As used in this act:
1. "Acid drainage" means water with a pH of less than 6.0 Standard Units and in which total acidity exceeds total alkalinity, discharged from active, inactive, or abandoned mines and from areas affected by surface coal mining and reclamation operations.
2. "Acid-forming materials" means earth materials that contain sulfide minerals or other materials which, if exposed to air, water, or weathering processes, will result in the formation of acids that may create acid drainage.
3. "Adjacent area" means land located outside the affected area, permit area, or mine plan area, depending on the context in which "adjacent area" is used, where air, surface or ground water, fish, wildlife, vegetation or other resources protected by this act may be adversely impacted by surface coal mining and reclamation operations.
4. "Affected area" means, with respect to surface mining activities, any land or water upon or in which those activities are conducted or located. With respect to underground mining activities, "affected area" means any water or surface land upon or in which those activities are conducted or located, and land or water which is located above underground mine workings.
5. "Approximate original contour" means that surface configuration achieved by backfilling and grading of the mined areas so that the reclaimed area, including any terracing or access roads, 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 all highwalls, spoil piles and coal refuse piles eliminated. Water impoundments may be permitted where the regulatory authority determines that they are in compliance with Section 745.18 of this title and applicable rules and regulations.
6. "Aquifer" means a zone, stratum, or group of strata confined or unconfined, including perched conditions, that can store and transmit water in sufficient quantities for a specific use.
7. "Auger mining" means a method of mining coal at a cliff or highwall by drilling holes laterally into an exposed coal seam from the highwall and transporting the coal along an auger bit to the surface.
8. "Box cut" means the first open cut in strip mining which results in the placing of overburden on unmined land adjacent to the initial pit and outside the area to be mined.
9. "Coal exploration" means the gathering of surface or subsurface geologic, physical, or chemical data by mapping, trenching, drilling, geophysical or other techniques necessary to determine the quality and quantity of overburden and coal of an area and the gathering of environmental data to establish the conditions of the area beginning before surface coal mining and reclamation operations.
10. "Coal processing plant" means a collection of facilities where run-of-the-mine coal is prepared for market by chemical or physical processing, and separated from its impurities. The processing plant may consist of, but not be limited to, the following support facilities: loading facilities; storage and stockpile facilities; shed, shops and other buildings; water treatment and water storage facilities; settling basins and impoundments; coal processing and other waste disposal areas; roads, railroads and other transport facilities; and utilities.
11. "Consolidated material" means material of sufficient hardness or ability to resist weathering and to inhibit erosion or sloughing.
12. "Department" means the office of the Chief Mine Inspector, including all employees, agents, deputies, and representatives of the Department, herein called the Department of Mines and Mining, or such department, bureau or commission as may lawfully succeed to the powers and duties of such department, having primary responsibility for administering all titles of the Surface Mining Law.
13. "Director" means the Chief Mine Inspector of the State of Oklahoma or such officer, bureau or commission as may lawfully succeed to the powers and duties of such Chief Mine Inspector or such employee, agent, deputy or representative of the Chief Mine Inspector as shall be designated by the Chief Mine Inspector to perform any actions required by this act.
14. "Disturbed area" means an area where vegetation, topsoil, or overburden is removed by surface coal mining operations or upon which topsoil, spoil, coal processing waste or noncoal waste is placed. Those areas are "disturbed" until reclamation of those areas is complete and the bond or other assurance of performance is released.
15. "Diversion" means a channel, embankment, or other manmade structure constructed for the purpose of diverting the flow of water from one area to another:
16. "Ephemeral stream" means a stream which flows only in direct response to precipitation in the immediate watershed or in response to the melting of snow and ice, and which has a channel bottom that is always above the local water table.
17. "Ground water" means subsurface water that fills available openings in rock or soil materials such that they may be considered water-saturated.
18. "Head-of-hollow fill" means a fill structure consisting of any material, other than coal processing waste and organic material, placed in the uppermost reaches of a hollow where side slopes of the existing hollow measured at the steepest point are greater than twenty (20) degrees or the average slope of the profile of the hollow from the toe of the fill to the top of the fill is greater than ten (10) degrees. In fills with less than two hundred fifty thousand (250,000) cubic yards of material, associated with contour mining, the top surface of the fill will be at the elevation of the coal seam. In all other head-of-hollow fills, the top surface of the fill, when completed, is at approximately the same elevation as the adjacent ridge line, and no significant area of natural drainage occurs above the fill draining into the fill area.
19. "Highwall" means the face of exposed overburden and coal in an open cut of a surface or for entry to an underground coal mine.
20. "Hydrologic balance" means the relationship between the quality and quantity of inflow to, outflow from and storage in a hydrologic unit such as a drainage basin, aquifer, soil zone, lake, or reservoir. It encompasses the quantity and quality relationships between precipitation, runoff, evaporation, and the change in ground and surface water storage.
21. "Hydrologic regime" means the entire state of water movement in a given area. It is a function of the climate, and includes the phenomena by which water first occurs as atmospheric water vapor, passes into a liquid or solid form and falls as precipitation, moves along or into the ground surface, and returns to the atmosphere as vapor by means of evaporation and transpiration.
22. "Imminent danger to the health and safety of the public" means the existence of any condition or practice, or any violation of a permit or other requirements of this act in a surface coal mining and reclamation operation, which condition, practice, or violation could reasonably be expected to cause substantial physical harm to persons outside the permit area before such condition, practice, or violation can be abated. A reasonable expectation of death or serious injury before abatement exists if a rational person, subjected to the same condition or practice giving rise to the peril, would not expose oneself to the danger during the time necessary for abatement.
23. "Impoundment" means a closed basin, naturally formed or artificially built, which is dammed or excavated for the retention of water, sediment, or waste.
24. "In situ processes" means activities conducted on the surface or underground in connection with in-place distillation, retorting, leaching, or other chemical or physical processing of coal, to include, but not be limited to, in situ gasification, in situ leaching, slurry mining, solution mining, bore hole mining and fluid recovery mining.
25. "Intermittent stream" means a stream or reach of a stream that drains a watershed of at least one (1) square mile, or a stream or reach of a stream that is below the local water table for at least some part of the year, and obtains its flow from both surface runoff and ground water discharge.
26. "Operator" means any person, partnership, firm or corporation engaged in coal mining who removes or intends to remove more than two hundred fifty (250) tons from the earth within twelve (12) consecutive months in any one location.
27. "Other minerals" means clay, stone, sand, gravel, metalliferous and nonmetalliferous ores, and any other solid material or substances of commercial value excavated in solid form from natural deposits on or in the earth, exclusive of coal and those minerals which occur naturally in liquid or gaseous form.
28. "Overburden" means all of the earth and other materials, excluding topsoil, which lie above natural deposits of coal and other minerals, and also means such earth and other materials disturbed from their natural state in the process of surface mining.
29. "Peak" means an upward projecting point of overburden created in the surface mining process.
30. "Perennial stream" means a stream or part of a stream that flows continuously during all of the calendar year as a result of groundwater discharge or surface runoff.
31. "Performance bond" means the indemnity instrument in a sum certain, supported by a surety's guarantee, pledge of collateral or other acceptable contractual guarantee, by which the permit applicant assures faithful performance of all the applicable permit requirements of this act and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.
32. "Permit" means a permit to conduct surface coal mining and reclamation operations issued by the Department pursuant to state law.
33. "Permit area" means the area, including all natural and human resources, included within the boundaries specified in a permit, whether or not the areas will be impacted by surface coal mining and reclamation operations, which are designated on the approved maps submitted by the applicant with his permit application and covered by the performance and reclamation bonds as required.
34. "Permittee" means a person holding a "permit" to conduct surface coal mining and reclamation operations issued by the Department pursuant to state law.
35. "Pit" means a tract of land from which overburden or minerals have been or are being removed in the process of surface mining.
36. "Prime farmland" means lands which meet the criteria of the Department, which shall prescribe criteria at least as stringent as criteria prescribed by the United States Secretary of Agriculture on the basis of such factors as moisture availability, temperature regime, chemical balance, permeability, surface layer composition, susceptibility to flooding, and erosion characteristics, and which historically have been used for intensive agricultural purposes.
37. "Reclamation" means, through the process of backfilling, regrading, topsoil replacement, reutilization, and revegetation activities, the bringing back of land to its approximate original contours and configuration, and resulting in an equal or better land use category, and shall be consistent with the existing surrounding environment.
38. "Reference areas" means land units of varying size and shape identified and maintained under appropriate management for the purpose of measuring ground cover, productivity and species diversity that are produced naturally or by crop production methods approved by the Department. Reference areas must be representative of geology, soils, slope, aspect and vegetation in the permit area.
39. "Refuse" means all waste material directly connected with the production, cleaning or preparation of coal or other minerals which have been mined by either underground or surface mining method.
40. "Regulatory authority" means the Department of Mines and Mining.
41. "Ridge" means a lengthened elevation of overburden created in the surface mining process.
42. "Significant, imminent environmental harm to land, air or water resources" is determined as follows:
43. "Slope" means average inclination of a surface, measured from the horizontal; normally expressed as a unit of vertical distance to a given number of units of horizontal distance (e.g., one unit vertical (1v) to five units horizontal (5h) = 11.3 degrees).
44. "Soil horizons" means contrasting layers of soil lying one below the other, parallel or near parallel to the land surface. Soil horizons are differentiated on the basis of field characteristics and laboratory data. The three (3) major soil horizons are:
45. "Spoil" means displaced overburden.
46. "Strip mining" means those mining operations carried out by removing the overburden lying above natural deposits of coal and other minerals, and mining directly from such natural deposits thereby exposed, but excludes auger mining, quarrying, dredging, pumping or the use of hydraulic methods.
47. "Substantially disturb" means, for purposes of coal exploration, to significantly impact upon land, air or water resources by such activities as blasting, mechanical excavation of land, drilling or altering coal or water exploratory holes or wells, construction or creation of roads and other access routes, and the placement of structures, excavated earth or other debris upon the surface of land.
48. "Surface coal mining and reclamation operations" means surface mining operations and all activities necessary and incident to the reclamation of such operations.
49. "Surface coal mining operations" means:
50. "Surface water" means water, either flowing or standing, on the surface of the earth.
51. "Topsoil" means the "A" soil horizon, which is the uppermost layer of the three (3) major soil horizons.
52. "Underground mining activities" means a combination of:
53. "Unwarranted failure to comply" means the failure of a permittee to prevent the occurrence of any violation of his permit or any requirement of this act due to indifference, lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care, or the failure to abate any violation of such permit or the act due to indifference, lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care.
54. "Water table" means the upper surface of a zone of saturation, where the body of ground water is not confined by an overlying impermeable zone.
Laws 1979, c. 249, § 3, emerg. eff. June 1, 1979. Amended by Laws 1990, c. 260, § 32, operative July 1, 1990.