Sec. 34.04.03.02. Definitions

A. In this chapter, the following terms have the meanings indicated.

B. Terms Defined.

(1) "Act" means State Finance and Procurement Article, §§5A-333-5A-346, Annotated Code of Maryland, and more specifically, State Finance and Procurement Article, §§5A-301, 5A-334, 5A-339, 5A-340, and 5A-341, Annotated Code of Maryland.

(2) "Applicant" means a person who has applied for a permit under these regulations.

(3) "Artifact" means any object or assemblage of objects found in an archeological context which yields or is likely to yield information of significance to the scientific study of human prehistory, history, or culture.

(4) "Artifact recovery" means the recovery of artifacts through excavation.

(5) "Beneath or substantially beneath" means permanently or periodically covered, in whole or in part, by water.

(6) "Board" means the Maryland Board of Public Works.

(7) "Code" means the Annotated Code of Maryland.

(8) "Commercial applicant" means an applicant for a permit under these regulations for purposes other than those of a noncommercial applicant, such as commercial salvage or income-producing purposes.

(9) "Data" means any recorded information, regardless of form or characteristics, related to the site of submerged archeological historic property which includes, without limitation, artifacts, drawings, remote sensing survey charts, magnetic tape records of positions, site maps, feature plans, photographs, measurements, and related information.

(10) Data Collection.

(a) "Data collection" means the accumulation of data through methods that do not include excavation.

(b) "Data collection" includes the collection of artifacts that are exposed or resting on, but not embedded in, submerged lands.

(11) "Data recovery" means a systematic study carried out in accordance with a research plan, which may include data collection, excavation, and artifact recovery.

(12) "Debris field" means the total area in which artifacts associated with a particular site are located.

(13) "Director" means the Director of the Trust or a designee of the Director.

(14) "Embedded" means firmly affixed in submerged lands such that the use of tools of excavation are required to move the bottom sediments in order to gain access to the submerged archeological historic property or any part of it.

(15) "Excavation" means the process of moving, removing, or disturbing bottom sediments to expose submerged archeological historic property through the use of tools other than those permitted under Regulation .03B(2) of this chapter.

(16) "Field archeologist" means an archeologist selected or employed by the permittee to supervise operations under a permit.

(17) "Immediate environment" means that area surrounding a submerged archeological historic property which, if disturbed, could result in substantive injury to the property, including, without limitation, the debris field.

(18) Intensive Survey.

(a) "Intensive survey" means a field and archival investigation of an area designed to gather and identify fully information about submerged archeological historic properties sufficient to evaluate them against National Register criteria of significance within specific historical contexts.

(b) "Intensive survey" may include data collection, test excavation, data recovery, and artifact recovery on a limited basis.

(19) "Lands controlled by the State" means lands to which the State has rights under a lease, option contract, or purchase contract.

(20) "Monitoring archeologist" means a maritime archeologist selected by the State Underwater Archeologist or employed by the Trust for the purpose of monitoring activity under a permit issued by the Trust under these regulations.

(21) "National Historic Landmark" means a historic property that the U.S. Secretary of the Interior has designated a National Historic Landmark under 16 U.S.C. §470a(a).

(22) "National Register" means the National Register of Historic Places, which is the national list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, or culture maintained by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior under 16 U.S.C. §470a(a).

(23) Noncommercial Applicant.

(a) "Noncommercial applicant" means a person who satisfies the provisions of §B(23)(b) of this regulation and is seeking a permit for the purpose of gathering data either for:

(i) Public exhibition, interpretation, or preservation and not for the purpose of producing income, profit, or gain; or

(ii) Mitigation of adverse effects of a proposed activity on submerged archeological historic property as described in Regulation .04B of this chapter.

(b) If the noncommercial applicant is other than an individual, no part of the net earnings of the applicant may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual holding an interest in the applicant.

(24) Object.

(a) "Object" means a material thing produced or resulting from human activity which has functional, aesthetic, cultural, historic, or scientific value.

(b) "Object" includes an artifact.

(25) "Permittee' means a person authorized and given an exclusive license by the Trust to conduct any activity requiring a permit under these regulations.

(26) "Person" means the federal government, the State, any county, municipal corporation, or other political subdivision of the State, or any of their units, or an individual, receiver, trustee, guardian, executor, administrator, fiduciary, or representative of any kind, or any partnership, firm, association, public or private corporation, or any other entity.

(27) "Program" means the Maryland Maritime Archeology Program of the Trust authorized by the Act and these regulations.

(28) "Reconnaissance survey" means a limited archival and field investigation, designed and accomplished in sufficient detail to make generalizations about the type, age, distribution, and value of an area's submerged archeological historic properties, which may include data collection but does not include excavation, data recovery, or artifact recovery.

(29) "Register" means the State Submerged Artifact Register established under Regulation .14 of this chapter.

(30) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Planning.

(31) "Site" means the location of a significant event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure including watercraft or shipwrecks, whether standing, ruined, or vanished, and its debris field where the location itself retains historical or archeological value regardless of the value of any existing structure.

(32) "State" means the State of Maryland.

(33) "State Underwater Archeologist" means the head of the Program as designated by the Secretary.

(34) "Structure" means a constructed work made up of interdependent and interrelated parts in a definite pattern of organization.

(35) "Submerged" means beneath or substantially beneath the territorial waters of the State or situated in or on submerged lands.

(36) "Submerged archeological historic property" means any submerged site, structure, watercraft, object, or remains which yields or is likely to yield information of significance to the scientific study of human prehistory, history, or culture and which:

(a) Satisfies the conditions set forth in Regulation .01A(3) and (4) of this chapter; and

(b) Does not fall within the exceptions contained in Regulation .01B(2) of this chapter.

(37) Submerged Lands.

(a) "Submerged lands" means all lands:

(i) Beneath or substantially beneath the territorial waters of the State; and

(ii) Owned or controlled by the State that are below nontidal waters.

(b) "Submerged lands" does not include lands transferred by the State by a valid grant, lease, patent, or grant confirmed by Article 5 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, to the extent of the interest transferred.

(38) "Substantively injure" or "substantive injury" means any action, disturbance, or influence which causes a change in the archeological context, the structural integrity, or the physical condition of a site to make it more vulnerable to loss, damage, destruction, or diminution of historic value.

(39) "Territorial waters" means the navigable waters of the State as defined in the federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, 43 U.S.C. §§2101-2106, and includes all:

(a) Tidal waters within the boundaries of the State up to but not above the mean high tide line and seaward to a line 3 geographical miles distant from the coast line of the State;

(b) Nontidal waters within the boundaries of the State that were navigable under the laws of the United States as of April 28, 1788, which is the date that Maryland ratified the U.S. Constitution, up to the ordinary high water mark as modified by accretion, erosion, and reliction.

(40) "Trust" means the Maryland Historical Trust, an agency within the Division of Historical and Cultural Programs of the Department of Planning.

(41) Undertaking.

(a) "Undertaking" means a project or activity by the Trust that involves or may lead to disturbance of submerged lands and that would otherwise require a permit under these regulations.

(b) "Undertaking" does not include activities which, in the Director's determination, should be conducted within 60 days in order to preserve submerged archeological historic property that is or may be of major scientific, archeological, anthropological, historical, recreational, or other public value and is threatened with imminent destruction or substantial damage.