The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. (1) Abandoned--Having relinquished all right, title, claim, and possession with the intent of never again claiming a future right or title or resuming possession. (2) Act--The Texas Aggregate Quarry and Pit Safety Act, Natural Resources Code, Chapter 133, and this subchapter. (3) Active quarry or pit--A quarry or pit that has ongoing aggregate extraction activity or that shows evidence of aggregate extraction activity within the preceding 180-day period whether or not equipment or a plant is at the site. (4) Aggregates--Any commonly recognized construction material originating from a quarry or pit by the disturbance of the surface, including dirt, soil, rock asphalt, clay, granite, gravel, gypsum, marble, sand, shale, stone, caliche, limestone, dolomite, rock, riprap, or other similar substance. (5) Barrier--An object of substantial construction that will obstruct, restrain, and prevent the normal passage of persons or vehicular traffic. (6) Berm--A ridge of refuse, overburden, or other material in a lengthened elevation designed to act as a dike or barrier, capable of moderating or limiting the force of a vehicle in order to impede the passage of the vehicle. (7) Commission--Texas Transportation Commission. (8) Department--Texas Department of Transportation. (9) Director--The director of the Maintenance Division of the department, or the director's designee. (10) Division--The Maintenance Division of the department. (11) In hazardous proximity to a public road--That distance beginning 200 feet from the outer edge of a roadway to the pit perimeter. (12) Inactive quarry or pit--A site that includes an industrial aggregate extraction plant or any portion of a site that includes an industrial aggregate extraction plant, that although previously in aggregate production, is not currently being quarried by any ownership, lease, joint venturer, or some other legal arrangement. (13) Operator--Any person, partnership, firm, or corporation engaged in and responsible for the physical operation and control of the extraction of aggregates. (14) Overburden--All materials displaced in an aggregate extraction operation that are not or reasonably would not be expected to be removed from the affected area. The term includes the material that must be removed to access the aggregate that is to be extracted. (15) Owner--Any person, partnership, firm, or corporation having title, in whole or in part, to the land on which an aggregate operation exists or has existed. (16) Pit--An open excavation not less than five feet below the adjacent and natural ground level from which aggregates have been or are being extracted. (17) Public road or right of way--Every way publicly maintained or any part thereof as defined by Transportation Code, §541.302, and the decisions thereunder. (18) Quarry--A site where aggregates are being or have been removed or extracted from the earth to form a pit, including the entire excavation, stripped areas, haulage ramps, the land immediately adjacent thereto upon which a plant if required for processing the raw materials is located, exclusive of any land owned or leased by the responsible party that is not being currently used in the production of aggregates. (19) Quarrying--The current and ongoing surface excavation and development without shafts, drafts, or tunnels, with or without slopes, for the extraction of aggregates from natural deposits occurring in the earth. (20) Refuse--All waste material directly connected with the production, cleaning, or preparation of aggregates that have been produced by quarrying. (21) Responsible party--The current operator of the quarry or pit, or if no operator exists, the owner of the land in which the pit exists. (22) Ridge--A lengthened elevation of overburden created in the aggregate production process. (23) Roadway--The part of the public road intended for normal vehicular traffic that consists of an improved driving surface constructed of concrete, asphalt, compacted soil, rock, or other material. (24) Site--The tract of land on which a pit is located, including the immediate area on which the plant used in the extraction of aggregates is located. (25) Unacceptable unsafe location--A condition where the edge of a pit is located within 200 feet of a public roadway intersection in a manner that the department determines: (A) presents a significant risk of harm to motorists by reason of the proximity of the pit to the roadway intersection and has no naturally occurring or artificially constructed barrier or berm between the road and pit that would likely prevent a motor vehicle from entering the pit as the result of a motor vehicle collision at or near the intersection; or (B) is at any other location constituting a substantial dangerous risk to the driving public, which condition can be rectified by the placement of berms, barriers, guardrails, or other devices as required by this subchapter. |
