Kentucky Administrative Regulations › Title 405 - ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT CABINET - DEPARTMENT FOR NATURAL RESOURCES › Chapter 16 - Performance Standards for Surface Mining Activities › Section 405 KAR 16:070 - Water quality standards and effluent limitations

Current through Register Vol. 51, No. 1, July 1, 2024
RELATES TO:
				KRS
				350.020,
				350.090,
				350.100,
				350.405,
				350.420,
				350.465
NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY: KRS Chapter 350 in
				pertinent part requires the cabinet to promulgate rules and administrative
				regulations establishing performance standards for protection of people and
				property, land, water and other natural resources, and aesthetic values, during
				surface mining activities and for restoration and reclamation of surface areas
				affected by mining activities. This administrative regulation identifies water
				quality standards and effluent limitations which must be met, identifies the
				waters to which they apply and the periods of time in which they apply,
				requires water treatment for sediment control, and provides certain
				exemptions.
Section 1. Water Quality
			 Standards and Effluent Limitations.
(1)
(a) All surface drainage from disturbed areas
			 shall be passed through a sedimentation pond or a series of sedimentation ponds
			 before leaving the permit area.
(b)
			 Sedimentation ponds and other treatment facilities shall be properly maintained
			 and shall not be removed until all disturbed areas in the drainage area above
			 the facility have been backfilled, graded and revegetated in accordance with
			 this chapter and:
1. The vegetation has
			 successfully survived two (2) years after the last augmented seeding;
2. The vegetation meets the ground cover
			 standards of
			 405 KAR 16:200;
			 and
3. The permittee has
			 demonstrated to the satisfaction of the cabinet that retention of the pond or
			 other treatment facility is not necessary in order to meet the requirements of
			 paragraph (g) of this subsection.
(c) The cabinet may grant exemptions from
			 these requirements only when:
1. The disturbed
			 drainage area is small; and
2. The
			 permittee demonstrates that sedimentation ponds and treatment facilities are
			 not necessary for drainage from the disturbed drainage areas to meet the
			 requirements of paragraph (g) of this subsection.
(d) For the purposes of this administrative
			 regulation, disturbed area shall not include those areas in which only
			 diversion ditches, sedimentation ponds, or roads are installed in accordance
			 with 405 KAR and the upstream area is not otherwise disturbed by the person who
			 conducts the surface mining activities.
(e) Sedimentation ponds required by this
			 section shall be constructed in accordance with
			 405 KAR
			 16:090 and
			 405 KAR
			 16:100, in appropriate locations before beginning any
			 surface mining activities in the drainage area to be affected.
(f) Where sedimentation ponds are located so
			 as to receive drainage both from disturbed areas and from other areas not
			 disturbed by current surface coal mining and reclamation operations, the mixed
			 drainage shall meet the requirements of paragraph (g) of this subsection, when
			 the mixed drainage leaves the permit area.
(g) Discharges of water from areas disturbed
			 by surface mining activities shall at all times be in compliance with all
			 applicable federal and state water quality standards and either:
1. If the operation does not have a KPDES
			 permit, the effluent limitations guidelines for coal mining promulgated by the
			 U.S. EPA in 40 CFR 434; or
2. The
			 effluent limitations established by the KPDES permit for the
			 operation.