Pennsylvania Code › Title 25 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Part I - Department of Environmental Protection › Subpart C - Protection of Natural Resources › Article I - Land Resources › Chapter 86 - SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND COAL MINING: GENERAL › Subchapter A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 86.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this
						  chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
						  otherwise:
ABS Legacy Sites
-Mine sites,
						  permitted under the Primacy Alternate Bonding System, that have a postmining
						  pollutional discharge where the operator has defaulted on its obligation to
						  adequately treat the discharge and, either the bond posted for the site is
						  insufficient to cover the cost of treating the discharge, or a trust to cover
						  the costs of treating the discharge was not fully funded and is insufficient to
						  cover the cost of treating the discharge.
Acts
-Include the following:
(i) The Surface Mining Conservation and
						Reclamation Act (52 P. S. §§
													1396.1-1396.19b).
(ii) The Air Pollution Control Act
						(35
						P. S. §§
													4001-4015).
(iii) The Clean Streams Law (35 P. S.
						§§
													691.1-691.1001).
(iv) The Coal Refuse Disposal Control Act
						(52
						P. S. §§
													30.51-30.66).
(v) Article XIX-A of The Administrative Code
						of 1929 (71 P. S. §§
													510-1-510-108).
(vi) The Bituminous Mine Subsidence and Land
						Conservation Act (52 P. S. §§
													1406.1-1406.21).
(vii) The Dam Safety and Encroachments Act
						(32
						P. S. §§
													693.1-693.27).
(viii) The Solid Waste Management Act
						(35
						P. S. §§
													6018.101-6018.1003).
(ix)  The Noncoal Surface Mining Conservation
						and Reclamation Act (52 P. S. §§
													3301-3326).
Applicant
-A person who seeks to obtain
						  a permit from the Department to conduct coal mining activities under this
						  chapter.
Application
-The documents and other
						  information filed with the Department for the issuance of a permit.
Bond
-A bond by which a permittee
						  assures faithful performance of the requirements of the acts, this chapter,
						  Chapters 87-90 and the requirements of the permit and reclamation plan.
Coal mining activity
-Surface mining
						  activities, underground mining activities, coal preparation activities or coal
						  refuse disposal activities as these terms are defined in this section.
Coal preparation activity
-An operation
						  in which coal is subject to chemical or physical processing or cleaning,
						  concentrating or other processing or preparation. The term includes a facility
						  associated with the coal preparation activity and the activity by which the
						  land surface has been or is disturbed as a result of or incidental to coal
						  preparation activity of the operator, including, but not limited to, the
						  following:
(i) Private ways and roads
						appurtenant to the area, land excavations and loading facilities.
(ii) Storage and stockpile
						facilities.
(iii) Sheds, shops and
						other buildings.
(iv) Water
						treatment and water storage facilities.
(v) Settling basins and
						impoundments.
(vi) Areas in which
						are situated facilities, equipment, machines, tools or other materials or
						property which result from or are used in the coal preparation
						activity.
Coal refuse disposal
						  activities
-Activities whereby a plot of land is used as a place for
						  disposing, dumping or storage of coal refuse. These areas may include land
						  thereby affected, including, but not limited to, a deposit of coal refuse on or
						  buried in the earth and intended as permanent disposal of or long-term storage
						  of the material, but not including coal refuse deposited within an active mine
						  itself or coal refuse never removed from a mine. The term includes activities
						  in which the natural land surface has been disturbed as a result of or
						  incidental to the coal refuse disposal activities of the operator, including,
						  but not limited to, private ways and roads appurtenant to the area, land
						  excavations, workings, tailings, repair areas, storage areas, processing areas,
						  shipping areas and areas in which structures, facilities, equipment, machines,
						  tools or other materials or property which result from or are used in coal
						  refuse disposal activities are situated.
Complete application
-An application
						  for a permit which contains an application form properly completed, signed and
						  witnessed, a filing fee, proof of publication, the standard reports or forms
						  required by the Department to process a permit and which demonstrates
						  compliance with applicable statutes and regulations.
Cumulative measurement period
-For
						  purposes of §
												86.5 (relating to extraction of
						  coal incidental to noncoal surface mining), the period of time over which both
						  cumulative production and cumulative revenue are measured.
Cumulative production
-For purposes of
						  §
												86.5, the total tonnage of coal or
						  other minerals extracted from a mining area during the cumulative measurement
						  period. The inclusion of stockpiled coal and other mineral tonnages in this
						  total is governed by §
												86.5 (k).
Cumulative revenue
-For purposes of
						  § 86.5, the total revenue derived from the sale of coal or other minerals
						  and the fair market value of coal or other minerals transferred or used, but
						  not sold, during the cumulative measurement period.
Entity
-A person including, but not
						  limited to, a corporation, association, general and limited partnership, agency
						  and instrumentality of Federal or State government, contractor, operator,
						  permit holder and other forms of business organization.
Existing structure
-A structure or
						  facility used in connection with or to facilitate coal mining activities for
						  which construction began prior to the effective date of this chapter.
General area
-The topographic and
						  groundwater basin, with respect to hydrology, surrounding a permit area which
						  is of sufficient size, including areal extent and depth, to include one or more
						  watersheds containing perennial streams and groundwater zones and to allow
						  assessment of the probable cumulative impacts on the quality and quantity of
						  surface water and groundwater systems in the basins.
Groundwater
-Subsurface waters of the
						  Commonwealth.
Historically used for
						  cropland
-Includes the following:
(i) Lands that have been used for cropland
						for any 5 years or more out of the 10 years immediately preceding the
						acquisition, including purchase, lease or option, of the land for the purpose
						of conducting or allowing through resale, lease or option the conduct of coal
						mining activities.
(ii) Lands that
						the Department determines, on the basis of additional cropland history of the
						surrounding lands and the lands under consideration, that the permit area is
						clearly cropland but falls outside the specific 5-years-in-10 criterion, in
						which case the regulations for prime farmland may be applied to include more
						years of cropland history only to increase the prime farmland acreage to be
						preserved.
(iii) Lands that would
						likely have been used as cropland for any 5 out of the last 10 years
						immediately preceding the acquisition but for the same fact of ownership or
						control of the land unrelated to the productivity of the land.
Historic resource
-A building,
						  structure, object, district, place, site or area significant in the history,
						  architecture, maritime heritage, archaeology or culture of this Commonwealth,
						  its communities or the Nation. The term includes the terms "cultural resource,"
						  "archaeological resource," "historic place," "historic property,"
						  "archaeological site" and "archaeological property" as used in this chapter and
						  Chapters 87-90.
Interim permit
-A permit issued by the
						  Department prior to the effective date of this chapter and in accordance with
						  the requirements of Chapter 13 (relating to compliance with the Surface Mining
						  Control and Reclamation Act of 1977).
Landowner
-The person or municipality
						  in whom legal title to the land is vested.
Land use
-A specific use or
						  management-related activity, rather than the vegetation or cover of the land.
						  Land uses may be identified in combination when joint or seasonal uses occur.
MSHA
-The Mine Safety and Health
						  Administration of the United States Department of Labor.
Major permit revision
-A revision to a
						  coal mining permit that requires public notice.
Mining area
-For purposes of §
						  86.5, an individual excavation site or pit from which coal, other minerals and
						  overburden are removed.
Municipality
-A county, city, borough,
						  town, township, school district, institution or an authority created by any one
						  or more of the foregoing.
Occupied dwellings
-A permanent
						  building or fixed mobile home that is currently being used on a regular or
						  temporary basis for human habitation.
Operational area
-The maximum portion
						  of the permitted area that the permittee is authorized to disturb at any
						  specific time during the permit term in accordance with the approved mining and
						  reclamation plan, including all of the land affected by mining activities that
						  is not planted, growing and stabilized.
Operation and maintenance
						  costs
-Expenses associated with the day-to-day operation and
						  maintenance of a conventional or a passive treatment facility, such as
						  chemicals, electricity, labor, water sampling, sludge removal and disposal,
						  maintenance of access roads, mowing, snow removal, inspecting facilities,
						  repairing and maintaining all aspects of the treatment facility, equipment and
						  buildings.
Operator
-A person or municipality
						  engaged in coal mining activities as a principal as distinguished from an agent
						  or independent contractor. When more than one person is engaged in coal mining
						  activities in a single operation, they shall be deemed jointly and severally
						  responsible for compliance with the provisions of the Surface Mining
						  Conservation and Reclamation Act, The Clean Streams Law, the Coal Refuse
						  Disposal Control Act and The Bituminous Mine Subsidence and Land Conservation
						  Act.
Other minerals
-For purposes of §
						  86.5, a commercially valuable substance mined for its mineral value, excluding
						  coal, topsoil, waste and fill material.
Owned or controlled
and
owns
						  or controls
-One or a combination of the relationships specified in
						  subparagraphs (i)-(iv):
(i) Being a
						permittee of a coal mining activity.
(ii) Based on instruments of ownership or
						voting securities, owning of record in excess of 50% of an entity.
(iii) The following relationships are
						presumed to constitute ownership or control unless a person can demonstrate
						that the person subject to the presumption does not in fact have the authority
						directly or indirectly to determine the manner in which the relevant coal
						mining activity is conducted:
(A) Being an
						officer or director of an entity.
(B) Being the operator or contractor of a
						coal mining activity.
(C) Having the
						ability to commit the financial or real property assets or working resources of
						an entity.
(D) Being a general
						partner in a partnership.
(E) Based
						on the instruments of ownership or the voting securities of a corporate entity,
						owning of record a percentage of the entity as established in the definition of
						"own, owner, or ownership" in
						30 CFR
						701.5 (relating to definitions).
(F) Owning or controlling coal to be mined by
						another person under a lease, sublease or other contract and having the right
						to receive the coal after mining or having authority to determine the manner in
						which that person or another person conducts a coal mining
						activity.