New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 19 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND WILDLIFE › Chapter 8 - COAL MINING › Part 36 - NEW MEXICO COAL SURFACE MINING REGULATIONS [CSMC 1979-1] › Section 19.8.36.7 - DEFINITIONS: INITIAL REGULATORY PROGRAM

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A. DEFINITIONS (700.5): These definitions
				except as otherwise provided for in this section shall apply to Sections 15
				through 38 [now 19.8.36.7 NMAC, and 19.8.36.22 NMAC through 19.8.36.44 NMAC].
				*Corresponding section number of federal regulations is in parenthesis.
(1) Auger mining means a method of mining
				coal at a cliff or highwall by drilling holes laterally into an exposed coal
				seam from the highwall and transporting the coal along an auger bit to the
				surface.
(2) Coal means combustible
				carbonaceous rock, classified as anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, or
				lignite by A.S.T.M. designation 0-338-66.
(3) Director means the director, office of
				surface mining reclamation and enforcement, or his representative.
(4) Federal lands means any land, including
				mineral interests, owned by the United States without regard to how the United
				States acquired ownership of the lands and without regard to the agency having
				responsibility for management therof, except Indian lands; provided, that for
				the purposes of the Act lands or mineral interests east of the one-hundredth
				meridian west longitude owned by the United States and entrusted to or managed
				by the Tennessee Valley Authority are not subject to sections 714 (Surface
				Owner Protection); and 715 (Federal Lessee Protection) of the Act.
(5) Imminent danger to the health and safety
				to the public means the existence of any condition or practice, or any
				violation of a permit or other requirement of the Act in a surface coal mining
				and reclamation operation, which condition, practice or violation could
				reasonably be expected to cause substantial physical harm to persons outside
				the permit area before such condition, practice or violation can be abated. A
				reasonable expectation of death or serious injury before abatement exists if a
				rational person, subjected to the same condition or practice giving rise to the
				peril, would not expose himself or herself to the danger during the time
				necessary for abatement.
(6) Office
				means the office of surface mining reclamation and enforcement established
				under Title II of the Act.
(7)
				Operator means any person engaged in coal mining.
(8) Permit means a permit to conduct surface
				coal mining and reclamation operations issued by the state under state
				law.
(9) Permittee means any
				individual, partnership, association, society, joint stock company, firm,
				company, corporation, or other business organization holding a permit to
				conduct surface coal mining and reclamation operations issued by the state
				under state law.
(10) Person means
				an individual, partnership, association, society, joint stock company, firm,
				company, corporation, or other business organization.
(11) Secretary means the secretary of the
				Interior or his representative.
(12) Significant, imminent environmental harm
				to land, air or water resources is determined as follows:
(a) An environmental harm is any adverse
				impact on land, air or water resources, including but not limited to plant and
				animal life.
(b) An environmental
				harm is imminent if a condition, practice or violation exists which is causing
				such harm or may reasonably be expected to cause such harm at any time before
				the end of the reasonable abatement time that would be set under section
				521(a)(3) of the Act.
(c) An
				environmental harm is significant if that harm is appreciable and not
				immediately reparable.
(13) State program means a program
				established by a state pursuant to section 503 of the Act to regulate surface
				coal mining and reclamation operations on lands within such state in accord
				with the requirements of the Act and regulations issued by the secretary under
				the Act.
(14) State regulatory
				authority means the department or agency in each state which has primary
				responsibility at the State level for administering the Act under both the
				initial and permanent regulatory programs.
(15) Surface coal mining operations means:
				(a) activities conducted on the surface of lands in connection with a surface
				coal mine or subject to the requirements of Section 516 surface operations and
				surface impacts incident to an underground coal mine, the products of which
				enter commerce or the operations of which directly or indirectly affect
				interstate commerce. Such activities include excavation for the purpose of
				obtaining coal including such common methods as contour, strip, auger,
				mountaintop removal, box cut, open pit and area mining, the uses of explosives
				and blasting and in situ distillation or restoring, leaching or other chemical
				or physical processing, and the cleaning, concentrating or other processing or
				preparation, loading of coal for interstate commerce at or near the mine site;
				provided however, that such activities do not include the extraction of coal
				incidental to the extraction of other minerals where coal does not exceed 16
				2/3 per centum of the tonnage of minerals removed for purposes of commercial
				use or sale or coal exploration subject to Section 512 of the Act; and (b) the
				areas upon which such activities occur or where such activities disturb the
				natural land surface. Such area shall also include any adjacent land, the use
				of which is incidental to any such activities, all lands affected by the
				construction of new roads or the improvement or use of existing roads to gain
				access to the site of such activities and for haulage and excavation, workings,
				impoundments, dams, ventilation shafts, entryways, refuse banks, dumps, stock
				piles, overburden piles, spoil banks, culm banks, tailings, holes or
				depressions, repair areas, storage areas, processing areas, shipping areas and
				other areas upon which are sited structures, facilities or other property or
				material on the surface, resulting from or incident to such
				activities.
(16) Surface coal
				mining and reclamation operations means surface coal mining operations and all
				activities necessary and incidental to the reclamation of such operations. This
				term includes the term "surface coal mining operations.
(17) Ton means 2,000 pounds avoirdupois
				(.90718 metric ton).
(18) Approval
				of the state regulatory authority means approval by the chief of the bureau of
				surfacemining unless such approval is subsequently withdrawn by the
				commission.