| (132) Professional engineer--A person who is duly licensed
by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors to
engage in the practice of engineering in this state.
(133) Professional geoscientist--A person who is duly
licensed by the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists to engage
in the practice of geoscience in this state.
(134) Professional specialist--A person whose training,
experience, and professional certification or licensing are acceptable
to the Commission for the limited purpose of performing certain specified
duties under this chapter.
(135) Prohibited financial interest--Any direct or
indirect financial interest in any coal mining operation.
(136) Property to be mined--Both the surface estates
and mineral estates within the permit area and the area covered by
underground workings.
(137) Public building--Any structure that is owned
or leased, and principally used by a governmental agency for public
business or meetings.
(138) Publicly-owned park--A public park that is owned
by a federal, state or local governmental entity.
(139) Public office--A facility under the direction
and control of a governmental entity which is open to public access
on a regular basis during reasonable business hours.
(140) Public park--An area or portion of an area dedicated
or designated by any federal, state, or local agency primarily for
public recreational use, whether or not such use is limited to certain
times or days, including any land leased, reserved, or held open to
the public because of that use.
(141) Public road--Any thoroughfare open to the public
for passage of vehicles.
(142) Qualified jurisdiction--A state or federal mining
regulatory authority that has a blaster certification program approved
by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation
and Enforcement, in accordance with the Federal Act.
(143) Qualified laboratory--A designated public agency,
private firm, institution, or analytical laboratory that can provide
the required determination of probable hydrologic consequences or
statement of results of test borings or core samplings or other services
as specified at §12.236 and §12.240 of this title (relating
to Program Services, and Data Requirements), and that meets the standards
of §12.241 of this title (relating to Qualified Laboratories).
(144) Rangeland--Land on which the natural potential
(climax) plant cover is principally native grasses, forbs, and shrubs
valuable for forage. This land includes natural grass lands and savannahs,
such as prairies, and juniper savannahs, such as brushlands. Except
for brush control, management is primarily achieved by regulating
the intensity of grazing and season of use.
(145) Recharge capacity--The ability of the soils and
underlying materials to allow precipitation and runoff to infiltrate
and reach the zone of saturation.
(146) Reciprocity--The conditional recognition by the
Commission of a blaster certificate issued by another qualified jurisdiction.
(147) Reclamation--Those actions taken to restore mined
land as required by this chapter to a postmining land use approved
by the Commission.
(148) Recurrence interval--The interval of time in
which a precipitation event is expected to occur once, on the average.
For example, the 10-year, 24-hour precipitation event would be that
24-hour precipitation event expected to occur on the average once
in 10 years.
(149) Reference area--A land unit maintained under
appropriate management for the purpose of measuring vegetation ground
cover, productivity and plant species diversity that are produced
naturally or by crop production methods approved by the Commission.
Reference areas must be representative of geology, soil, slope, and
vegetation in the permit area.
(150) Regional Director--A Regional Director of the
Office or a Regional Director's representative.
(151) Remining--Surface coal mining and reclamation
operations that affect previously mined areas.
(152) Renewable resource lands--Aquifers and areas
for the recharge of aquifers and other underground waters, areas for
agricultural or silvicultural production of food and fiber, and grazing
lands. With respect to Subchapter F of this chapter (relating to Lands
Unsuitable for Mining), geographic areas which contribute significantly
to the long-range productivity of water supply or of food or fiber
products, such lands to include aquifers and aquifer recharge areas.
(153) Replacement of water supply--With respect to
protected water supplies contaminated, diminished, or interrupted
by coal mining operations, provision of water supply on both a temporary
and permanent basis equivalent to premining quantity and quality.
Replacement includes provision of an equivalent water-delivery system
and payment of operation and maintenance costs in excess of customary
and reasonable delivery costs for premining water supplies.
(A) Upon agreement by the permittee and the water-supply
owner, the obligation to pay such operation and maintenance costs
may be satisfied by a one-time payment in an amount which covers the
present worth of the increased annual operation and maintenance costs
for a period agreed to by the permittee and the water-supply owner.
(B) If the affected water supply was not needed for
the land use in existence at the time of loss, contamination, or diminution,
and if the supply is not needed to achieve the postmining land use,
replacement requirements may be satisfied by demonstrating that a
suitable alternative water source is available and could feasibly
be developed. If the latter approach is selected, written concurrence
must be obtained from the water-supply owner.
(154) Road--A surface right-of-way for purposes of
travel by land vehicles used in surface coal mining and reclamation
operations or coal exploration. A road consists of the entire area
within the right-of-way, including the roadbed, shoulders, parking
and side areas, approaches, structures, ditches, and surface. The
term includes access and haulroads constructed, used, reconstructed,
improved, or maintained for use in surface coal mining and reclamation
operations or coal exploration, including use by coal-hauling vehicles
to and from transfer, processing, or storage areas. The term does
not include ramps and routes of travel within the immediate mining
area or within spoil or coal mine waste disposal areas.
(155) Safety factor--The ratio of the available shear
strength to the developed shear stress, or the ratio of the sum of
the resisting forces to the sum of the loading or driving forces,
as determined by accepted engineering practices.
(156) Secretary--The Secretary of the U.S. Department
of the Interior, or the Secretary's representative.
(157) Sedimentation pond--A primary sediment control
structure designed, constructed and maintained in accordance with §12.344
or §12.514 of this title (relating to Hydrologic Balance: Siltation
Structures) and including but not limited to a barrier, dam, or excavated
depression which slows down water runoff to allow sediment to settle
out. A sedimentation pond shall not include secondary sedimentation
control structures, such as straw dikes, riprap, check dams, mulches,
dugouts and other measures that reduce overland flow velocity, reduce
runoff volume or trap sediment to the extent that such secondary sedimentation
structures drain to a sedimentation pond.
(158) Significant forest cover--An existing plant community
consisting predominantly of trees and other woody vegetation.
(159) Significant, imminent environmental harm to land,
air or water resources--Determined in the following context:
(A) An environmental harm is an adverse impact on land,
air, or water resources, which resources include, but are not limited
to, plant and animal life.
(B) An environmental harm is imminent, if a condition,
practice, or violation exists which:
(i) is causing such harm; or
(ii) may reasonably be expected to cause such harm
at any time before the end of the reasonable abatement time that would
be set under §134.162 of the Act.
(C) An environmental harm is significant if that harm
is appreciable and not immediately reparable.
(160) Significant recreational, timber, economic, or
other values incompatible with surface coal mining operations--Those
significant values which could be damaged by, and are not capable
of existing together with, surface coal mining operations because
of the undesirable effects mining would have on those values, either
on the area included in the permit application or on other affected
areas. Those values to be evaluated for their significance include:
(A) recreation, including hiking, boating, camping,
skiing or other related outdoor activities;
(B) timber management and silviculture;
Cont'd... |
