1     
MINING OPERATIONS AMENDMENTS

2     
2020 GENERAL SESSION

3     
STATE OF UTAH

4     
Chief Sponsor: Walt Brooks

5     
Senate Sponsor: Don L. Ipson

6     

7     LONG TITLE
8     General Description:
9          This bill addresses mining.
10     Highlighted Provisions:
11          This bill:
12          ▸     modifies definitions under the Utah Mined Land Reclamation Act; and
13          ▸     makes technical corrections.
14     Money Appropriated in this Bill:
15          None
16     Other Special Clauses:
17          None
18     Utah Code Sections Affected:
19     AMENDS:
20          17-41-101, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2019, Chapter 227
21          40-8-4, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2011, Chapter 231
22     

23     Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
24          Section 1. Section 17-41-101 is amended to read:
25          17-41-101. Definitions.
26          As used in this chapter:
27          (1) "Advisory board" means:
28          (a) for an agriculture protection area, the agriculture protection area advisory board
29     created as provided in Section 17-41-201;
30          (b) for an industrial protection area, the industrial protection area advisory board
31     created as provided in Section 17-41-201; and
32          (c) for a critical infrastructure materials protection area, the critical infrastructure
33     materials protection area advisory board created as provided in Section 17-41-201.
34          (2) (a) "Agriculture production" means production for commercial purposes of crops,
35     livestock, and livestock products.
36          (b) "Agriculture production" includes the processing or retail marketing of any crops,
37     livestock, and livestock products when more than 50% of the processed or merchandised
38     products are produced by the farm operator.
39          (3) "Agriculture protection area" means a geographic area created under the authority
40     of this chapter that is granted the specific legal protections contained in this chapter.
41          (4) "Applicable legislative body" means:
42          (a) with respect to a proposed agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or
43     critical infrastructure materials protection area:
44          (i) the legislative body of the county in which the land proposed to be included in the
45     relevant protection area is located, if the land is within the unincorporated part of the county; or
46          (ii) the legislative body of the city or town in which the land proposed to be included in
47     the relevant protection area is located; and
48          (b) with respect to an existing agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or
49     critical infrastructure materials protection area:
50          (i) the legislative body of the county in which the relevant protection area is located, if
51     the relevant protection area is within the unincorporated part of the county; or
52          (ii) the legislative body of the city or town in which the relevant protection area is
53     located.
54          (5) "Board" means the Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining created in Section 40-6-4.
55          (6) "Critical infrastructure materials" means sand, gravel, or rock aggregate.
56          (7) "Critical infrastructure materials operations" means the extraction, excavation,
57     processing, or reprocessing of critical infrastructure materials.
58          (8) "Critical infrastructure materials operator" means a natural person, corporation,
59     association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or
60     other organization or representative, either public or private, including a successor, assign,
61     affiliate, subsidiary, and related parent company, that:
62          (a) owns, controls, or manages a critical infrastructure materials operation; and
63          (b) has produced commercial quantities of critical infrastructure materials from the
64     critical infrastructure materials operations.
65          (9) "Critical infrastructure materials protection area" means a geographic area created
66     under the authority of this chapter on or after May 14, 2019, that is granted the specific legal
67     protections contained in this chapter.
68          (10) "Crops, livestock, and livestock products" includes:
69          (a) land devoted to the raising of useful plants and animals with a reasonable
70     expectation of profit, including:
71          (i) forages and sod crops;
72          (ii) grains and feed crops;
73          (iii) livestock as defined in Section 59-2-102;
74          (iv) trees and fruits; or
75          (v) vegetables, nursery, floral, and ornamental stock; or
76          (b) land devoted to and meeting the requirements and qualifications for payments or
77     other compensation under a crop-land retirement program with an agency of the state or federal
78     government.
79          (11) "Division" means the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining created in Section
80     40-6-15.
81          (12) "Industrial protection area" means a geographic area created under the authority of
82     this chapter that is granted the specific legal protections contained in this chapter.
83          (13) "Mine operator" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
84     receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
85     representative, either public or private, including a successor, assign, affiliate, subsidiary, and
86     related parent company, that, as of January 1, 2009:
87          (a) owns, controls, or manages a mining use under a large mine permit issued by the
88     division or the board; and
89          (b) has produced commercial quantities of a mineral deposit from the mining use.
90          (14) "Mineral deposit" [has the same meaning as] means the same as that term is
91     defined in Section 40-8-4, but excludes:
92          (a) building stone, decorative rock, and landscaping rock; and
93          (b) consolidated rock that:
94          (i) is not associated with another deposit of minerals;
95          (ii) is or may be extracted from land; and
96          (iii) is put to uses similar to the uses of sand, gravel, and other aggregates.
97          (15) "Mining protection area" means land where a vested mining use occurs, including
98     each surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that a mine operator with a vested mining use
99     owns or controls.
100          (16) "Mining use":
101          (a) means:
102          (i) the full range of activities, from prospecting and exploration to reclamation and
103     closure, associated with the exploitation of a mineral deposit; and
104          (ii) the use of the surface and subsurface and groundwater and surface water of an area
105     in connection with the activities described in Subsection (16)(a)(i) that have been, are being, or
106     will be conducted; and
107          (b) includes, whether conducted on-site or off-site:
108          (i) any sampling, staking, surveying, exploration, or development activity;
109          (ii) any drilling, blasting, excavating, or tunneling;
110          (iii) the removal, transport, treatment, deposition, and reclamation of overburden,
111     development rock, tailings, and other waste material;
112          (iv) any removal, transportation, extraction, beneficiation, or processing of ore;
113          (v) any smelting, refining, autoclaving, or other primary or secondary processing
114     operation;
115          (vi) the recovery of any mineral left in residue from a previous extraction or processing
116     operation;
117          (vii) a mining activity that is identified in a work plan or permitting document;
118          (viii) the use, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, or alteration of a building,
119     structure, facility, equipment, machine, tool, or other material or property that results from or is
120     used in a surface or subsurface mining operation or activity;
121          (ix) any accessory, incidental, or ancillary activity or use, both active and passive,
122     including a utility, private way or road, pipeline, land excavation, working, embankment, pond,
123     gravel excavation, mining waste, conveyor, power line, trackage, storage, reserve, passive use
124     area, buffer zone, and power production facility;
125          (x) the construction of a storage, factory, processing, or maintenance facility; and
126          (xi) any activity described in Subsection 40-8-4 [(14)] (16)(a).
127          (17) (a) "Municipal" means of or relating to a city or town.
128          (b) "Municipality" means a city or town.
129          (18) "New land" means surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that a mine
130     operator gains ownership or control of, whether that land or mineral estate is included in the
131     mine operator's large mine permit.
132          (19) "Off-site" [has the same meaning as provided in] means the same as that term is
133     defined in Section 40-8-4.
134          (20) "On-site" [has the same meaning as provided in] means the same as that term is
135     defined in Section 40-8-4.
136          (21) "Planning commission" means:
137          (a) a countywide planning commission if the land proposed to be included in the
138     agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
139     protection area is within the unincorporated part of the county and not within a planning
140     advisory area;
141          (b) a planning advisory area planning commission if the land proposed to be included
142     in the agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
143     protection area is within a planning advisory area; or
144          (c) a planning commission of a city or town if the land proposed to be included in the
145     agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
146     protection area is within a city or town.
147          (22) "Political subdivision" means a county, city, town, school district, local district, or
148     special service district.
149          (23) "Proposal sponsors" means the owners of land in agricultural production,
150     industrial use, or critical infrastructure materials operations who are sponsoring the proposal
151     for creating an agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure
152     materials protection area.
153          (24) "State agency" means each department, commission, board, council, agency,
154     institution, officer, corporation, fund, division, office, committee, authority, laboratory, library,
155     unit, bureau, panel, or other administrative unit of the state.
156          (25) "Unincorporated" means not within a city or town.
157          (26) "Vested mining use" means a mining use:
158          (a) by a mine operator; and
159          (b) that existed or was conducted or otherwise engaged in before a political subdivision
160     prohibits, restricts, or otherwise limits a mining use.
161          Section 2. Section 40-8-4 is amended to read:
162          40-8-4. Definitions.
163          As used in this chapter:
164          (1) "Adjudicative proceeding" means:
165          (a) a division or board action or proceeding determining the legal rights, duties,
166     privileges, immunities, or other legal interests of one or more identifiable persons, including
167     actions to grant, deny, revoke, suspend, modify, annul, withdraw, or amend an authority, right,
168     permit, or license; or
169          (b) judicial review of a division or board action or proceeding specified in Subsection
170     (1)(a).
171          (2) "Applicant" means a person who has filed a notice of intent to commence mining
172     operations, or who has applied to the board for a review of a notice or order.
173          (3) (a) "Approved notice of intention" means a formally filed notice of intention to
174     commence mining operations, including revisions to it, which has been approved under Section
175     40-8-13.
176          (b) An approved notice of intention is not required for small mining operations.
177          (4) (a) "Basalt" means fine grained, dark-colored igneous rock associated with a lava
178     flow or igneous intrusion composed primarily of plagioclase and pyroxene.
179          (b) Utah Geological Survey or the United States Geological Survey published maps
180     that classify material as "basalt" is prima facie evidence that the material meets the
181     requirements of Subsection (4)(a). An unmapped area can be classified by a Utah Geological
182     Survey Geologist or a licensed professional geologist in the state.
183          [(4)] (5) "Board" means the Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining.
184          [(5)] (6) "Conference" means an informal adjudicative proceeding conducted by the
185     division or board.
186          [(6)] (7) (a) "Deposit" or "mineral deposit" means an accumulation of mineral matter in
187     the form of consolidated rock, unconsolidated material, solutions, or occurring on the surface,
188     beneath the surface, or in the waters of the land from which any product useful to man may be
189     produced, extracted, or obtained or which is extracted by underground mining methods for
190     underground storage.
191          (b) "Deposit" or "mineral deposit" excludes sand, gravel, rock aggregate, basalt, water,
192     geothermal steam, and oil and gas as defined in Title 40, Chapter 6, Board and Division of Oil,
193     Gas, and Mining, but includes oil shale and bituminous sands extracted by mining operations.
194          [(7)] (8) "Development" means the work performed in relation to a deposit following
195     [its] the deposit's discovery but [prior to] before and in contemplation of production mining
196     operations, aimed at, but not limited to, preparing the site for mining operations, defining
197     further the ore deposit by drilling or other means, conducting pilot plant operations,
198     constructing roads or ancillary facilities, and other related activities.
199          [(8)] (9) "Division" means the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining.
200          [(9)] (10) "Emergency order" means an order issued by the board in accordance with
201     [the provisions of] Title 63G, Chapter 4, Administrative Procedures Act.
202          [(10)] (11) (a) "Exploration" means surface-disturbing activities conducted for the
203     purpose of discovering a deposit or mineral deposit, delineating the boundaries of a deposit or
204     mineral deposit, and identifying regions or specific areas in which deposits or mineral deposits
205     are most likely to exist.
206          (b) "Exploration" includes[, but is not limited to]:
207          (i) sinking shafts;
208          (ii) tunneling;
209          (iii) drilling holes and digging pits or cuts;
210          (iv) building of roads, and other access ways; and
211          (v) constructing and operating other facilities related to [these] the activities described
212     in this Subsection (11)(b).
213          (12) "Gravel" means a naturally occurring unconsolidated to moderately consolidated
214     accumulation of rock and mineral particles, the dominant size range being between 4
215     millimeters and 75 millimeters, that has been deposited by sedimentary processes.
216          [(11)] (13) "Hearing" means a formal adjudicative proceeding conducted by the board
217     under [its] the board's procedural rules.
218          [(12)] (14) (a) "Imminent danger to the health and safety of the public" means the
219     existence of a condition or practice, or a violation of a permit requirement or other requirement
220     of this chapter in a mining operation, which condition, practice, or violation could reasonably
221     be expected to cause substantial physical harm to persons outside the permit area before the
222     condition, practice, or violation can be abated.
223          (b) A reasonable expectation of death or serious injury before abatement exists if a
224     rational person, subjected to the same conditions or practices giving rise to the peril, would not
225     expose [himself or herself] the rational person to the danger during the time necessary for
226     abatement.
227          [(13)] (15) (a) "Land affected" means the surface and subsurface of an area within the
228     state where mining operations are being or will be conducted, including[, but not limited to]:
229          (i) on-site private ways, roads, and railroads;
230          (ii) land excavations;
231          (iii) exploration sites;
232          (iv) drill sites or workings;
233          (v) refuse banks or spoil piles;
234          (vi) evaporation or settling ponds;
235          (vii) stockpiles;
236          (viii) leaching dumps;
237          (ix) placer areas;
238          (x) tailings ponds or dumps; and
239          (xi) work, parking, storage, or waste discharge areas, structures, and facilities.
240          (b) [All lands shall be] Lands are excluded from [the provisions of] Subsection [(13)]
241     (15)(a) that would:
242          (i) be includable as land affected, but which have been reclaimed in accordance with an
243     approved plan, as may be approved by the board; and
244          (ii) include lands in which mining operations have ceased [prior to] before July 1,
245     1977.
246          [(14)] (16) (a) "Mining operation" means activities conducted on the surface of the
247     land for the exploration for, development of, or extraction of a mineral deposit, including[, but
248     not limited to,] surface mining and the surface effects of underground and in situ mining,
249     on-site transportation, concentrating, milling, evaporation, and other primary processing.
250          (b) "Mining operation" does not include:
251          (i) the extraction of sand, gravel, and rock aggregate;
252          (ii) the extraction of basalt for an area not to exceed 50 acres under active surface
253     mining;
254          [(ii)] (iii) the extraction of oil and gas as defined in Title 40, Chapter 6, Board and
255     Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining;
256          [(iii)] (iv) the extraction of geothermal steam;
257          [(iv)] (v) smelting or refining operations;
258          [(v)] (vi) off-site operations and transportation;
259          [(vi)] (vii) reconnaissance activities; or
260          [(vii)] (viii) activities [which] that will not cause significant surface resource
261     disturbance or involve the use of mechanized earth-moving equipment, such as bulldozers or
262     backhoes.
263          [(15)] (17) "Notice" means:
264          (a) notice of intention, as defined in this chapter; or
265          (b) written information given to an operator by the division describing compliance
266     conditions at a mining operation.
267          [(16)] (18) "Notice of intention" means a notice to commence mining operations,
268     including revisions to the notice.
269          [(17)] (19) "Off-site" means the land areas that are outside of or beyond the on-site
270     land.
271          [(18)] (20) (a) "On-site" means the surface lands on or under which surface or
272     underground mining operations are conducted.
273          (b) A series of related properties under the control of a single operator, but separated
274     by small parcels of land controlled by others, [will be] are considered to be a single site unless
275     an exception is made by the division.
276          [(19)] (21) "Operator" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
277     receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
278     representative, either public or private, owning, controlling, or managing a mining operation or
279     proposed mining operation.
280          [(20)] (22) "Order" means written information provided by the division or board to an
281     operator or other parties, describing the compliance status of a permit or mining operation.
282          [(21)] (23) "Owner" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
283     receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
284     representative, either public or private, owning, controlling, or managing a mineral deposit or
285     the surface of lands employed in mining operations.
286          [(22)] (24) "Permit area" means the area of land indicated on the approved map
287     submitted by the operator with the application or notice to conduct mining operations.
288          [(23)] (25) "Permit" means a permit or notice to conduct mining operations issued by
289     the division.
290          [(24)] (26) "Permittee" means a person holding, or who is required by Utah law to
291     hold, a valid permit or notice to conduct mining operations.
292          [(25)] (27) "Person" means an individual, partnership, association, society, joint stock
293     company, firm, company, corporation, or other governmental or business organization.
294          [(26)] (28) "Reclamation" means actions performed during or after mining operations
295     to shape, stabilize, revegetate, or treat the land affected in order to achieve a safe, stable,
296     ecological condition and use [which will be] that is consistent with local environmental
297     conditions.
298          (29) (a) "Rock aggregate" means those consolidated rock materials associated with a
299     sand deposit, a gravel deposit, or a sand and gravel deposit that were created by alluvial
300     sedimentary processes.
301          (b) "Rock aggregate" excludes any solid rock in the form of bedrock, other than basalt,
302     that is exposed at the surface of the earth or overlain by unconsolidated material.
303          (30) "Sand" means a naturally occurring unconsolidated to moderately consolidated
304     accumulation of rock and mineral particles, the dominant size range being between .004
305     millimeters to 4 millimeters, that has been deposited by sedimentary processes.
306          [(27)] (31) "Small mining operations" means mining operations that disturb or will
307     disturb 10 or less surface acres at any given time in an unincorporated area of a county or five
308     or less surface acres at any given time in an incorporated area of a county.
309          [(28)] (32) "Unwarranted failure to comply" means the failure of a permittee to prevent
310     the occurrence of a violation of the permit or a requirement of this chapter due to indifference,
311     lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care, or the failure to abate a violation of the permit or
312     this chapter due to indifference, lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care.