52 Pa. Stat. § 1396.3 : Statutes (Unconsolidated) — MINES AND MINING — SURFACE MINING CONSERVATION AND RECLAMATION ACT — Definitions

The following words and phrases, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings:

"Abandoned" shall mean any operation where no mineral has been produced or overburden removed for a period of six (6) months, verified by monthly reports submitted to the department by the operator and by inspections made by the department, unless an operator within thirty (30) days after receipt of notification by the secretary terming 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.

"Abatement plan" shall mean, for the purposes of section 4.6, any individual technique or combination of techniques, the implementation of which will result in reduction of the baseline pollution load.

"Active operation" shall mean one in which the surface mine operator has removed a minimum of five hundred (500) tons per acre of aggregate or mass of noncoal mineral matter for commercial purposes in the preceding year.

"Actual improvement" shall mean, for the purposes of section 4.6, the reduction of the baseline pollution load resulting from the implementation of the approved abatement plan; except that any reduction of the baseline pollution load achieved by water treatment may not be considered as actual improvement.

"Baseline pollution load" shall mean the characterization of the pollutional material being discharged from or on the pollution abatement area, described in terms of mass discharge for each parameter deemed relevant by the department, including seasonal variations and variations in response to precipitation events.

"Best technology" means, for the purposes of section 4.6, measures and practices which will abate or ameliorate, to the maximum extent possible, discharges from or on the pollution abatement area.

"Cash" shall include, when used in regard to bond requirements, negotiable certificates of deposit.

"Contouring" shall mean reclamation of the land affected to approximate original contour 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.

"Degree" shall mean the inclination from the horizontal.

" Department " shall mean the Department of Environmental Protection of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"Government-financed reclamation contract" shall mean:

(1) For the purposes of section 4.8, a federally funded or State-funded and -approved abandoned mine reclamation contract entered into between the department and an eligible person or entity who has obtained special authorization to engage in incidental and necessary extraction of coal or in removal of coal refuse pursuant to government-financed reclamation which is either:
(i) a State-financed reclamation contract less than or equal to fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) total project costs, where up to five hundred (500) tons of coal is extracted, including a reclamation contract where less than five hundred (500) tons is removed and the government's cost of financing reclamation will be assumed by the contractor under the terms of a no-cost contract;
(ii) a State-financed reclamation contract authorizing the removal of coal refuse, including where reclamation is performed by the contractor under the terms of a no-cost contract with the department, not involving any reprocessing of coal refuse on the project area or return of any coal refuse material to the project area;
(iii) a State-financed reclamation contract greater than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) total project costs or a federally financed abandoned mine reclamation project: Provided, That the department determines in writing that extraction of coal is essential to physically accomplish the reclamation of the project area and is incidental and necessary to reclamation; or
(iv) federally financed or State-financed extraction of coal which the department determines in writing to be essential to physically extinguish an abandoned mine fire that poses a threat to the public health, safety and welfare.
(2) For purposes of determining whether or not extraction of coal is incidental and necessary under section 4.8, the department shall consider standard engineering factors and shall not in any case consider the economic benefit deriving from extraction of coal. Necessary extraction of coal shall in no case include:
(i) the extraction of coal in an area adjacent to the previously affected area which will be reclaimed; or
(ii) the extraction of coal beneath the previously affected area which will be reclaimed.

"Land" shall mean the surface of the land upon which surface mining is conducted.

"Landowner" shall mean the person or municipality in whom the legal title to the land is vested.

"Minerals" shall mean any aggregate or mass of mineral matter, whether or not coherent, which is extracted by surface mining, and shall include but not be limited to limestone and dolomite, sand and gravel, rock and stone, earth, fill, slag, iron ore, zinc ore, vermiculite, clay, and anthracite and bituminous coal.

"Minimal impact post-mining discharge" shall mean, for the purposes of section 4 (g.2), a discharge of mine drainage emanating from a surface mine site where all other Stage II reclamation standards have been achieved and which:

(1) untreated, does not alone or in combination with other discharges result in a violation of water quality standards; and
(i) has a pH which is always greater than 6.0 and an alkalinity which always exceeds the acidity; or
(ii) has acidity which is always less than one hundred (100) milligrams per liter, iron content which is always less than ten (10) milligrams per liter, manganese content which is always less than eighteen (18) milligrams per liter and flow rate which is always less than three (3) gallons per minute; or
(2) has in place a functioning passive treatment system approved by the department which meets the applicable effluent limitations in 25 Pa. Code (relating to environmental resources) or which meets the effluent limitations developed pursuant to section 4.2(j) and as discharged does not result in a violation of the water quality standards in the receiving stream.

"Municipality" shall be construed to include any county, city, borough, town, township, school district, institution, or any authority created by any one or more of the foregoing.

"No-cost reclamation contract" shall mean a contract entered into between the department and an eligible person for the purpose of reclaiming unreclaimed abandoned mine lands and which does not involve the expenditure of Commonwealth funds.

"Operation" shall mean the pit located upon a single tract of land or a continuous pit embracing or extending upon two or more contiguous tracts of land.

"Operator" shall mean a person or municipality engaged in surface mining, as a principal as distinguished from an agent or independent contractor. Where more than one person is engaged in surface mining activities in a single operation, they shall be deemed jointly and severally responsible for compliance with the provisions of this act.

"Overburden" shall mean the strata or material overlying a mineral deposit or in between mineral deposits in its natural state and shall mean such material before or after its removal by surface mining.

"Passive treatment" shall mean treatment systems that do not require routine operational control or maintenance, including biological or chemical treatment systems, alone or in combination, as approved by the department, such as artificially constructed wetlands, cascade aerators, anoxic drains or sedimentation basins.

"Person" shall be construed to include any natural person, partnership, association or corporation or any agency, instrumentality or entity of Federal or State Government. Whenever used in any clause prescribing and imposing a penalty, or imposing a fine or imprisonment, or both, the term "person" shall not exclude the members of an association and the directors, officers or agents of a corporation.

"Pit" shall mean the place where any coal or metallic and nonmetallic minerals are being mined by the surface mining method.

"Pollution abatement area" shall mean, for the purposes of section 4.6, that part of the permit area which is causing or contributing to the baseline pollution load, which shall include adjacent and nearby areas that must be affected to bring about significant improvement of the baseline pollution load, and which may include the immediate location of the discharges.

" Secretary " shall mean the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"Spoil pile" shall mean the overburden and reject minerals as piled or deposited in surface mining.

"Surface coal mining activities" shall mean, for the purposes of section 4.6, activities whereby coal is extracted from the earth, from waste or stockpiles or from pits or banks by removing the strata or material which overlies or is above or between the coal or by otherwise exposing and retrieving the coal from the surface. The term shall include, but not be limited to, strip and auger mining and all surface activity connected with surface mining including exploration, site preparation, construction and activities related thereto. The term shall also include all activities in which the land surface has been disturbed as a result of, or incidental to, surface mining operations of the operator, including those related 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 where facilities, equipment, machines, tools or other materials or property which result from or are used in surface mining activities are situated.

"Surface mining activities" shall mean the extraction of coal from the earth or from waste or stock piles or from pits or banks by removing the strata or material which overlies or is above or between them or otherwise exposing and retrieving them from the surface, including, but not limited to, strip, auger mining, dredging, quarrying and leaching, and all surface activity connected with surface or underground mining, including, but not limited to, exploration, site preparation, entry, tunnel, drift, slope, shaft and borehole drilling and construction and activities related thereto, but not including those portions of mining operations carried out beneath the surface by means of shafts, tunnels or other underground mine openings. "Surface mining activities" shall not include any of the following:

(1) Extraction of coal or coal refuse removal pursuant to a government-financed reclamation contract for the purposes of section 4.8.
(2) Extraction of coal as an incidental part of Federal, State or local government-financed highway construction pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Environmental Quality Board.
(3) The reclamation of abandoned mine lands not involving extraction of coal or excess spoil disposal under a written agreement with the property owner and approved by the department.
(4) Activities not considered to be surface mining as determined by the United States Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement and set forth in department regulations.

"Terracing" shall mean grading where the steepest contour of the highwall shall not be greater than thirty-five (35) degrees from the horizontal, with the table portion of the restored area a flat terrace without depressions to hold water and with adequate provision for drainage, unless otherwise approved by the department.

"Total project costs" shall mean for the purposes of section 4.8 the entire cost of performing the government-financed reclamation contract as determined by the department even if the cost is assumed by the contractor pursuant to a no-cost contract with the department. In establishing the final contract price, the department shall consider the economic benefit resulting from coal extracted pursuant to the government-financed reclamation contract and deduct this amount from the contract price.

"Tract" shall mean a single parcel of land or two or more contiguous parcels of land with common ownership.

52 P.S. § 1396.3

Amended by P.L. 918 2012 No. 95, § 1, eff. 9/3/2012.
1945, May 31, P.L. 1198, § 3. Amended 1949, May 23, P.L. 1730, § 1; 1961, Sept. 2, P.L. 1210, § 1; 1968, Jan. 19, P.L. (1967) 1012, § 1; 1968, Dec. 10, P.L. 1167, No. 370, § 1; 1971, Nov. 30, P.L. 554, No. 147, § 2; 1972, Dec. 28, P.L. 1662, No. 355, § 1; 1977, July 25, P.L. 99, No. 36, § 1, imd. effective; 1980, Oct. 10, P.L. 835, No. 155, § 2, imd. effective; 1984, Oct. 4, P.L. 727, No. 158, § 2, effective in 60 days; 1992, Dec. 18, P.L. 1384, No. 173, § 2, effective in 60 days; 1996, May 22, P.L. 232, No. 43, § 1, effective in 60 days.
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