OAR 345-001-0010: Definitions

In this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise or a term is specifically defined within a division or a rule, terms have the meaning provided in ORS 469.300 and the following definitions: (1) “Analysis area” means the area or areas specifically described in the project order issued under OAR 345-015-0160(1), containing resources that the proposed facility may significantly affect. The analysis area is the area for which the applicant must describe the proposed facility’s impacts in the application for a site certificate. A proposed facility might have different analysis areas for different types of resources. For the purpose of submitting an application for a site certificate in an expedited review granted under 345-015-0300 or 345-015-0310, the analysis areas are the study areas defined in this rule, subject to modification in the project order. (2) “Applicant” as defined in ORS 469.300 or, if an application has not been submitted, a person who has submitted, or intends to submit, a notice of intent or a request for expedited review. (3) “Background radiation” means the direct radiation (gamma) and concentrations of potential radionuclide contaminants in construction materials and the environment in the vicinity of the plant not associated with the nuclear operation and retirement of the facility. Background must be determined as follows: (a) For direct radiation, the results of any background measurements taken prior to operation of the facility must be provided and 6 to 10 measurements must be taken in areas in the vicinity of the site with materials and/or geological formations representative of the site that have not been affected by the operation and retirement of the facility. Background must be calculated at the average and at the 95% confidence level. (b) Environmental samples must be taken for soil, sediment, water, and other materials present at the facility site that could have been affected by facility operations and retirement. Measurements for these samples must be calculated at the average and 95% confidence levels, based on 6 to 10 measurements. Background environmental samples must be taken at locations on site or in the immediate vicinity of the site which are unaffected by plant operations. Background must be calculated at the average and 95% confidence levels, based on 6 to 10 measurements at each location. (c) For construction material such as concrete, asphalt, block, brick and other materials used to construct the buildings and systems at the site, representative samples of materials unaffected by site operations must be selected and surveyed. Six to ten samples of each material must be taken to determine the level of naturally occurring and artificially induced concentrations of naturally occurring radioactivity present. Measurements must include direct radiation (beta-gamma and alpha), wipes and qualitative and quantitative laboratory analyses. Concentrations of fission and activation products from historical fallout must be characterized as well. (d) All measurements must be made using appropriate instruments, properly calibrated, and in sufficient number to determine compliance with requirements. (4) “Certificate holder” means the person to whom a site certificate has been granted by the Council pursuant to this chapter. (5) “Chair” means the chair of the Energy Facility Siting Council. (6) “Committed firm energy and capacity resources” means generating facilities or power purchase contracts that are assured to be available to the energy supplier over a defined time period. Committed firm energy and capacity resources include existing generating facilities, existing power purchase contracts and planned generating facilities that sponsors have made firm commitments to develop. (7) “Corridor” means a continuous area of land not more than one-half mile in width and running the entire length of a proposed transmission line or pipeline. “Micrositing corridor” is defined below in this rule. (8) “Council” means the Energy Facility Siting Council established under ORS 469.450. (9) “Council Secretary” means the person designated by the Director of the Oregon Department of Energy to serve as secretary to the Council. (10) “Department” means the Oregon Department of Energy created under ORS 469.030. (11) “Direct cost” means the discounted sum of all monetary costs to the ultimate consumer over the lifetime of the facility or resource plan or resource strategy. (12) “Energy facility” includes: (a) An energy facility as defined in ORS 469.300; (b) A small generating plant for which an applicant must have a site certificate according to OAR 345-001-0210; and (c) A facility for which a developer or governing body has elected to defer regulatory authority to the Council under ORS 469.320(8). (13) “Energy supplier” means: (a) A retail electric utility, a federal power marketing agency, or a local gas distribution company, or (b) A person or public agency generating electric energy for its own consumption, lawfully purchasing electric energy directly from a generator for its own consumption, or transmitting or distributing natural or synthetic gas from an energy facility for its own consumption. (14) “Existing corridor,” as used in ORS 469.300 and 469.442, means the right-of-way of an existing transmission line, not to exceed 100 feet on either side of the physical center line of the transmission line or 100 feet from the physical center line of the outside lines if the corridor contains more than one transmission line. (15) “Facility” as defined in ORS 469.300 or a small generating plant for which an applicant must have a site certificate according to OAR 345-001-0210 together with any related or supporting facilities. (16) “Facility substantially similar to the proposed facility” means: (a) A facility that uses the same fuel and substantially similar technology, that has substantially the same in-service date, and that has a direct cost not substantially greater than that of the proposed facility; or (b) A facility that is demonstrated to provide as good a mix of reliability, compatibility with the power system, strategic flexibility, environmental impact and direct cost as the proposed facility taking into account reasonable trade-offs among such factors. (17) “Fossil fuel” means natural gas, petroleum, coal and any form of solid, liquid or gaseous fuel derived from such materials that is used to produce useful energy. (18) “Fuel chargeable to power heat rate” means the net heat rate of electric power production during the first twelve months of commercial operation. A fuel chargeable to power heat rate is calculated with all factors adjusted to the average temperature, barometric pressure and relative humidity at the site during the times of the year when the facility is intended to operate using the formula, FCP = (FI - FD)/ P, where: (a) FCP = Fuel chargeable to power heat rate. (b) FI = Annual fuel input to the facility applicable to the cogeneration process in British thermal units (higher heating value). (c) FD = Annual fuel displaced in any industrial or commercial process, heating, or cooling application by supplying useful thermal energy from a cogeneration facility instead of from an alternate source, in British thermal units (higher heating value). (d) P = Annual net electric output of the cogeneration facility in kilowatt-hours. (19) “High efficiency cogeneration facility” means an energy facility, except coal and nuclear power plants, that sequentially produces electrical and useful thermal energy from the same fuel source and under average annual operating conditions: (a) Has a nominal electric generating capacity of less than 50 megawatts and the fuel chargeable to power heat rate value is not greater than 5000 Btu per kilowatt-hour (higher heating value); or (b) Has a nominal electric generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more and the fuel chargeable to power heat rate value is not greater than 4800 Btu per kilowatt-hour (higher heating value). (20) “Land use approval” means a final quasi-judicial decision or determination made by a local government that: (a) Applies existing comprehensive plan provisions or land use regulations to a proposed facility; (b) Amends a comprehensive plan map or zoning map to accommodate a proposed facility; (c) Amends comprehensive plan text or land use regulations to accommodate a proposed facility; (d) Applies the statewide planning goals to a proposed facility; or (e) Takes an exception to the statewide planning goals adopted by the Land Conservation and Development Commission for a proposed facility. (21) “Micrositing corridor” means a continuous area of land within which construction of facility components may occur, subject to site certificate conditions. (22) “Mitigation” means taking one or more of the following actions listed in order of priority: (a) Avoiding the impact altogether by not taking a certain action or parts of an action; (b) Minimizing impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action and its implementation; (c) Partially or completely rectifying the impact by repairing, rehabilitating or restoring the affected environment; (d) Reducing or eliminating the impact over time by preservation and maintenance operations during the life of the action by monitoring and taking appropriate corrective measures; (e) Partially or completely compensating for the impact by replacing or providing comparable substitute resources or environments; or (f) Implementing other measures approved by the Council. (23) “Net electric power output” means the electric power produced or capacity made available for use. Calculation of net electric power output subtracts losses from on-site transformers and power used for any on-site electrical loads from gross capacity as measured or estimated at the generator terminals for each generating unit. (24) “Owner” means owner or lessee under a capital lease. (25) “Permit” means any permit, license, certificate or other approval required by federal law, state statute, state administrative rule or local government ordinance. (26) “Protected Area” means an area designated as one or more of the following: (a) A National Park or other unit of the National Park System described under 54 U.S.C. 100501; (b) A National Monument established under 54 U.S.C. 320301 or by an act of Congress; (c) A Wilderness Area established under 16 U.S.C 1131 et seq. or by an act of Congress; (d) A Wild, Scenic, or Recreational River included in the National Wild and Scenic River System under 16 U.S.C. 1271 et seq.; (e) A National Wildlife Refuge included in the National Wildlife Refuge System described under 16 U.S.C. 668dd; (f) A National Fish Hatchery established under 16 U.S.C. 760aa; (g) A National Recreation area, National Scenic area, or Special Resources Management Unit established by an act of Congress; (h) A Wilderness Study Area established under 43 U.S.C. 1782; (i) Land designated in a federal land management plan or by an act of Congress as: (A) An Area of Critical Environmental Concern; (B) An Outstanding Natural Area; (C) A Research Natural Area; (D) An Experimental Forest or Range; or (E) A Special Interest Area designated for scenic, geologic, botanic, zoologic, paleontological, archaeological, historic, or recreational values, or combinations of these values; (j) A state park, wayside, corridor, monument, historic, or recreation area under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department; (k) The Willamette River Greenway created under ORS 390.310 to 390.368; (l) A natural area listed in the Oregon Register of Natural Areas under ORS 273.581; (m) The South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, described under ORS 273.553; (n) A State Scenic Waterway designated under ORS 390.805 to 390.925 and related adjacent lands; (o) A state wildlife refuge or management area identified in OAR chapter 635, division 008; (p) A fish hatchery operated by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; (q) An agricultural experiment station, experimental area, or research center established by Oregon State University under ORS chapter 567; or (r) A research forest established by Oregon State University under ORS 526.215. (27) “Related or supporting facilities” as defined in ORS 469.300. The Council interprets the terms “proposed to be constructed in connection with” to mean that a structure is a related or supporting facility if it would not be built but for construction or operation of the energy facility. “Related or supporting facilities” does not include any structure existing prior to construction of the energy facility, unless such structure must be substantially modified solely to serve the energy facility. (28) “Reviewing agency” means any of the following officers, agencies or tribes: (a) The Department of Environmental Quality; (b) The Water Resources Commission and the Water Resources Director through the Water Resources Department; (c) The Fish and Wildlife Commission through the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; (d) The State Geologist; (e) The Department of Forestry; (f) The Public Utility Commission of Oregon; (g) The Oregon Department of Agriculture; (h) The Department of Land Conservation and Development; (i) The Oregon Department of Aviation; (j) The Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council; (k) The Office of State Fire Marshal; (l) The Department of State Lands; (m) The State Historic Preservation Office; (n) Any other agency identified by the Department; (o) Any tribe identified by the Legislative Commission on Indian Services as affected by the proposed facility; (p) The governing body of any incorporated city or county in Oregon within the study area as defined in OAR 345-001-0010 for impacts to public services; (q) Any special advisory group designated by the Department under OAR 345-015-0115; and (r) The federal land management agency with jurisdiction if any part of the proposed site is on federal land. (29) “Significant” means having an important consequence, either alone or in combination with other factors, based upon the magnitude and likelihood of the impact on the affected human population or natural resources, or on the importance of the natural resource affected, considering the context of the action or impact, its intensity and the degree to which possible impacts are caused by the proposed action. Nothing in this definition is intended to require a statistical analysis of the magnitude or likelihood of a particular impact. (30) “Site” as defined in ORS 469.300. “Energy facility site” means all land upon which an energy facility is located or proposed to be located. “Related or supporting facilities site” means all land upon which related or supporting facilities for an energy facility are located or proposed to be located. (31) “Site boundary” means the perimeter of the site of a proposed energy facility, its related or supporting facilities, all temporary laydown and staging areas and all corridors and micrositing corridors proposed by the applicant. (32) “Solar photovoltaic power generation facility” includes, but is not limited to, an assembly of equipment that converts sunlight into electricity and then stores or transfers that electricity. This includes photovoltaic modules, mounting and tracking equipment, posts, electrical cabling, inverters, transformers, collection systems, fencing, and other components. (a) For the purposes of applying the acreage standards of ORS 469.300(11)(a)(D), the land used by a solar photovoltaic power generation facility includes the land occupied by its related or supporting facilities. Related or supporting facilities are not otherwise considered to be components of the solar photovoltaic power generation facility; (b) A proposed solar photovoltaic power generation project may be determined to be an expansion of any existing or proposed solar photovoltaic power generation facility that is: (A) Within one mile of the proposed project; and (B) Determined to be under common ownership with the proposed project. Projects connected to the same parent company or individuals will be considered to be in common ownership, regardless of the operating business structure; (c) As used in this rule and OAR 345-001-0250, a “proposed solar photovoltaic power generation project” means: (A) The proposed development of a separate and independent solar photovoltaic power generation facility; or (B) The proposed expansion or modification of a proposed or existing solar photovoltaic power generation facility. (33) “Special nuclear material” means plutonium, uranium-233 or uranium enriched in the isotope 233 or in the isotope 235. (34) “Strategic flexibility” means the value of a resource as part of a strategy to manage variance in costs or risks caused by future uncertainty. (35) “Study area” means an area defined in this rule. Except as specified in subsections (f) and (g), the study area is an area that includes all the area within the site boundary and the area within the following distances from the site boundary: (a) For impacts to threatened and endangered plant and animal species, 5 miles. (b) For impacts to scenic resources and to public services, 10 miles. (c) For land use impacts, wildfire risk, and impacts to fish and wildlife habitat, one-half mile. (d) For impacts to recreational opportunities, 5 miles. (e) For impacts to protected areas described in OAR 345-022-0040, 20 miles. (f) The distance stated in subsection (a) above does not apply to surface facilities related to an underground gas storage reservoir. (g) The distances stated in subsections (a) and (d) above do not apply to pipelines or transmission lines. (36) “Substantial loss of steam host” means the thermal energy user associated with a high efficiency cogeneration facility has made such long-term changes in its manner and magnitude of operation as to result in the loss of one or more work shifts for at least a year, accompanied by at least a 30 percent resultant reduction in the use of thermal energy. (37) “Substantial loss of fuel use efficiency” means an increase in the fuel chargeable to power heat rate at a high efficiency cogeneration facility to greater than 7000 Btu per kilowatt-hour (higher heating value), or reduction of the fraction of energy output going to the thermal energy user associated with the facility to less than 20 percent, as a result of a substantial loss of steam host. Substantial loss of fuel use efficiency does not include efficiency losses due to equipment wear or condition. (38) “Surface facilities related to an underground gas storage reservoir” means structures or equipment adjacent to and associated with an underground gas storage reservoir that are proposed to be built in connection with an underground gas storage reservoir and include, but are not limited to: (a) Facilities such as stripping plants, main line dehydration stations, offices, warehouses, equipment shops, odorant storage and injection equipment and compressors; (b) Pipelines, such as gathering lines and liquid collection lines; and (c) Roads and road maintenance equipment housing at the reservoir site. (39) “Total energy output” means the sum of useful thermal energy output and useful electrical energy output. (40) “Useful thermal energy” means the verifiable thermal energy used in any industrial or commercial process, heating or cooling application; (41) “Vice-chair” means the vice-chair of the Energy Facility Siting Council.