OAR 603-095-3840: Required Prevention and Control Measures

(1) All landowners or operators conducting activities on lands in agricultural use will comply with the criteria listed below. A landowner is only responsible for those conditions resulting from activities caused by the landowner. A landowner is not responsible for conditions resulting from actions by another landowner on other lands. A landowner is not responsible for conditions resulting from unusual weather events (such as would be expected to follow a 25-year, 24-hour storm) or other exceptional circumstances that could not have been reasonably anticipated. A landowner is not responsible for natural increases in nutrient loading or temperature increases resulting from natural or off-property conditions. (2) Streamside Vegetation (a) Landowners or operators must allow vegetation, consistent with site capability, to establish and grow along perennial and intermittent streams to protect water quality by providing shade, filtering out pollutants from surface runoff, and protecting streambank integrity during high stream flows. (b) If any agricultural activity disturbs streamside vegetation to impair the conditions and functions described in 603-095-3840(2)(a), the landowner or operator must replant or restore the disturbed area with vegetation that will provide the functions required in 603-095-3840(2)(a). (c) Exemptions from OAR 603-095-3840 2(a): (A) Limited duration agricultural activities such as livestock crossings or riparian grazing provided they do not compromise achieving the conditions described in 603-095-3840(2)(a). (B) Ponds which are not hydrologically connected to surface water. (C) Constructed irrigation delivery and drainage systems. (D) Levees and dikes. (E) Drainage areas where the only connection to other waterbodies is through pumps. (3) Effective upon adoption, no person subject to these rules shall violate any provision of ORS 468B.025 or ORS 468B.050.