Pennsylvania Code › Title 25 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Part I - Department of Environmental Protection › Subpart C - Protection of Natural Resources › Article I - Land Resources › Chapter 88 - ANTHRACITE COAL › Subchapter A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS › Section 88.1 - 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:
AOC
-Approximate original
							 contour.
Abandoned
-An operation where no
							 coal has been produced or overburden removed for 6 months, verified by monthly
							 reports submitted to the Department by the operator and by inspections made by
							 the Department, unless an operator within 30 days after receipt of notification
							 by the Secretary determining an operation abandoned submits sufficient evidence
							 to the Secretary that the operation is in fact not abandoned and submits a
							 timetable satisfactory to the Secretary regarding plans for the reactivation of
							 the operation.
Access roads
-Roads located and
							 constructed or reconstructed for minimal or infrequent use to transport
							 equipment and personnel to current and future activity sites.
Acid drainage
-Water with a pH of
							 less than 6 and in which total acidity exceeds total alkalinity, discharged
							 from an active, inactive or abandoned surface coal mine and reclamation
							 operation or from an area affected by surface coal mining activities.
Acid-forming materials
-Earth
							 materials that contain sulfide minerals or other materials which, if exposed to
							 air, water or weathering processes, form acids that may create acid
							 drainage.
Adjacent area
-Land outside the
							 permit area, where air, surface or groundwater, fish and wildlife, vegetation
							 or other resources protected by this chapter may be adversely affected by
							 surface coal mining activities.
Affected area
-Land or water upon or
							 in which surface 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 operator, including, but not
							 limited to, private ways and roads appurtenant to the 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, surface mining operations are situated. The term
							 also includes lands affected by the construction of new roads or the
							 improvement of existing roads to gain access to the site or for hauling from
							 the site.
Anthracite mining activities
-Operations handling anthracite coal or anthracite coal-related material,
							 including, but not limited to, surface mining, the surface affected by
							 underground mining, bank recovery and reclamation, coal refuse disposal and
							 coal preparation plant activity, except when an operation is specifically
							 modified or exempted from this definition.
Aquifer
-A zone, stratum or group of
							 strata that can store and transmit water in sufficient quantities for a known
							 specific use.
Bank removal and reclamation
							 activities
-The process of extracting anthracite coal from coal banks
							 which will be disturbed or affected in any manner during the mining.
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 and wildlife and related environmental
						  values, and achieve enhancement of those resources where 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.
Blast
-A detonation of
							 explosives.
Blasting
-The detontation of
							 explosives.
Bottom rock
-The rock stratum upon
							 which a coal seam rests, which is the underclay or seat-earth which
							 stratigraphically underlies the coal seam except in complex geologic settings
							 such as overturned folds. The term is synonymous with the highwall in most
							 anthracite mining operations.
Coal bank
-Silt dams, refuse banks,
							 culm banks, waste banks and similar storage areas into which materials
							 including anthracite coal have been deposited by raw coal dumping, coal
							 cleaning, rejection processes and similar procedures during deep mine and
							 surface mine operations from which existing coal products can be extracted and
							 marketed.
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 processing waste
-Earth
							 materials which are separated and wasted from the product coal during cleaning,
							 concentrating or other processing or preparation of coal.
Coal refuse
-A waste coal, rock,
							 shale, slurry, culm, gob, boney, slate, clay and related materials, associated
							 with or near a coal seam, which are either brought aboveground or otherwise
							 removed from a coal mine in the process of mining coal or which are separated
							 from coal during the cleaning or preparation operations. The term includes
							 underground development waste, coal processing waste and excess spoil; the term
							 does not mean overburden from surface mining operations.
Combustible material
-Material that
							 is capable of burning, either by fire or through oxidation, accompanied by the
							 evolution of heat and a significant temperature rise.
Common use roads
-These accessways
							 are existing roadways that normally are utilized by two or more operators,
							 agencies or persons, or both, for access, safety, fire protection and other
							 common purposes.
Compaction
-The increase of the
							 density of a material by reducing the voids between the particles and is
							 generally accomplished by controlled placement and mechanical effort such as
							 from repeated application of wheel, track or roller loads from heavy
							 equipment.
Contouring
-Reclamation of the land
							 affected to AOC so that it closely resembles the general surface configuration
							 of the land prior to mining and blends into and complements the drainage
							 pattern of the surrounding terrain with no highwall, spoil piles or depressions
							 to accumulate water and with adequate provision for drainage; provided, that in
							 the discretion of the Department, diversion structures and impoundments may be
							 constructed on the reclaimed area of the operation if they are part of an
							 approved drainage control plan, meet all applicable requirements of law and do
							 not interfere with the attachment of AOC.
Contour mining
-The type of surface
							 mining where the coal is mined along the contour of its outcrop, generally in
							 successive cuts. In anthracite surface mining operations, the term is generally
							 synonymous with modified block-cut mining.
Cropland
-Land used for the
							 production of adapted crops for harvest, alone or in rotation with grasses and
							 legumes, including row crops, small grain crops, hay crops, nursery crops,
							 orchard crops and other similar agronomic and horticultural crops. The term
							 does not include land primarily used for pastureland or pastureland
							 occasionally used or cut for hay.
Degree
-The inclination from the
							 horizontal.
Disturbed area
-An area where
							 vegetation, soil or overburden is removed or upon which soil, spoil, coal
							 processing waste or noncoal waste is placed by surface coal mining activities.
							 Those areas are classified as disturbed until reclamation is complete, and the
							 performance bond or other assurance of performance required by Chapter 86
							 Subchapter F (relating to bonding and insurance requirements) is
							 released.
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.
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.
Fugitive dust
-That particulate
							 matter not emitted from a duct or stack which becomes airborne due to the
							 forces of wind or surface coal mining activities, or both. During surface coal
							 mining activities, it may include emissions from haul roads; wind erosion of
							 exposed surfaces, storage piles and spoil piles; reclamation operations and
							 other activities in which material is either removed, stored, transported or
							 redistributed.
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
-All subsurface waters
							 of the Commonwealth.
Haul road
-Roads that are planned,
							 designed, located, constructed, reconstructed or improved, utilized and
							 maintained for the transportation of equipment, fuel, personnel, coal, spoil
							 and other operating resources from a public road to points within the surface
							 mine or between principal operations on the mine site or both, but not
							 including roads within the pit or on unreclaimed spoil areas. The term includes
							 public roads that are used as an integral part of the coal mining
							 activity.
Highwall
-The face of exposed
							 overburden and coal in an open cut of a surface coal mine activity or for entry
							 to underground mining activities. There may be more than one highwall in an
							 anthracite surface mine depending on the geologic structure and the
							 configuration of the open cut. The term includes, but is not limited to, the
							 bottom rock of a coal mine with steeply inclined coal seams.
Historically used for cropland
-One
							 of the following:
(i) Lands that have
						  been used for cropland for 5 years or more out of the 10 years immediately
						  preceding their acquisition-including purchase, lease or option-for the purpose
						  of conducting or allowing, through resale, lease or option, 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-year-in-10 criterion, in
						  which case, the provisions for prime farmland in this chapter may be applied to
						  include more years of cropland history only to increase the prime farmland
						  acreage to be preserved.
(iii)
						  Lands that have been controlled for purposes other than cropland and that would
						  likely have been used for cropland in any 5 out of the last 10 years if the
						  lands have been acquired 10 or more years ago by a person other than the
						  current owner.
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.
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.
Land
-The surface of the land upon
							 which surface mining is conducted.
Land use
-Specific uses or
							 management-related activities, rather than the vegetation or cover of the land.
							 Land uses may be identified in combination when joint or seasonal uses occur. A
							 change of land use from one of the following categories to another shall be
							 considered as a change to an alternative land use which is subject to approval
							 by the Department. The term is further defined as:
(i)
Cropland
. Land used for
						  the production of adapted crops for harvest, alone 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. Land used for
						  facilities in support of cropland farming operations which is adjacent to or an
						  integral part of these operations is also included.
(ii)
Pastureland or land occasionally
						  cut for hay
. Land used primarily for the long-term production of
						  adopted, domesticated forage plants to be grazed by livestock or occasionally
						  cut and cured for livestock feed. Land used for facilities in support of
						  pastureland or land occasionally cut for hay which is adjacent to or an
						  integral part of these operations is also included.
(iii)
Forestland
. Land used
						  for the long-term production of wood, wood fiber or wood-derived products;
						  watershed protection or site stabilization and for the production, protection
						  and management of species of fish and wildlife. Land used for facilities in
						  support of forestry and watershed management operations which is adjacent to or
						  an integral part of these operations is also included.
(iv)
Commercial forestland
.
						  Land used or managed primarily for the long-term production of wood, wood fiber
						  or wood-derived products. Land used for facilities in support of forest harvest
						  and management operations which is adjacent to or an integral part of these
						  operations is also included.
(v)
Residential
. Includes single- and multiple-family housing,
						  mobile home parks and other residential lodgings. Land used for facilities in
						  support of residential operations which is adjacent to or an integral part of
						  these operations is included. Support facilities include, but are not limited
						  to, vehicle parking and open space that directly relate to the residential
						  use.
(vi)
Industrial/commercial
. Land used for the following:
(A) Extraction or transformation of materials
						  for fabrication of products. This includes all heavy and light manufacturing
						  facilities such as lumber and wood processing, chemical manufacturing,
						  petroleum refining and fabricated metal products manufacture. Land used for
						  facilities in support of these operations which is adjacent to or an integral
						  part of that operation is also included. Support facilities include, but are
						  not limited to, all rail, road and other transportation facilities.
(B) Retail or trade of goods or services,
						  including hotels, motels, stores, restaurants and other commercial
						  establishments. Land used for facilities in support of commercial operations
						  which is adjacent to or an integral part of these operations is also included.
						  Support facilities include, but are not limited to, parking, storage or
						  shipping facilities.