DEFINITIONS

In this chapter: (1) "Buffer zone" means a strip of land adjoining a wetland mitigation bank to protect the wetland habitat and wildlife within the bank from the impact of an activity outside the zone. The term includes a strip of land composed primarily of water or a strip of land that includes a fence, wall, or screen of vegetation. (2) "Eligible political subdivision" means: (A) a county with a population of 3.3 million or more or a county adjacent to such a county; or (B) a conservation and reclamation district: (i) that is established under Section 59, Article XVI, Texas Constitution; (ii) the boundaries of which are within a county that has a population of 3.3 million or more; and (iii) that is authorized under other law to participate in a program under this chapter. (3) "Federal requirement" means a requirement of the federal government contained in a statute, regulation, or guideline for an eligible mitigation bank program or a wetland regulation program. (4) "Mitigation bank" means a parcel of land that has undergone or is proposed to undergo a physical change necessary to create or optimize the acreage or quality of wetland habitat on the parcel expressly to provide a mitigation credit to offset an adverse impact to wetland caused by an approved project located elsewhere. (5) "Mitigation credit" means a unit of measured area that supports wetland habitat or wetland habitat value that did not exist at the mitigation bank site before the mitigation bank was developed. (6) "Wetland" means land that: (A) has a predominance of hydric soil; (B) is inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions; and (C) under normal circumstances does support a prevalence of that vegetation. (7) "Wetland regulation program" means a program of the state, a state agency, or an eligible political subdivision under which the state, agency, or subdivision administers its own individual or general permit program regulating the use of wetland.