Wisconsin Administrative Code › Department of Natural Resources › NR 100-199 - Environmental Protection - General › Chapter NR 132 - Nonferrous Metallic Mineral Mining › Section NR 132.103 - Definitions

Current through June 24, 2024
In this chapter:
(1) "Applicant" means a person who has
				applied for a mining permit.
(2) "
				Background water quality" or "background concentration" means surface water or
				groundwater quality at or near a facility, practice or activity which has not
				been affected by that facility, practice or activity, established by monitoring
				at the proposed site, upgradient and downgradient of the proposed site and at
				representative reference sites, as necessary.
(3) "Baseline data" means the data collected
				by the applicant or the department which the department has accepted through
				the regulatory process of ss. NR 132.105 and 132.117, and s.
				293.31,
				Stats., as representing the existing environmental conditions prior to the
				commencement of mining and established by monitoring at the proposed site,
				upgradient and downgradient of the proposed site and at representative
				reference sites, as necessary.
(4)
				"Department" means the department of natural resources.
(5) "Environmental pollution" has the meaning
				specified in s.
				293.01(4),
				Stats.
Note:
Section
				  293.01(4),
				  Stats., defines "environmental pollution" to mean: "the contaminating or
				  rendering unclean or impure the air, land or waters of the state, or making the
				  same injurious to public health, harmful for commercial or recreational use, or
				  deleterious to fish, bird, animal or plant life."
(6) "Groundwater" means any waters of the
				state, as defined in s.
				281.01(18),
				Stats., occurring in a saturated subsurface geological formation of rock or
				soil.
(7) "Materials" means all
				solid, liquid and gaseous, substances handled, processed, transported, stored
				or disposed of on the mining site during the mining, concentrating and
				reclamation operation, including merchantable by-product and other substances
				generated by the operation as well as those brought onto the mining
				site.
(8) "Merchantable by-product"
				means all waste soil, rock, mineral, liquid, vegetation, and other material
				directly resulting from or displaced by the mining, cleaning, or preparation of
				nonferrous metallic minerals during mining operations which are determined by
				the department to be marketable upon a showing of marketability made by the
				operator, accompanied by a verified statement by the operator of his or her
				intent to sell such material within 3 years from the time it results from or is
				displaced by mining. If after 3 years, from the time merchantable by-product
				results from or is displaced by mining, such material has not been transported
				off the mining site, it shall be considered and regulated as refuse unless
				removal is continuing at a rate of more than 12,000 cubic yards per year or an
				exemption has been granted under s. NR 132.112 extending designation of the
				material as merchantable by-product.
(9) "Mill" means an enclosed facility, such
				as a concentrator building, where ore is separated into values and rejects,
				including tailings, and may include facilities and processes for crushing,
				cleaning, grinding and separating ore minerals through flotation, magnetic
				separation, leaching or other processes.
(10) "Mining" or "mining operation" means all
				or part of the process in the mining of nonferrous metallic minerals other than
				for exploration, bulk sampling or prospecting, and includes commercial
				extraction, agglomeration, beneficiation, site preparation and clearing,
				construction of project facilities including roads and other corridors, removal
				of overburden, and the production of refuse.
(11) "Mining permit" means the permit that is
				required of all operators as a condition precedent to commencing mining at a
				mining site as required under s.
				293.37(1)
				(a), Stats.
(12) "Mining plan" means the proposal for the
				mining of the mining site which must be approved by the department under s.
				293.49,
				Stats., as part of the mining permit.
(13)
(a)
				"Mining site" means the surface area disturbed by a mining operation, including
				the surface area from which the nonferrous metallic minerals or refuse or both
				have been removed, the surface area covered by refuse, all lands disturbed by
				the construction or improvement of haulageways, pipelines and pipeline
				corridors, and any surface areas in which structures, equipment, materials, and
				any other things used in the mining operation are situated.
(b) "Mining site" includes but is not limited
				to all of the following:
1. Facilities
				required as a condition of a mining permit under s.
				293.65(3)
				(b), Stats.
2. Corridors for access roads and rail spurs
				from the location where the corridor connects with the main portion of the
				mining site extending to the location where it connects with a public road or
				rail line owned by another entity.
(c) "Mining site" does not include
				environmental monitoring sites located off of the main portion of the mining
				site.