The following words and terms, when used in the subchapter,
have the following meanings.
(1) 25-year, 24-hour rainfall event--The maximum rainfall
event with a probable recurrence interval of once in 25 years, with
a duration of 24 hours, as defined by the National Weather Service
and Technical Paper Number 40, "Rainfall Frequency Atlas of the U.S.,"
May 1961, and subsequent amendments; or equivalent regional or state
rainfall information.
(2) Aggregates--Any commonly recognized construction
material originating from a quarry or pit by the disturbance of the
surface, including dirt, soil, rock asphalt, granite, gravel, gypsum,
marble, sand, stone, caliche, limestone, dolomite, rock, riprap, or
other nonmineral substance. The term does not include clay or shale
mined for use in manufacturing structural clay products.
(3) Aquifer--A saturated permeable geologic unit that
can transmit, store, and yield to a well, the quality and quantities
of groundwater sufficient to provide for a beneficial use. An aquifer
can be composed of unconsolidated sands and gravels; permeable sedimentary
rocks, such as sandstones and limestones; and/or heavily fractured
volcanic and crystalline rocks. Groundwater within an aquifer can
be confined, unconfined, or perched.
(4) Best management practices--Any prohibition, management
practice, maintenance procedure, or schedule of activity designed
to prevent or reduce the pollution of water in the state. Best management
practices include treatment, specified operating procedures, and practices
to control site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal,
or drainage from raw material storage areas.
(5) Coke Stevenson Scenic Riverway -- The South Llano
River in Kimble County, located upstream of the river's confluence
with the North Llano River at the City of Junction.
(6) John Graves Scenic Riverway--That portion of the
Brazos River Basin, and its contributing watershed, located downstream
of the Morris Shepard Dam on the Possum Kingdom Reservoir in Palo
Pinto County, Texas, and extending to the county line between Parker
and Hood Counties, Texas.
(7) Natural hazard lands--Geographic areas in which
natural conditions exist that pose or, as a result of quarry operations,
may pose a threat to the health, safety, or welfare of people, property,
or the environment, including areas subject to landslides, cave-ins,
large or encroaching sand dunes, severe wind or soil erosion, frequent
flooding, avalanches, and areas of unstable geology.
(8) Navigable--Designated by the United States Geological
Survey (USGS) as perennial on the most recent topographic map(s) published
by the USGS, at a scale of 1:24,000.
(9) Operator--Any person engaged in or responsible
for the physical operation and control of a quarry.
(10) Overburden--All materials displaced in an aggregates
extraction operation that are not, or reasonably would not be expected
to be, removed from the affected area.
(11) Owner--Any person having title, wholly or partly,
to the land on which a quarry exists or has existed.
(12) Pit--An open excavation from which aggregates
have been, or are being, extracted with a depth of five feet or more
below the adjacent and natural ground level.
(13) Quarry--The site from which aggregates for commercial
sale are being, or have been, removed or extracted from the earth
to form a pit, including the entire excavation, stripped areas, haulage
ramps, and the immediately adjacent land on which the plant processing
the raw materials is located. The term does not include any land owned
or leased by the responsible party not being currently used in the
production of aggregates for commercial sale or an excavation to mine
clay or shale for use in manufacturing structural clay products.
(14) Quarrying--The current and ongoing surface excavation
and development without shafts, drafts, or tunnels, with or without
slopes, for the extraction of aggregates for commercial sale from
natural deposits occurring in the earth.
(15) Reclamation--The land treatment processes designed
to minimize degradation of water quality, damage to fish or wildlife
habitat, erosion, and other adverse effects from quarries. Reclamation
includes backfilling, soil stabilization and compacting, grading,
erosion control measures, appropriate revegetation, or other measures,
as appropriate.
(16) Responsible party--Any owner, operator, lessor,
or lessee who is primarily responsible for overall function and operation
of a quarry located in a water quality protection area.
(17) Restoration--Those actions necessary to change
the physical, chemical, and/or biological qualities of a receiving
water body in order to return the water body to its background condition.
Restoration includes on- and off-site stabilization to reduce or eliminate
an unauthorized discharge, or substantial threat of an unauthorized
discharge from the permitted site.
(18) Structural controls--Physical, constructed features
that prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants. Structural controls
include, but are not limited to, sedimentation/detention ponds; velocity
dissipation devices such as rock berms, vegetated berms, and buffers;
and silt fencing.
(19) Tertiary containment--A containment method by
which an additional wall or barrier is installed outside of the secondary
storage vessel or other secondary barrier in a manner designed to
prevent a release from migrating beyond the tertiary wall or barrier
before the release can be detected.
(20) Water body--Any navigable watercourse, river,
stream, or lake within a water quality protection area.
(21) Water quality protection areas--
(A) The portion of the Brazos River and its contributing
watershed, located downstream of the Morris Shepard Dam on the Possum
Kingdom Reservoir in Palo Pinto County, and extending to the county
line between Parker and Hood Counties, Texas; and
(B) the South Llano River and its contributing watershed
in Kimble County, located upstream of the river 's confluence with
the North Llano River at the City of Junction.
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