West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 38 - Mining And Reclamation › Title 38 - LEGISLATIVE RULE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MINING AND RECLAMATION › Series 38-02B - Coal Refuse Regulations › Section 38-2B-2 - DEFINITIONS

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
The following definitions refer specifically to these
				  regulations and are valid unless the context in which used clearly requires a
				  different meaning:
2.1
Abandoned Coal Refuse Disposal Area
- means any coal
				refuse disposal area which is not being operated. This definition does not
				relieve any operator from his reclamation responsibility for the coal refuse
				disposal area.
2.2
Accepted Engineering Methods
- means sound engineering
				practice based upon the technology currently applied by the engineering
				profession.
2.3
Acid
				Mine Drainage
- means water with a pH of less than 6.0 discharged
				from active or abandoned mines and from areas affected by surface mining
				operations.
2.4
Acid-Forming Materials
- means earth materials that
				contain sulfide minerals or other materials which may create acid mine
				drainage.
2.5
Act
- means West Virginia Code, Chapter 20, Article
				6.
2.6
Bearing
				Capacity
- means the ability of a foundation material to support
				loads imposed by an embankment or other structure as determined by standard
				engineering evaluations.
2.7
Buffer Zone
- means an undisturbed border along or
				around an intermittent or perennial stream.
2.8
Channel
				Protection
- means any measures taken to prevent or control
				erosion, cavitation, or other destructive processes in channels such as
				diversion ditches and spillways.
2.9
Coal Refuse Disposal
				Area
- means all deposits of coal processing waste or coal refuse
				on or buried in the earth.
2.10
Coal Refuse
- means any waste coal, rock, shale,
				slurry, culm, gob, bone, slate, clay, and related materials associated with or
				near a coal seam, which are either brought above ground or otherwise removed
				from a mine in the process of mining coal, or which are separated from coal
				during the cleaning or preparation operations.
2.11
Coarse Coal
				Refuse
- means coal refuse predominately within a size range
				greater than the #28 sieve size.
2.12
Combined Coal
				Refuse
- means a mixture of coarse coal refuse and dewatered fine
				coal refuse.
2.13
Combustible Materials
- means organic materials that
				are capable of burning by fire or through oxidation, accompanied by the
				evolution of heat and a significant temperature rise.
2.14
Compaction
-
				means the densification of a soil or soillike material by means of mechanical
				manipulation.
2.15
Complete Application
- means an application for a
				surface mining permit which contains all information required under the Act and
				all Rules and Regulations.
2.16
Construction Pore Pressures
- means water pressures
				generated in foundation soils or embankments due to compression by loads
				imposed by construction of an embankment or other structure.
2.17
Density
- means
				the weight of soil or soil like solids per unit of total volume of soil or
				similar mass.
2.18
Design Storm
- means predicted precipitation of given
				intensity, frequency, and duration based on National Weather Service
				data.
2.19
Director
				and/or His Authorized Agent
- means the director of the department
				of natural resources, deputy directors, the chief of the division of
				reclamation, the assistant chiefs of the division of reclamation, and all duly
				authorized engineers, geologists, surface mining reclamation supervisors, or
				inspectors and inspectors intraining.
2.20
Diversion Ditch
- means a designed channel constructed for the purpose of collecting and
				transmitting surface runoff from the design storm.
2.21
Downslope
-
				means the land surface between the projected outcrop of the lowest coal seam
				being mined or any mining related construction and the valley floor.
2.22
Effective
				Height
- means the difference in elevation in feet between the
				lowest open channel emergency spillway crest and the lowest point in the
				original cross section on the centerline of the dam.
2.23
Embankment
-
				means a manmade deposit of earth or coal refuse materials, usually exhibiting
				at least one sloping face.
2.24
Emergency Spillway
- means a hydraulic structure
				designed to discharge water in excess of that which an impoundment is designed
				to store or which cannot be passed through a principal spillway.
2.25
Engineer
-
				means a professional engineer in accordance with Chapter 30, Article 13 of the
				Code of West Virginia (W.Va. State Registration Law for Professional
				Engineers).
2.26
Excess
				Material
- means earth and rock not required to achieve the design
				configuration of the embankment or its appurtenances.
2.27
Fine Coal
				Refuse
- means coal processing waste predominately within a size
				range less than the #28 sieve which may be disposed of in a slurry form or in a
				dewatered or treated state.
2.28
Foundation
- means soil, bedrock, or other earth
				material on or against which an embankment or other structure is
				placed.
2.29
Freeboard
- means
1)
				the vertical distance between the lowest point of the crest of the embankment
				of a dam and the reservoir water surface or
2) the vertical distance between the top of a
				ditch or channel and the water surface during the design flow.