As used in this part:

    (a) "Benefit" or "benefits" means advantages resulting from a project to public corporations, the inhabitants of public corporations, the inhabitants of this state, and property within public corporations. Benefit includes benefits that result from elimination of pollution and elimination of flood damage, elimination of water conditions that jeopardize the public health or safety; increase of the value or use of lands and property arising from improving a lake or lakes as a result of the lake project and the improvement or development of a lake for conservation of fish and wildlife and the use, improvement, or development of a lake for fishing, wildlife, boating, swimming, or any other recreational, agricultural, or conservation uses.

    (b) "Inland lake" means a public inland lake or a private inland lake.

    (c) "Interested person" means a person who has a record interest in the title to, right of ingress to, or reversionary right to a piece or parcel of land that would be affected by a permanent change in the bottomland of a natural or artificial, public or private inland lake, or adjacent wetland. In all cases, whether having such an interest or not, the department is an interested person.

    (d) "Local governing body" means the legislative body of a local unit of government.

    (e) "Preliminary costs" includes costs of the engineering feasibility report, economic study, estimate of total cost, and cost of setting up the assessment district.

    (f) "Private inland lake" means an inland lake other than a public inland lake.

    (g) "Public inland lake" means a lake that is accessible to the public by publicly owned lands or highways contiguous to publicly owned lands or by the bed of a stream, except the Great Lakes and connecting waters.