Pennsylvania Code › Title 25 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Part I - Department of Environmental Protection › Subpart C - Protection of Natural Resources › Article I - Land Resources › Chapter 89 - UNDERGROUND MINING OF COAL AND COAL PREPARATION FACILITIES › Subchapter A - EROSION AND SEDIMENTATION CONTROL › GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 89.5 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a) The following
						  words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless
						  the context clearly indicates otherwise:
Adjacent area
-Land located outside
							 the permit area, where air, surface or groundwater, fish, wildlife, vegetation
							 or other resources protected by this chapter may be adversely impacted by
							 mining and reclamation operations.
Affected area
-Land or water upon or
							 in which underground mining activities are conducted or located. The term
							 includes land in which the natural land surface has been disturbed as a result
							 of or incidental to the surface activities of the operators including, but not
							 limited to, private ways and roads appurtenant to this area, land excavations,
							 workings, refuse banks, spoil banks, culm banks, 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, underground mining operations are situated. The
							 term also includes lands affected by the construction of new roads or the
							 improvement or substantial use of an existing road to gain access to the site
							 or for hauling from the site.
Application
-The documents and other
							 information filed with the Department for the issuance of a permit.
Aquifer
-A zone, stratum or group of
							 strata that can store and transmit water in sufficient quantities for a
							 specific use.
Best technology currently
							 available
-Equipment, devices, systems, methods or techniques which
							 will:
(i) Prevent, to the extent
						  possible, additional contributions of suspended solids to stream flow or runoff
						  outside the permit area, but in no event result in contributions of suspended
						  solids in excess of requirements set by applicable State or Federal
						  laws.
(ii) Minimize, to the extent
						  possible, disturbances and adverse impacts on fish, wildlife and related
						  environmental values, and achieve enhancement of those resources when
						  practicable. The term includes equipment, devices, systems, methods or
						  techniques which are currently available anywhere as determined by the
						  Secretary, even if they are not in routine use. The term includes, but is not
						  limited to, construction practices, siting requirements, vegetative selection
						  and planting requirements, scheduling of activities and design of sedimentation
						  ponds in accordance with this chapter.
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.
Cropland
-Land used for the
							 production of adapted crops for harvest, along or in a rotation with grasses
							 and legumes, and includes row crops, small grain crops, hay crops, nursery
							 crops, orchard crops and other similar specialty crops.
Disturbed area
-An area where
							 vegetation, topsoil or overburden is removed or upon which topsoil, spoil, coal
							 processing wastes, underground development wastes or noncoal waste is placed by
							 coal mining operations.
Diversion
-A channel, embankment or
							 other manmade structure constructed at a controlled slope to divert water from
							 one area to another.
Dry weather flow
-The base flow or
							 surface discharge from an area or treatment facility which occurs immediately
							 prior to a precipitation event and which resumes 24 hours after the
							 precipitation event ends.
Dwelling
-A building or other
							 structure that, at the time subsidence occurs, is used either temporarily,
							 occasionally, seasonally or permanently for human habitation.
EPACT structures
-
(i) Structures that are subject to repair and
						  compensation requirements under section 720(a) of the Surface Mining Control
						  and Reclamation Act (30
						  U.S.C.A. §
															1309a).
(ii) The term includes:
(A) Noncommercial buildings.
(B) Dwellings.
(C) Structures adjunct to or used in
						  conjunction with dwellings, including, but not limited to:
(I) Garages.
(II) Storage sheds and barns.
(III) Greenhouses and related
						  buildings.
(IV) Customer-owned
						  utilities and cables.
(V) Fences
						  and other enclosures.
(VI)
						  Retaining walls.
(VII) Paved or
						  improved patios.
(VIII) Walks and
						  driveways.
(IX) Septic sewage
						  treatment facilities.
(X) Inground
						  swimming pools.
(XI) Lot drainage
						  and lawn and garden irrigation systems.
EPACT water supplies
-
(i) Water supplies that are subject to
						  replacement under section 720(a) of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation
						  Act, including drinking, domestic or residential water supplies in existence
						  prior to the date of permit application.
(ii) The term includes water received from a
						  well or spring and any appurtenant delivery system that provides water for
						  direct human consumption or household use.
(iii) The term does not include wells and
						  springs that serve only agricultural, commercial or industrial enterprises
						  except to the extent the water supply is for direct human consumption or human
						  sanitation, or domestic use.
Embankment
-An artificial deposit of
							 material that is raised above the natural surface of the land and used to
							 contain, divert or store water, support roads or railways, or for other similar
							 purposes.
Ephemeral stream
-A water conveyance
							 which lacks substrates associated with flowing waters and flows only in direct
							 response to precipitation in the immediate watershed or in response to melting
							 snowpack and which is always above the local water table.
Fair market value
-The amount at
							 which property would exchange hands between a willing buyer and a willing
							 seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or sell and both having
							 reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.
Ground cover
-The area of ground
							 covered by the combined aerial parts of vegetation and the litter that is
							 produced naturally onsite, expressed as a percentage of the total area of
							 measurement.
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
						  surface 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 from 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 such
						  acquisition but for the same fact of ownership or control of the land unrelated
						  to the productivity of the land.
Hydrologic balance
-The relationship
							 between the quality and quantity of water inflow to, water outflow from and
							 water storage in a hydrologic unit such as a drainage basin, aquifer, soil
							 zone, lake or reservoir. It encompasses the dynamic relationships among
							 precipitation, runoff, evaporation and changes in groundwater and surface water
							 storage.
Impoundment
-A closed basin,
							 naturally formed or artificially built, which is dammed or excavated for the
							 retention of water, sediment or waste.
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).
Intermittent stream
-A body of water
							 flowing in a channel or bed composed primarily of substrates associated with
							 flowing water which, during periods of the year, is below the local water table
							 and obtains its flow from both surface runoff and groundwater
							 discharges.
Irreparable damage
-Damage to a
							 structure resulting from subsidence which is in one of the following
							 categories. The term includes:
(i)
						  Damage for which the total cost of repair, including improvements required by
						  Federal, State and local law to meet current standards, would exceed the cost
						  of replacement.
(ii) Damage of such
						  magnitude that Federal, State or local law would prohibit repair of the
						  structure.
(iii) Damage that
						  weakens the strength of a structure's foundation, load bearing walls or other
						  load bearing structural components in a manner which would make it impossible
						  or impractical to restore the structure to its previous strength.
(iv) For structures recognized as
						  historically or architecturally significant:
(A) Damage which would adversely affect the
						  structure's historical or architectural value.
(B) Damage for which the cost of repair to
						  restore the historical and architectural value of the structure with the same
						  craftsmanship and historically and architecturally equivalent components would
						  exceed the cost of replacement.
(C)
						  Damage which would be impossible to repair to restore the historical and
						  architectural value of the structure with the same craftsmanship and
						  historically and architecturally equivalent components.
Material damage
-Damage that results
							 in one of the following:
(i) Functional
						  impairment of surface lands, structures, features or facilities.
(ii) Physical change that has a significant
						  adverse impact on the affected land's capability to support current or
						  reasonably foreseeable uses or causes significant loss in production or
						  income.
(iii) Significant change in
						  the condition, appearance or utility of a structure or facility from its
						  presubsidence condition.
Mine
-Underground areas contained
							 within a continuous barrier of undisturbed coal and openings to the surface
							 from those areas.
Mine opening blasting
-Blasting
							 conducted for the purpose of constructing a shaft, slope, drift or tunnel mine
							 opening for an underground mine, either operating or under development from the
							 surface down to the point where the mine opening connects with the coal seam to
							 be or being extracted.
Noncommercial building
-A building,
							 other than an occupied residential dwelling, that, at the time the subsidence
							 occurs, is used on a regular or temporary basis as a public building or
							 community or institutional building as those terms are defined in §
														86.101 (relating to definitions).
							 The term does not include a building used only for commercial agricultural,
							 industrial, retail or commercial enterprises.
Operator
-A person or municipality
							 engaged in underground 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 (52 P. S. §§
															1396.1-1396.19b), The Clean Streams Law
							 (35
							 P. S. §§
															691.1-691.1001) and the
							 Coal Refuse Disposal Control Act (52 P. S. §§
															30.51-30.66).
Overburden
-The strata or material
							 overlying a coal deposit or in between coal deposits in its natural state and
							 shall mean such material before or after its removal by surface mining.
Perennial stream
-A body of water
							 flowing in a channel or bed composed primarily of substrates associated with
							 flowing waters and is capable, in the absence of pollution or other manmade
							 stream disturbances, of supporting a benthic macroinvertebrate community which
							 is composed of two or more recognizable taxonomic groups of organisms which are
							 large enough to be seen by the unaided eye and can be retained by a United
							 States Standard No. 30 sieve (28 meshs per inch, 0.595 millimeter openings) and
							 live at least part of their life cycles within or upon available substrates in
							 a body of water or water transport system.
Permanent diversion
-A diversion
							 which is to remain after underground mining activities are completed and which
							 has been approved for retention by the Department.
Permit area
-The mine and surface
							 areas where underground mining activities occur.
Pollution-forming materials
-Earth
							 materials or wastes which, if acted upon by air, water, weathering or
							 microbiological processes, are likely to produce pollution as defined by The
							 Clean Streams Law (35 P. S. §§
															691.1-691.1001) and the regulations
							 promulgated under The Clean Streams Law, or are likely to produce toxic
							 pollutants as defined in section 101 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
							 (33 U.S.C.A. §
															1251), or are likely to produce chemical or
							 physical conditions that are detrimental to biota.
Precipitation event
-A quantity of
							 water resulting from drizzle, rain, snow, sleet or hail in a limited period of
							 time. It may be expressed in terms of recurrence interval. As used in this
							 chapter, the term also includes that quantity of water emanating from snow
							 cover as snow melt in a limited period of time.
Prime farmland
-Those lands which are
							 defined by the Secretary of Agriculture in
							 7 CFR
							 657 (relating to prime and unique farmlands)
							 and which have historically been used for cropland as that phrase is defined in
							 this section.
Property to be mined
-Both the
							 surface and mineral estates on and underneath lands which are within the permit
							 area.
Public buildings and
							 facilities
-Structures that are owned or leased and principally used by
							 a government agency for public business or meetings and anything built,
							 installed, assembled or used by a government agency to provide a public
							 service. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
(i) Government office buildings.
(ii) Police stations.
(iii) Prison complexes.
(iv) Municipal swimming pools.
(v) Municipal utilities.
(vi) Municipal airports.
(vii) Public park pavilions and maintenance
						  facilities.
Public water supply system
-A water
							 delivery system which does one of the following:
(i) Serves at least 15 service connections
						  used by year-round residents or regularly serves at least 25 year-round
						  residents.
(ii) Provides water to a
						  public building, church, school, hospital or nursing home.
Rebuttable presumption area
-As used
							 in the context of water supply replacement, the area in which an operator is
							 presumed responsible for diminishing, contaminating or interrupting a water
							 supply. The area is defined by projecting a 35° angle from the vertical
							 from the outside of any area where the operator has extracted coal from an
							 underground mine.
Reclamation
-Those actions taken to
							 restore the area affected by underground mining activities as required by this
							 chapter.
Secretary
-The Secretary of the
							 Department of Environmental Resources of the Commonwealth of
							 Pennsylvania.
Sedimentation pond
-A primary
							 sediment control structure designed, constructed and maintained in accordance
							 with this subchapter and Subchapter D (relating to structural requirements for
							 impoundments), and including but not limited to a barrier, dam or excavated
							 depression which detains water runoff to allow sediment to settle out. A
							 sedimentation pond shall not include secondary sedimentation control
							 structures, such as straw dikes, riprap, check dams, mulches, dugouts and other
							 measures that reduce overland flow velocity, reduce runoff volume, or trap
							 sediment, to the extent that the secondary sedimentation structures drain to a
							 sedimentation pond.
Soil survey
-A field classification
							 and laboratory analysis resulting in a map showing the geographic distribution
							 of different kinds of soils and an accompanying report that describes,
							 classifies and interprets the soils for use. Soil surveys shall meet the
							 standards of the National Cooperative Soil Survey.
Stratum (strata)
-A section of
							 geologic formation that consists throughout of approximately the same kind of
							 rock material; a stratum may consist of an indefinite number of beds.
Substrates
-Inorganic sediments
							 which are .05 millimeter in diameter or larger, and includes sands, granules,
							 pebbles, cobbles or boulders, based on Wentworth's Classification.
Temporary diversion
-A diversion of a
							 stream or overland flow which is used during surface coal mining activities and
							 not approved by the Department to remain after reclamation as part of the
							 approved postmining land use.
Underground development waste
-Waste
							 rock mixtures of coal, shale, claystone, siltstone, sandstone, limestone or
							 related materials that are excavated, moved and disposed of as part of the
							 construction activities in preparing the mine for coal production.
Underground mining
-The extraction of
							 coal in an underground mine.
Underground mining
							 activities
-Includes the following:
(i) Surface operations incident to
						  underground extraction of coal or in situ processing, such as construction,
						  use, maintenance and reclamation of roads, aboveground repair areas, storage
						  areas, processing areas, shipping areas, areas upon which are sited support
						  facilities, including hoist and ventilating ducts, areas used for the disposal
						  and storage of waste and areas on which materials incident to underground
						  mining operations are placed.
(ii)
						  Underground operations such as underground construction, operation and
						  reclamation of shafts, adits, support facilities located underground, in situ
						  processing and underground mining, hauling, storage and blasting.
(iii) Operation of a mine including
						  preparatory work in connection with the opening and reopening of a mine,
						  backfilling, sealing, and other closing procedures, postclosure mine pool
						  maintenance and any other work done on land or water in connection with a
						  mine.
Underground mining
							 operations
-Underground construction, operation and reclamation of
							 shafts, adits, support facilities located underground, in situ processing and
							 underground mining, hauling, storage and blasting.
Water supply
-An existing source of
							 water used for domestic, commercial, industrial or recreational purposes or for
							 agricultural uses, including use or consumption of water to maintain the health
							 and productivity of animals used or to be used in agricultural production and
							 the watering of lands on a periodic or permanent basis by a constructed or
							 manufactured system in place on August 21, 1994, to provide irrigation for
							 agricultural production of plants and crops at levels of productivity or yield
							 historically experienced by the plants or crops within a particular geographic
							 area, or which serves a public building or a noncommercial structure
							 customarily used by the public including churches, schools and
							 hospitals.
Water table
-The upper surface of a
							 zone of saturation, where the body of groundwater is not confined by an
							 overlying impermeable zone.