01 to 1501:15-5-18 of the Administrative Code:

(1) “Agricultural pollution” means failure to use management or conservation practices in farming or silvicultural operations to abate wind or water erosion of the soil or to abate the degradation of waters of the state by animal waste 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) “Animal” means a non-human animate creature kept or raised for utility, profit, or pleasure.

(4) “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.

(5) “Animal waste” means animal excreta, discarded products, bedding, wash waters, waste feed, and silage drainage. “Animal waste” also includes the compost products resulting from the composting of dead animals in operations subject to section 1511.022 of the Revised Code when either of the following applies:

(a) The composting is conducted by the person who raises the animals and the compost is used in agricultural operations owned or operated by that person, regardless of whether the person owns the animals;

(b) The composting is conducted by the person who owns the animals, but does not raise them and the compost product is used in agricultural operations either by a person who raises the animals or by a person who raises the grain that is used to feed them and that is supplied by the owner of the animals.

Any compost product that is distributed for sale or used in conditions other than specified in paragraph (B)(5)(a) or (B)(5)(b) of this rule is subject to the standards of quality for compost products established in rules adopted under division (A) of section 3734.028 of the Revised Code.

(6) “Animal waste management facility” means any area or facilities used for the collection, storage, handling or treatment of animal waste.

(7) “Aquifer” means any underground water-bearing bed or stratum of earth, gravel, sand, or porous rock having boundaries that may be ascertained or reasonably inferred, in which water stands, flows, or percolates.

(8) “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.

(9) “BMPs For Erosion Control On Logging Jobs” means the current edition of “BMPs For Erosion Control On Logging Jobs” prepared by the division of forestry, Ohio department of natural resources, which is available to all Ohio County Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

(10) “Chief” means chief of the division of soil and water conservation, department of natural resources.

(11) “Composting” means the controlled decomposition of organic solid material consisting of dead animals that stabilizes the organic fraction of the material.

(12) “Conservation” means the wise use and management of natural resources.

(13) “Concentrated animal feeding operation” means an animal feedlot and animal waste management facilities and land application areas for managing and disposal of animal waste.

(14) “Cost-share monies” means state of Ohio public funds used for the purpose of sharing the cost of establishing needed pollution abatement practices.

(15) “District” means a soil and water conservation district, organized under Chapter 1515. of the Revised Code.

(16) “Ditch” means an excavation, either dug or natural, for the purpose of drainage or irrigation with intermittent flow.

(17) “Diversion” means a channel constructed across the slope for the purpose of intercepting surface runoff.

(18) “Division” means the division of soil and water conservation, department of natural resources.

(19) “Drainageway” means an area of concentrated water flow other than river, stream, ditch, or grassed waterway.

(20) “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.

(i) “Accelerated erosion” : erosion much more rapid than normal, natural or geologic erosion, primarily as a result of the influence of the activities of man.

(ii) “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.

(iii) “Natural erosion (geologic erosion)” : wearing away of the earth’s surface by water, ice, or other natural environmental conditions of climate, vegetation, etc., undisturbed by man.

(iv) “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.

(v) “Sheet erosion” : the removal of a fairly uniform layer of soil from the land surface by wind or runoff water.

(21) “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, and which provides:

(a) Soil descriptions;

(b) Sound land use alternatives;

(d) Standards and specifications of conservation practices;

(e) Conservation cost-return information;

(f) Practice maintenance requirements;

(g) Erosion prediction procedures.

(22) “Grassed waterway” means a broad and shallow natural course or constructed channel covered with erosion-resistant grasses or similar vegetative cover and used to conduct surface water.

(23) “Ground water” means any water below the surface of the earth in a zone of saturation.

(24) “Ohio soil and water conservation commission” means the seven member board that directs and recommends conservation policies and programs as authorized under section 1515.02 of the Revised Code.

(25) “Ohio Livestock Manure And Wastewater Management Guide” means the current edition of the “Ohio Livestock Manure And Wastewater Management Guide,” bulletin 604, the Ohio state university extension, which is available to all Ohio County Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

(26) “Operation and management plan” means a written record, developed or approved by the district board of supervisors or the chief, for the owner or operator of agricultural land or concentrated 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 waste 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 or silvicultural operations to abate wind or water erosion of the soil or to abate the degradation of the waters of the state by animal waste 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) “Silviculture” means the theory and practice of planning, planting, thinning, pruning, growing, and harvesting of trees.

(36) “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.

(37) “Soil” means unconsolidated, erodible earth material consisting of minerals and/or 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 chief.

(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.

Effective: 10/03/2005

R.C. 119.032 review dates: 07/18/2005 and 10/03/2010

Promulgated Under: 119.03

Statutory Authority: 1511.02 (E)

Rule Amplifies: 1511.02, 1515.08

Prior Effective Dates: 11/1/79, 5/1/89, 5/7/92, 11/15/94, 6/1/00