S.L. 549.166 Art. 2Interpretation.

(1) Unless otherwise stated in these regulations, the definitions in the Act shall apply.

(2) For the purpose of these regulations and unless the context otherwise requires: "the Act" means the Environment Protection Act;

"aquifer" means a subsurface layer or layers of rock or other geological strata of sufficient porosity and permeability to allow either a significant flow of groundwater or the abstraction of significant quantities of groundwater; "the Authority" means the Environment and Resources Authority established by article 6 of the Act; "body of groundwater" means a distinct volume of groundwater within an aquifer or aquifers; "contractor" means any person contracted by the Authority to carry out any task required under these regulations; "the Corporation" means the Water Services Corporation established by the Water Services Corporation Act; "domestic garden" means a garden that is not bigger than 1000 square metres and that is used solely in connection with a residential tenement whose produce is not sold;

"domestic groundwater source" means any groundwater source which is located in a residential tenement and where the groundwater abstracted is used or stated by the user to be used for one or more of the following purposes:

(a) household purposes; and, or

(b) swimming pools; and, or

(c) for irrigation of a domestic garden; and, or

(d) watering of animals kept as pets but this does not include dairies, piggeries, poultry or rabbit farms or any other intensive or commercial agricultural uses which shall be considered as commercial uses and shall be metered in accordance with the provisions of these regulations: Provided that when a groundwater source is used for any of the above purposes within a domestic garden bigger than 1000 square metres, than such a source shall not be considered as being a domestic groundwater source. The aforementioned 1000 square metres shall be calculated solely within the footprint of the land wherein the domestic groundwater source is located and shall include only ground containing soft-landscape materials;

"domestic purposes by the user’s household" means the use of any groundwater source which is located in a residential tenement and where the groundwater abstracted is used for household purposes, or for the irrigation of a garden which is not bigger than one thousand square metres (1000m2), or for watering of animals kept as pets; "groundwater" means all water which is below the surface of the ground in the saturation zone and in direct contact with the ground or subsoil; "groundwater source" means any shaft, adit, opening, hole, spring outlet or well artificially dug in the ground or artificially enlarged, which has access to groundwater or from which groundwater is extracted or can be extracted or which is vertically deeper than half the distance between the well head and the nearest water table at that point, but it does not include a water retaining cistern; "the Minister" means the Minister responsible for resources;

"officer" includes any person engaged by, detailed for duty with, or in any manner whatsoever performing duties for or on behalf of the Authority or the Corporation as the case may be; "perched aquifer" means an unconfined groundwater body sustained in the upper coralline limestone by an underlying layer of clay; "public water distribution network" shall have the meaning as it has in the Water Supply and Sewerage Services Regulations; "residential tenement" shall have the meaning as it has under the Water Supply Regulations; "saturated zone" means that part of an aquifer in which all interconnected openings within the geological formation are completely filled with water;

"soft-landscape materials" means each layer of the ecological sequence including aquatic plants, semi-aquatic plants, field layer plants (including grasses and herbaceous plants), shrubs and trees; "user" means the person who, solely or jointly with others, has the effective control of use over the land in which a groundwater source is situated, and for the purposes of these regulations effective control of use shall mean the occupancy of the land in question; "wellhead" means any apparatus, equipment and engineering works required by the Authority around and adjacent to a groundwater source for the protection of the groundwater source from pollution and includes the casing of the groundwater source.