Purpose
Oregon’s Removal-Fill Law (ORS 196.795-990) requires any person who plans to “remove or fill” material within “waters of the state” to obtain a permit from the Department of State Lands. Removal means taking rock, gravel, sand, silt, other inorganic substances, and large woody debris from the bed or banks of a waterway or their movement by artificial means within the beds or banks, including channel relocation. Fill means the deposit by artificial means of any material (organic or inorganic) at any one location in the bed or banks. Waters of the state include wetlands on private and public land.
Responsibility
The Designer is responsible to determine if a DSL Permit is required. To determine whether or not a DSL Permit is required please
Process
The first step is to identify all waters of the state, including wetlands, on the project site, called a jurisdictional determination.
In general, the removal, fill, or alteration of materials equaling 50 cubic yards or more within waters of the state, as described below, are required to obtain a DSL permit.Any removal, fill, or alteration of materials requires a permit if it is within streams designated as essential salmon habitat or is located within ¼ mile of a state scenic waterway.
If work is proposed within navigable waterways, a joint DSL/OMB permit will be required.
If a permit is required, there are various types of permits available. View https://www.oregon.gov/dsl/WW/Documents/rf_brochure.pdf for additional information.
The types of “waters of the state” include:
- Pacific Ocean: extreme low tide to 3 miles out
- Tidal Bays and Estuaries: highest measured tide or upper edge of wetland
- Perennial Streams, Lakes and Ponds: to ordinary high water
- Intermittent Streams: to ordinary high water
- Wetlands: wetland boundary as determined by delineation report
- Artificial Ponds and Ditches: ordinary high water
- Artificial Wetlands: wetland boundary
- Reservoirs: normal operating pool level or upper edge of adjacent wetland