Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 2-1 > Part 2 - Freshwater Wetlands

• Airport corporation: means the Rhode Island airport corporation. See Rhode Island General Laws 1-2-1
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Bog: means a place where standing or slowly running water is near or at the surface during normal growing season and/or where a vegetational community has over fifty percent (50%) of the ground or water surface covered with sphagnum moss (Sphagnum) and/or where the vegetational community is made up of one or more of, but not limited to nor necessarily including all of, the following: blueberries, and cranberry (Vaccinium), leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), sundews (Droseraceae), orchids (Orchidaceae), white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), red maple (Acer rubrum), black spruce (Picae mariana), bog aster (Aster nemoralis), larch (Laris laricina), bogrosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla), azaleas (Rhododendron), laurels (Kalmia), sedges (Caryx), and bog cotton (Eriophorum). See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Buffer: means an area of undeveloped vegetated land adjacent to a freshwater wetland that is to be retained in its natural undisturbed condition, or is to be created to resemble a naturally occurring vegetated area. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Commercial unit: means such a unit of goods as by commercial usage is a single whole for purposes of lease and division of which materially impairs its character or value on the market or in use. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer lease: means a lease that a lessor regularly engaged in the business of leasing or selling makes to a lessee who is an individual and who takes under the lease primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the department of environmental management (DEM). See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Director: means the director of the department of environmental management or his or her duly authorized agent or agents. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Director: means the executive director of the Rhode Island airport corporation. See Rhode Island General Laws 1-2-1
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Finance lease: means a lease with respect to which:

  (i)  The lessor does not select, manufacture, or supply the goods;

  (ii)  The lessor acquires the goods or the right to possession and use of the goods in connection with the lease; and

  (iii)  One of the following occurs:

  (A)  The lessee receives a copy of the contract by which the lessor acquired the goods or the right to possession and use of the goods before signing the lease contract;

  (B)  The lessee's approval of the contract by which the lessor acquired the goods or the right to possession and use of the goods is a condition to effectiveness of the lease contract;

  (C)  The lessee, before signing the lease contract, receives an accurate and complete statement designating the promises and warranties, and any disclaimers of warranties, limitations or modifications of remedies, or liquidated damages, including those of a third party, such as the manufacturer of the goods, provided to the lessor by the person supplying the goods in connection with or as part of the contract by which the lessor acquired the goods or the right to possession and use of the goods; or

  (D)  If the lease is not a consumer lease, the lessor, before the lessee signs the lease contract, informs the lessee in writing (a) of the identity of the person supplying the goods to the lessor, unless the lessee has selected that person and directed the lessor to acquire the goods or the right to possession and use of the goods from that person, (b) that the lessee is entitled under this chapter to the promises and warranties, including those of any third party, provided to the lessor by the person supplying the goods in connection with or as part of the contract by which the lessor acquired the goods or the right to possession and use of the goods, and (c) that the lessee may communicate with the person supplying the goods to the lessor and receive an accurate and complete statement of those promises and warranties, including any disclaimers and limitations of them or of remedies. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103

• Floodplain: means that land area adjacent to a river or stream or other body of flowing water which is, on the average, likely to be covered with flood waters resulting from a one-hundred (100) year frequency storm. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Freshwater wetlands: includes , but is not limited to, those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration to support, and that under normal circumstances do support a prevalence of vegetation adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Goods: means all things that are movable at the time of identification to the lease contract, or are fixtures (§?6A-2. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Jurisdictional area: means the following lands and waters, as defined herein except as provided for in § 2-1-22(k), that shall be subject to regulation under this chapter:

  (i)  Freshwater wetlands;

  (ii)  Buffers;

  (iii)  Floodplains;

  (iv)  Areas subject to storm flowage;

  (v)  Areas subject to flooding; and

  (vi)  Contiguous areas that extend outward:

  (A)  Two hundred feet (200?) from the edge of a river or stream;

  (B)  Two hundred feet (200?) from the edge of a drinking water supply reservoir; and

  (C)  One hundred feet (100?) from the edge of all other freshwater wetlands. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20

• Lease: means a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration, but a sale, including a sale on approval or a sale or return, or retention or creation of a security interest is not a lease. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lease agreement: means the bargain, with respect to the lease, of the lessor and the lessee in fact as found in their language or by implication from other circumstances including course of dealing or usage of trade or course of performance as provided in this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Lessee: means a person who acquires the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Lessor: means a person who transfers the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Lot: means a parcel or a single chapter that is the subject matter of a separate lease or delivery, whether or not it is sufficient to perform the lease contract. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Marsh: means a place wholly or partly within the state where a vegetational community exists in standing or running water during the growing season and/or is made up of one or more of, but not limited to nor necessarily including all of, the following plants or groups of plants: hydrophytic reeds (Phragmites), grasses (Cramineae), mannagrasses (Glyceria), cutgrasses (Leersia), pickerelwoods (Pontederiaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), rushes (Juncaceae), cattails (Typha), water plantains (Alismataceae), bur-reeds (Sparganiazceae), pondweeds (Zosteraceae), frog's bits (Hydrocharitaceae), arums (Araceae), duckweeds (Lemmaceae), water lilies (Nymphaeceae), water-milfoils (Haloragaceae), water-starworts (Callitrichaeceae), bladder-worts (Utricularia), pipeworts (Eriocaulon), sweet gale (Myrica gale), and buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Pond: means a place natural or man-made, wholly or partly within the state, where open-standing or slowly moving water is present for at least six (6) months a year. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Present value: means the amount as of a date certain of one or more sums payable in the future, discounted to the date certain. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Purchase: includes taking by sale, lease, mortgage, security interest, pledge, gift, or any other voluntary transaction creating an interest in goods. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• River: means a body of water designated as a perennial stream by the United States Department of Interior geologic survey on 7. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Stream: means any flowing body of water or watercourse that flows long enough each year to develop and maintain a channel and that may carry groundwater discharge or surface runoff. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• Supplier: means a person from whom a lessor buys or leases goods to be leased under a finance lease. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-2.1-103
• Swamp: means a place, wholly or partly within the state, where ground water is near or at the surface of the ground for a significant part of the growing season or runoff water from surface drainage collects frequently and/or where a vegetational community is made up of a significant portion of one or more of, but not limited to nor necessarily including all of, the following: red maple (Acer rubum), elm (Ulmus americana), black spruce (Picea mariana), white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), ashes (Fraximus), poison sumac (Rhus vernix), larch (Larix laricina), spice bush (Lindera benzoin), alders (Alnus), skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), hellebore (Veratrum viride), hemlock (Thuja canadensis), sphagnums (Sphagnum), azaleas (Rhododendron), black alder (Ilex verticillata), coast pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia), marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), blueberries (Vaccinium), buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), willow (Salicaceae), water willow (Decodon verticillatus), tupelo (Nyssa sylbatica), laurels (Kalmia), swamp white oak (Quercus biscolor), or species indicative of marsh. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-1-20
• town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• town council: include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.