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In this chapter:

(1) Alternative requirement – means an alternative to the reclamation standards of this chapter provided through a written authorization granted by Kenosha County Department of Planning and Development pursuant to section 13.03-7.

(2) Applicable reclamation ordinance – means a non-metallic mining reclamation ordinance, including this chapter, that applies to a particular non-metallic mining site and complies with the requirements of this Chapter NR 135, Wisconsin Administrative Code and subchapter I of ch. 295, Stats., unless the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is the regulatory authority as defined in section 13.01-10(20)(c). If the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is the regulatory authority, “applicable reclamation ordinance” means the relevant and applicable provisions of Chapter NR 135, Wisconsin Administrative Code.

(2m) Borrow site – means an area outside of a transportation project site from which stone, soil, sand or gravel is excavated for use at the project site, except the term does not include commercial sources.

(3) Contemporaneous reclamation – means the sequential or progressive reclamation of portions of the non-metallic mining site affected by mining operations that is performed in advance of final site reclamation, but which may or may not be final reclamation, performed to minimize the area exposed to erosion, at any one time, by non-metallic mining activities.

(4) Department – means the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

(6) Environmental pollution – has the meaning in s. 295.11(2), Stats.

(7) Fee Schedule – means the Kenosha County Department of Planning and Development Fee Schedule, on file at the office of the Kenosha County Department of Planning and Development, 19600 75th Street, Bristol, WI 53104-0520.

(8) Financial assurance – means a commitment of funds or resources by an operator to a regulatory authority that satisfies the requirements in section 13.03-3 and is sufficient to pay for reclamation activities required by this chapter.

(8m) Highwall – means a vertical face in solid rock or a slope of consolidated or unconsolidated material that exceeds 3:1.

(9) Landowner – means the person who has title to land in fee simple or who holds a land contract for the land. A landowner is not a person who owns non-metallic mineral rights to land, if a different person possesses title to that land in fee simple or holds a land contract for that land.

(9m) Licensed professional geologist – means a person who is licensed as a professional geologist pursuant to ch. 470. Stats.

(10) Municipality – means any county, city, town or village.

(11) Non-metallic mineral – means a product, commodity or material consisting principally of naturally occurring, organic or inorganic, non-metallic, nonrenewable material. Non-metallic minerals include, but are not limited to, stone, sand, gravel, asbestos, beryl, diamond, clay, coal, feldspar, peat, talc and topsoil.

(13) Non-metallic mining or mining – means all of following:

(a) Operations or activities at a non-metallic mining site for the extraction from the earth of mineral aggregates or non-metallic minerals for sale or use by the operator. Non-metallic mining includes use of mining equipment or techniques to remove materials from the in-place non-metallic mineral deposit, including drilling and blasting, as well as associated activities such as excavation, grading and dredging. Non-metallic mining does not include removal from the earth of products or commodities that contain only minor or incidental amounts of non-metallic minerals, such as commercial sod, agricultural crops, ornamental or garden plants, forest products, Christmas trees or plant nursery stock.

(b) Processes carried out at a non-metallic mining site that are related to the preparation or processing of the mineral aggregates or non-metallic minerals obtained from the non-metallic mining site. These processes include, but are not limited to stockpiling of materials, blending mineral aggregates or non-metallic minerals with other mineral aggregates or non-metallic minerals, blasting, grading, crushing, screening, scalping and dewatering.

(14) Non-metallic mining reclamation or reclamation – means the rehabilitation of a non-metallic mining site to achieve a land use specified in a non-metallic mining reclamation plan approved under this chapter, including removal or reuse of non-metallic mining refuse, grading of the non-metallic mining site, removal, storage and replacement of topsoil, stabilization of soil conditions, reestablishment of vegetative cover, control of surface water and groundwater, prevention of environmental pollution and if practicable the restoration of plant, fish and wildlife habitat.

(15) Non-metallic mining refuse – means waste soil, rock and mineral, as well as other natural site material resulting from non-metallic mining. Non-metallic mining refuse does not include marketable by-products resulting directly from or displaced by the non-metallic mining that are scheduled to be removed from the non-metallic mining site within a reasonable period of time after extraction.

(16) Non-metallic mining site or site – means all contiguous areas of present or proposed mining described in Section 13.01-10(16)(a), subject to the qualifications in Section 13.01-10(16)(b).

(a) Non-metallic mining site means the following:

1. The location where non-metallic mining is proposed or conducted.

2. Storage and processing areas that are in or contiguous to areas excavated for non-metallic mining.

3. Areas where non-metallic mining refuse is deposited.

4. Areas affected by activities such as the construction or improvement of private roads or haulage ways for non-metallic mining.

5. Areas where grading or regrading is necessary.

6. Areas where non-metallic mining reclamation activities are carried out or structures needed for non-metallic mining reclamation, such as topsoil stockpile areas, revegetation test plots, or channels for surface water diversion, are located.

(b) Non-metallic mine site – does not include any of the following areas:

1. Those portions of sites listed in Section 13.01-10(16)(a) not used for non-metallic mining or purposes related to non-metallic mining after, August 1, 2001.

2. Separate, previously mined areas that are not used for non-metallic mineral extraction after, August 1, 2001, and are not contiguous to mine sites, including separate areas that are connected to active mine sites by public or private roads.

3. Areas previously mined but used after, August 1, 2001, for a non-mining activity, such as stockpiles of materials used for an industrial process unrelated to non-metallic mining.

(17) Operator – means any person who is engaged in, or who has applied for a permit to engage in, non-metallic mining, whether individually, jointly or through subsidiaries, agents, employees, contractors or subcontractors.

(17m) Person – means an individual, owner, operator, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, association, county, municipality, interstate agency, state agency or federal agency.

(18) Registered professional engineer – means a person who is registered as a professional engineer pursuant to ss. 443.04.

(19) Regulatory authority – means the following:

(a) The county in which the nonmetallic mining site is located, that has an applicable reclamation ordinance under s. 295.13, Stats, except where a municipality has adopted an applicable reclamation ordinance pursuant to Section 13.01-10(20)(b).

(b) The municipality in which the nonmetallic mining site is located and which has adopted an applicable reclamation ordinance under s. 295.14, Stats.

(c) The department, in cases where a county mining reclamation program is no longer in effect under s. 295.14, Stats, but only if there is no applicable reclamation ordinance enacted by the municipality in which the nonmetallic mining site is located.

(20) Replacement of topsoil – means the replacement or redistribution of topsoil or topsoil substitute material to all areas where topsoil was actually removed or affected by non-metallic for the purposes of providing adequate vegetative cover and stabilization of soil conditions needed to achieve the approved post-mining land use and as required by the reclamation plan approved pursuant to this chapter.

(21) Solid waste – means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded or salvageable materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solids or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under ch. 283, Stats., or source material, special nuclear material or by product material, as defined in s. 254.31(1), Stats.

(22) Topsoil – means the surface layer of soil which is generally more fertile than the underlying soil layers, which is the natural medium for plant growth and which can provide the plant growth, soil stability and other attributes necessary to meet the success standards approved in the reclamation plan.

(23) Topsoil substitute material – means soil or other unconsolidated material either used alone or mixed with other beneficial materials and which can provide the plant growth, site stability and other attributes necessary to meet the success standards approved in the reclamation plan.

(24) Unreclaimed acre or unreclaimed acres –

(a) means those unreclaimed areas in which non-metallic mining has occurred after, August 1, 2001, and areas where non-metallic mining reclamation has been completed but is not yet certified as reclaimed under section 13.04-7(3). However the term does not include any areas described in Section 13.01-10(24)(b).

(b) Does not include:

1. Those areas where reclamation has been completed and certified as reclaimed under section 13.04-7(3).

2. Those areas previously affected by non-metallic mining but which are not used for non-metallic mining after, August 1, 2001.

3. Those portions of non-metallic mining sites which are included in a non-metallic mining reclamation plan approved pursuant to this chapter but are not yet affected by non-metallic mining.

4. Areas previously mined but used after, August 1, 2001, for a non-mining activity, such as stockpiling of materials used for an industrial activity such as an asphalt plant, concrete batch plant, block and tile operation or other industry that uses products produced from non-metallic mining.

5. For purposes of fees under section 13.04-5, those areas within a non-metallic mining site which Kenosha County Department of Planning and Development, Division of County Development has determined to have been successfully reclaimed on an interim basis in accordance with section 13.04-7(3). [Code § 13.01-10.]