Illinois Administrative Code › Title 62 - MINING › Part 300 - SURFACE MINED LAND CONSERVATION AND RECLAMATION ACT › Subpart A - SURFACE MINED LAND CONSERVATION AND RECLAMATION ACT › Section 300.10 - Introduction

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
a) Authority
This Subpart implements the Surface Mined Land Conservation
				  and Reclamation Act of 1971. This Part applies to all surface mining activity
				  conducted in the State. Any rules previously promulgated pursuant to the Act
				  are declared null and void on January 6, 1976. Upon approval, conditional or
				  unconditional, of the Illinois permanent program by the Secretary of the
				  Interior, the following rules and statutory provisions become inapplicable to
				  operations mining coal: Rules 201-5, 301-2, 401-3, 501-2, 601-2, 701-9, 801-2,
				  901-2, 1001-2, and 1201-3, and Sections 4, 5, 8, 11, and 12 of the Surface
				  Mined Land Conservation and Reclamation Act. Eight months after the date of
				  such approval, the remainder of this Part shall become inapplicable to
				  operations mining coal.
b)
				Definitions
Whenever used or referred to in this Subpart, unless a
				  different meaning clearly appears from the context:
"Acid forming materials" means those materials capable of
				  producing toxic conditions when exposed.
"Act" means the Surface Mined Land Conservation and
				  Reclamation Act (the Act).
"Affected land" in addition to the meaning described in the
				  Act means an area of land from which, on or after September 17, 1971,
				  overburden is removed for surface mining or upon which overburden or refuse is
				  deposited. It also means any area of land utilized at surface coal mines for
				  drainage ditches, haulage roads, earth stockpile areas, and borrow pits.
"Amendment" means any request by a holder of a surface mining
				  permit issued by the Department to the Department to change such permit by
				  adding or transferring acreage within a geographically distinct mining site
				  covered by that permit. This definition shall not be construed to include an
				  alteration or correction of an application for a permit under Section
				  300.20(e)(3)
				  of this Part.
"Area coal strip mines" means those mines whose operations
				  involve more than five cuts in an unmined topography with slopes less than 20%
				  grade.
"Boxcut" means the first open cut which results in the
				  placing of overburden on unmined land adjacent to the initial pit and normally
				  outside of the area to be mined.
"Consolidated materials" means materials of sufficient
				  hardness or ability to resist weathering and to inhibit erosion or
				  sloughing.
"Department" means Department of Natural Resources, or such
				  department, bureau, or commission as may lawfully succeed to the powers and
				  duties of such Department.
"Director" means the Director of the Department of Natural
				  Resources or such officer, bureau, or commission as may lawfully succeed to the
				  powers and duties of such Director.
"Final cut" means the last pit created in a surface mined
				  area.
"Geographically distinct mining site" means pit or pits
				  associated with the same processing plant, which have similar soil types,
				  vegetation, topography and land uses.
"Gob" means that portion of refuse consisting of waste coal,
				  rock, pyrites, slate, or other unmerchantable material of relatively large size
				  which is separated from the mineral in the cleaning process.
"Haulage road" means the area upon which the mined mineral is
				  moved by truck or other vehicles from the pit to either a preparation plant, or
				  to the nearest public road whenever a preparation plant is not used; but, in no
				  case, shall this definition be construed to include a public road.
"Highwall" means that side of the pit adjacent to unmined
				  land.
"Interested persons" means any individual, partnership,
				  corporation, association, or public or private organization which has made a
				  timely request to the Director for notice with respect to a public hearing
				  under Section 5(f) of the Act. This definition shall be construed to include
				  any county board which is entitled to notice under the Act or this Part.
"Operator" means any person, firm, partnership, or
				  corporation engaged in and controlling a surface mining operation, and includes
				  political subdivisions and instrumentalities of the State of Illinois.
"Overburden" means all of the earth and other materials which
				  lie above natural deposits of coal, clay, stone, sand, gravel, or other
				  minerals, and also means such earth and other materials disturbed from their
				  natural state in the process of surface mining.
"Permit period" means the period of time from the date of
				  issuance of the surface mining permit until the tenth succeeding June 30 or
				  until the termination date on the permit, if said date will occur prior to the
				  tenth succeeding June 30.
"Pit" means a tract of land, from which overburden has been
				  or is being removed for the purpose of surface mining.
"Reclamation" means conditioning areas affected by surface
				  mining to achieve the purpose of the Act and rules made pursuant
				  thereto.
"Record" means, in the case where a hearing is held, that
				  compilation of information presented to the Department in the matter,
				  including, but not limited to, the transcript of any hearing and any prehearing
				  conference held, submissions and documents, the original application for permit
				  and other pertinent materials; in the case where no hearing is held, "record"
				  means that compilation of information presented to the Department in the
				  matter.
"Refuse" means all waste materials directly connected with
				  the cleaning and preparation of minerals mined by surface mining and discarded
				  equipment and machinery.
"Slurry" means that portion of refuse separated from the
				  mineral in the cleaning process, consisting of fines and clays in the
				  preparation plant effluent, and which is readily pumpable.
"Surface mining" means the mining of any minerals by removing
				  the overburden lying above natural deposits thereof, and mining directly from
				  the natural deposits thereby exposed, or the deposition of overburden
				  therefrom.
"Surface mining permit" means a permit, granted by the
				  Department, to engage in surface mining.
"Toxic conditions" means any conditions that will not support
				  higher forms of plant or animal life in any place in connection with or as a
				  result of the completion of surface mining.