46A-10A-1. Definitions. Terms used in this chapter and chapter 46A-11, unless the context otherwise requires, mean:

(1) "Board," a board of county commissioners, as established in chapter 7-8;

(2) "Closed drain" or "blind drain," a man-made drain or drainage scheme utilizing pipes, tiles, or other materials and constructed in such a way that flow of water is not visible;

(3) "Commission" or "drainage commission," any county drainage commission created under the terms of this chapter;

(4) "Coordinated drainage area," a defined geographic area containing one or more parcels of real property and established under the provisions of this chapter and chapter 46A-11 by a board or commission to provide a planned network or method of natural or man-made drainage, or both, to benefit all parcels of real property involved;

(5) "Dominant estate," any parcel of real property, usually at a higher elevation, which holds a common law or statutory legal right to drain water onto other real property;

(6) "Drainage map," any map adopted by resolution of the board that delineates the extent of county drainage, a drainage project, or a coordinated drainage area;

(7) "Drainage plan," a document which may illustrate by maps, charts, and other descriptive matter the policies of the board to interrelate all man-made and natural systems and activities relating to drainage under its jurisdiction;

(8) "Drainage scheme," a plan or system by which water is drained from one or more parcels of real property onto one or more parcels of real property;

(8a) "Engineer," a professional, registered engineer;

(9) "Established water course," a fixed and determinate route, either natural or man-made, by which water has flowed from one parcel of real property to another and by which water has been discharged upon a servient estate for a period of time, on such a regular basis and in such quantities as to make it a predictably continuous activity;

(10) "Governing body," a board of county commissioners, a city council, or a city commission;

(11) "Landowner" or "owner," any individual, firm, or corporation, public or private, or public agency, who has legal title to real property as shown by the records of the register of deeds of the county in which the real property is situated. If the real property is sold under a contract for deed and the contract is of record in the office of the register of deeds for the respective county, both the recorded owner of the real property and the purchaser as named in the contract for deed are deemed owners of the real property;

(12) "Legal drain," a drain or drainage scheme that:

(a) Is vested under the provisions of this chapter and chapter 46A-11;

(b) Has been constructed by a person or by a unit of government under the provisions of past or present law; or

(c) Has been granted a drainage permit, if a permit is necessary under the provisions of this chapter and chapter 46A-11;

(13) "Municipality," a city or town, however organized, as defined in § 9-1-1;

(14) "Natural drain," a drainage system which operates as part of a natural water course, as defined in subdivision (15) of this section;

(15) "Natural water course," a fixed and determinate route by which water naturally flows from one parcel of real property to another due to the conformation of the land and by which water is discharged upon the land receiving the water. It is not necessary that the force of the flow of water be sufficient to form a channel having a well-defined bed or banks;

(16) "Official control," any ordinance, order, regulation, map, or procedure adopted by a board to regulate drainage;

(17) "Ordinance," any ordinance, as defined in subdivision 7-18A-1(2), adopted by a board to regulate drainage of both rural and urban areas to provide coordination of drainage projects, individual drainage efforts and drainage areas and to foster conformity with any county drainage plan;

(18) "Private drain," a drainage system or scheme designed, constructed, and maintained by a person primarily for his own benefit or a natural drain, whether or not actively maintained, that provides a benefit primarily to one person;

(19) "Rural" or "rural area," any territory outside a municipality as defined in § 9-1-1;

(20) "Servient estate," any parcel of real property, usually at a lower elevation, which is subject to a legal right allowing a dominant estate to drain water onto it;

(21) "Unit of local government," a municipality as defined in § 9-1-1, an irrigation district as defined in chapter 46A-4, a school district as defined in § 13-5-1, a water project district as defined in chapter 46A-18, a water user district as defined in § 46A-9-2, a township as defined in chapter 8-1, a sanitary district as defined in chapter 34A-5, a conservation district as defined in chapter 38-8 or other special district;

(22) "Vested right," a right of water drainage from one parcel of property to another which is settled or accrued to the property on the basis of state law; and

(23) "Water management board," the state board created in § 1-40-15.Source: SL 1985, ch 362, § 2.