Texas Administrative Code › Title 30 - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY › Part 1 - TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY › Chapter 311 - WATERSHED PROTECTION RULES › Subchapter H - REGULATION OF QUARRIES IN THE JOHN GRAVES SCENIC RIVERWAY › Section 311.71 - Definitions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in the subchapter,
					 have the following meanings.
(1)
				  25-year, 24-hour rainfall event--The maximum rainfall event with a probable
				  recurrence interval of once in 25 years, with a duration of 24 hours, as
				  defined by the National Weather Service and Technical Paper Number 40,
				  "Rainfall Frequency Atlas of the U.S.," May 1961, and subsequent amendments; or
				  equivalent regional or state rainfall information.
(2) Aggregates--Any commonly recognized
				  construction material originating from a quarry or pit by the disturbance of
				  the surface, including dirt, soil, rock asphalt, granite, gravel, gypsum,
				  marble, sand, stone, caliche, limestone, dolomite, rock, riprap, or other
				  nonmineral substance. The term does not include clay or shale mined for use in
				  manufacturing structural clay products.
(3) Aquifer--A saturated permeable geologic
				  unit that can transmit, store, and yield to a well, the quality and quantities
				  of groundwater sufficient to provide for a beneficial use. An aquifer can be
				  composed of unconsolidated sands and gravels; permeable sedimentary rocks, such
				  as sandstones and limestones; and/or heavily fractured volcanic and crystalline
				  rocks. Groundwater within an aquifer can be confined, unconfined, or
				  perched.
(4) Best management
				  practices--Any prohibition, management practice, maintenance procedure, or
				  schedule of activity designed to prevent or reduce the pollution of water in
				  the state. Best management practices include treatment, specified operating
				  procedures, and practices to control site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or
				  waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage areas.
(5) John Graves Scenic Riverway--That portion
				  of the Brazos River Basin and its contributing watershed, located downstream of
				  the Morris Shepard Dam on the Possum Kingdom Reservoir in Palo Pinto County,
				  Texas, and extending to the county line between Parker and Hood Counties,
				  Texas.
(6) Natural hazard
				  lands--Geographic areas in which natural conditions exist that pose or, as a
				  result of quarry operations, may pose a threat to the health, safety, or
				  welfare of people, property, or the environment, including areas subject to
				  landslides, cave-ins, large or encroaching sand dunes, severe wind or soil
				  erosion, frequent flooding, avalanches, and areas of unstable
				  geology.
(7) Navigable--Designated
				  by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as perennial on the most recent
				  topographic map(s) published by the USGS, at a scale of 1:24,000.
(8) Operator--Any person engaged in or
				  responsible for the physical operation and control of a quarry.
(9) Overburden--All materials displaced in an
				  aggregates extraction operation that are not, or reasonably would not be
				  expected to be, removed from the affected area.
(10) Owner--Any person having title, wholly
				  or partly, to the land on which a quarry exists or has existed.
(11) Pit--An open excavation from which
				  aggregates have been, or are being, extracted with a depth of five feet or more
				  below the adjacent and natural ground level.
(12) Quarry--The site from which aggregates
				  for commercial sale are being, or have been, removed or extracted from the
				  earth to form a pit, including the entire excavation, stripped areas, haulage
				  ramps, and the immediately adjacent land on which the plant processing the raw
				  materials is located. The term does not include any land owned or leased by the
				  responsible party not being currently used in the production of aggregates for
				  commercial sale or an excavation to mine clay or shale for use in manufacturing
				  structural clay products.
(13)
				  Quarrying--The current and ongoing surface excavation and development without
				  shafts, drafts, or tunnels, with or without slopes, for the extraction of
				  aggregates for commercial sale from natural deposits occurring in the
				  earth.
(14) Reclamation--The land
				  treatment processes designed to minimize degradation of water quality, damage
				  to fish or wildlife habitat, erosion, and other adverse effects from quarries.
				  Reclamation includes backfilling, soil stabilization and compacting, grading,
				  erosion control measures, appropriate revegetation, or other measures, as
				  appropriate.
(15) Responsible
				  party--Any owner, operator, lessor, or lessee who is primarily responsible for
				  overall function and operation of a quarry located in the water quality
				  protection area as defined in this section.
(16) Restoration--Those actions necessary to
				  change the physical, chemical, and/or biological qualities of a receiving water
				  body in order to return the water body to its background condition. Restoration
				  includes on- and off-site stabilization to reduce or eliminate an unauthorized
				  discharge, or substantial threat of an unauthorized discharge from the
				  permitted site.
(17) Structural
				  controls--Physical, constructed features that prevent or reduce the discharge
				  of pollutants. Structural controls include, but are not limited to,
				  sedimentation/detention ponds; velocity dissipation devices such as rock berms,
				  vegetated berms, and buffers; and silt fencing.
(18) Tertiary containment--A containment
				  method by which an additional wall or barrier is installed outside of the
				  secondary storage vessel or other secondary barrier in a manner designed to
				  prevent a release from migrating beyond the tertiary wall or barrier before the
				  release can be detected.
(19) Water
				  body--Any navigable watercourse, river, stream, or lake within the water
				  quality protection area.
(20) Water
				  quality protection area--The Brazos River and its contributing watershed within
				  Palo Pinto and Parker Counties, Texas, downstream from the Morris Shepard Dam,
				  and extending to the county line between Parker and Hood Counties,
				  Texas.