Terms Used In West Virginia Code > Chapter 5 > Article 5 - Salary Increase for State Employees

• abandoned quarry lands: means :

  (A) A quarry which was operated and abandoned without proper reclamation prior to the effective date of this article. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Air pollutants: means solids, liquids, or gases which, if discharged into the air, may result in a statutory air pollution. See West Virginia Code 22-5-2
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• 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
• Backfill: means overburden, dirt, rock or other materials that are used as fill material to reduce steepness of slopes or to fill holes, depressions or excavations. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• Berm: means a type of fill or pile used for a specific purpose other than excess spoil disposal. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Best management practices: means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures and other management practices established by the department to prevent or reduce pollution of waters of this state. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Board: means the air quality board continued pursuant to the provisions of §. See West Virginia Code 22-5-2
• Casing: means a string or strings of pipe commonly placed in wells drilled for natural gas or petroleum or both. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Cement: means hydraulic cement properly mixed with water. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Chair: means the chair of the West Virginia shallow gas well review board as provided for in section four, article eight, chapter . See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Chief: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, or his or her designee, who is also the chief executive officer of an office, division or section within the department. See West Virginia Code 22-1-2
• Coal operator: means any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation that proposes to or does operate a coal mine. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Critical gradient: means the maximum stable inclination of an unsupported slope as measured from a horizontal plane. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Deep well: means any well other than a shallow well or coalbed methane well, drilled to a formation below the top of the uppermost member of the "Onondaga Group". See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Director: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection or his or her designee. See West Virginia Code 22-1-2
• Director: means the director of the Division of Environmental Protection and his or her authorized agents. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Director: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection or such other person to whom the director has delegated authority or duties pursuant to §. See West Virginia Code 22-5-2
• Director: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as established in article one of this chapter or other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Discharge: means any release, escape, or emission of air pollutants into the air. See West Virginia Code 22-5-2
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Disturbed area: means the land area from which the mineral is removed by quarrying and all other land area in which the natural land surface has been disturbed as a result of or incidental to quarrying activities of the operator, including private ways and private roads appurtenant to the area, land excavations, workings, refuse piles, product stockpiles, areas grubbed of vegetation, overburden, piles and tailings. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Division: means the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-1-2
• Division: means the Division of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Expanding cement: means any cement approved by the office of oil and gas which expands during the hardening process, including, but not limited to, regular oil field cements with the proper additives. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Facility: means any facility utilized in the oil and gas industry in this state and specifically named or referred to in this article or in article eight or nine of this chapter, other than a well or well site. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fill: means a side of hill fill or valley fill. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Freshwater Impoundment: means an impoundment used for the retention of fresh water and into which no wastes of any kind are placed. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in this section. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Horizontal drilling: means a method of drilling a well for the production of natural gas that is intended to maximize the length of wellbore that is exposed to the formation and in which the wellbore is initially vertical but is eventually curved to become horizontal, or nearly horizontal, to parallel a particular geologic formation. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Horizontal well: means any well site, other than a coalbed methane well, drilled using a horizontal drilling method, and which disturbs three acres or more of surface, excluding pipelines, gathering lines and roads, or utilizes more than two hundred ten thousand gallons of water in any thirty day period. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Impoundment: means a man-made excavation or diked area for the retention of fluids. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Judgement: The official decision of a court finally determining the respective rights and claims of the parties to a suit.
• Karst terrain: means a terrain, generally underlain by limestone or dolomite, in which the topography is formed chiefly by the dissolving of rock, and which may be characterized by sinkholes, sinking streams, closed depressions, subterranean drainage and caves. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Manufacturing: means the process of converting raw materials to salable products but does not include crushing or screening of minerals undertaken in close proximity to active quarrying operations. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Minerals: means natural deposits of commercial value found on or in the earth, whether consolidated or loose, including clay, flagstone, gravel, sand, limestone, sandstone, shale, chert, flint, dolomite, manganese, slate, iron ore and any other metal or metallurgical ore. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Mulch: means any natural or plant residue, organic or inorganic material, applied to the surface of the earth to retain moisture and curtail or limit soil erosion. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Office: means any office, division, board, agency, unit, organizational entity or component thereof within the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-1-2
• Oil: means natural crude oil or petroleum and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the underground reservoirs. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Operator: means a person who engages in any activities regulated by this article and any rules promulgated hereunder, who as a result is required to hold a permit pursuant to the provisions herein. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• operator: means any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation that proposes to or does locate, drill, operate or abandon any well as herein defined. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: when used with reference to any well, shall include any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation that owns, manages, operates, controls or possesses such well as principal, or as lessee or contractor, employee or agent of such principal. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• 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.
• Perennial stream: means a stream or portion of a stream that flows year-round, is considered a permanent stream and for which base flow is maintained by ground-water discharge to the streambed due to the ground-water elevation adjacent to the stream being higher than the elevation of the streambed. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Permit area: means the area of land indicated on the approved map submitted by the permittee and designated in the permit including the location of end strip markers, permit markers and monuments. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Permittee: means any person who holds a valid permit issued by the division to conduct quarrying activities pursuant to this article. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Person: means any individual, partnership, firm, society, association, trust, corporation, other business entity or any agency, unit or instrumentality of federal, state or local government. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Person: means any and all persons, natural or artificial, including the state of West Virginia or any other state, the United States of America, any municipal, statutory, public, or private corporation organized or existing under the laws of this or any other state or country, and any firm, partnership or association of whatever nature. See West Virginia Code 22-5-2
• Person: means any natural person, corporation, firm, partnership, partnership association, venture, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary or other representative of any kind, and includes any government or any political subdivision or any agency thereof. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• personal property: includes goods, chattels, real and personal, money, credits, investments, and the evidences thereof. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Pit: means a man-made excavation or diked area that contains or is intended to contain an accumulation of process waste fluids, drill cuttings or any other liquid substance generated in the development of a horizontal well and which could impact surface or groundwater. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Plat: means a map, drawing or print showing the location of a well or wells as herein defined. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Protected structure: means any of the following structures that are situated outside the permit area: An occupied dwelling, a temporarily unoccupied dwelling which has been occupied within the past ninety days, a public building, a structure for commercial purposes, a school, a church, a community or institutional building, a public park, spring box or, water well. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Quarrying: means any breaking of the ground surface in order to facilitate the extraction of minerals. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, all rights thereto and interests therein, except chattel interests. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Reclamation: means returning disturbed areas to a stable condition which does not create health or safety hazards or adverse environmental impact, and when appropriate or required by permit, returning disturbed quarry areas to a designated postmining land use. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Review board: means the West Virginia Shallow Gas Well Review Board as provided for in section four, article eight, chapter . See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-1-2
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as established in article one of this chapter or other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as established in article one of this chapter or other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• 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.
• Shallow well: means any gas well, other than a coalbed methane well, drilled no deeper than one hundred feet below the top of the "Onondaga Group": Provided, That in no event may the "Onondaga Group" formation or any formation below the "Onondaga Group" be produced, perforated or stimulated in any manner. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Side of hill fill: means overburden, dirt or rock that is placed on a natural slope of more than twenty degrees. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Statutory air pollution: means and is limited to the discharge into the air by the act of man of substances (liquid, solid, gaseous, organic or inorganic) in a locality, manner and amount as to be injurious to human health or welfare, animal or plant life, or property, or which would interfere with the enjoyment of life or property. See West Virginia Code 22-5-2
• Stimulate: means any action taken by a well operator to increase the inherent productivity of an oil or gas well, including, but not limited to, fracturing, shooting or acidizing, but excluding cleaning out, bailing or workover operations. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Valley fill: means a fill structure consisting of material placed in a valley where the natural side slopes measured at the steepest point are greater than twenty degrees or the average slopes measured at the steepest point are greater than twenty degrees or the average slopes or the profile of the hollow are greater than twenty degrees. See West Virginia Code 22-4-3
• Waste: means (i) physical waste, as the term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Water purveyor: means any person engaged in the business of selling water to another and who is regulated by the Bureau for Public Health pursuant to title sixty-four, series three of the West Virginia Code of State Rules. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
• Well: means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction or injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with such extraction or injection or placement. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Well work: means the drilling, redrilling, deepening, stimulating, pressuring by injection of any fluid, converting from one type of well to another, combining or physically changing to allow the migration of fluid from one formation to another or plugging or replugging of any well. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.