As used in this subpart, the term:

(a) Authorized officer means any employee of the Bureau of Land Management who has been delegated the authority to perform the duties described in this subpart.

(b) Accreted lands have the meaning imparted to them by applicable law. In general, they are lands that have been gradually and imperceptibly formed along the banks of a body of water by deposition of water-borne soil.

(c) Avulsed lands have the meaning imparted to them by applicable law. In general, they are lands that have been uncovered by a relatively sudden change in alignment of the channel of a river, or by a comparable change in some other body of water, or that remain as uplands following such a change, or that are located in the bed of the new channel.

(d) Actual shoreline means the line which is washed by the water wherever it covers the bed of a body of water at its mean high water level.

(e) Lands means lands and interests in lands now or formerly forming a part of the reserved or unreserved public lands of the contiguous 48 States and Alaska and as to any coastal State, includes submerged lands inside of the seaward boundary of the State.

(f) Meander line means a survey line established for the purpose of representing the location of the actual shoreline of a permanent natural body of water, without showing all the details of its windings and irregularities. A meander line rarely runs straight for any substantial distance. It is established not as a boundary line but in order to permit calculation of the quantity of lands in the fractional sections remaining after segregation of the water area.

(g) Relicted lands have the meaning imparted that term by applicable law. In general, they are lands gradually uncovered when water recedes permanently.

(h) State means “the state and any of its creations including any governmental instrumentality within a state, including cities, counties, or other official local governmental entities.”