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7 LONG TITLE
8 General Description:
9 This bill modifies provisions related to minerals and rock.
10 Highlighted Provisions:
11 This bill:
12 ▸ modifies definitions; and
13 ▸ makes technical changes.
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 2020, Chapter 110
21 40-8-4, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2020, Chapters 110 and 369
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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" means the same as that term is defined in Section 40-8-4[
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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(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" means the same as that term is defined in Section 40-8-4.
133 (20) "On-site" means the same as that term is defined in Section 40-8-4.
134 (21) "Planning commission" means:
135 (a) a countywide planning commission if the land proposed to be included in the
136 agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
137 protection area is within the unincorporated part of the county and not within a planning
138 advisory area;
139 (b) a planning advisory area planning commission if the land proposed to be included
140 in the agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
141 protection area is within a planning advisory area; or
142 (c) a planning commission of a city or town if the land proposed to be included in the
143 agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
144 protection area is within a city or town.
145 (22) "Political subdivision" means a county, city, town, school district, local district, or
146 special service district.
147 (23) "Proposal sponsors" means the owners of land in agricultural production,
148 industrial use, or critical infrastructure materials operations who are sponsoring the proposal
149 for creating an agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure
150 materials protection area.
151 (24) "State agency" means each department, commission, board, council, agency,
152 institution, officer, corporation, fund, division, office, committee, authority, laboratory, library,
153 unit, bureau, panel, or other administrative unit of the state.
154 (25) "Unincorporated" means not within a city or town.
155 (26) "Vested mining use" means a mining use:
156 (a) by a mine operator; and
157 (b) that existed or was conducted or otherwise engaged in before a political subdivision
158 prohibits, restricts, or otherwise limits a mining use.
159 Section 2. Section 40-8-4 is amended to read:
160 40-8-4. Definitions.
161 As used in this chapter:
162 (1) "Adjudicative proceeding" means:
163 (a) a division or board action or proceeding determining the legal rights, duties,
164 privileges, immunities, or other legal interests of one or more identifiable persons, including
165 actions to grant, deny, revoke, suspend, modify, annul, withdraw, or amend an authority, right,
166 permit, or license; or
167 (b) judicial review of a division or board action or proceeding specified in Subsection
168 (1)(a).
169 (2) "Applicant" means a person who has filed a notice of intent to commence mining
170 operations, or who has applied to the board for a review of a notice or order.
171 (3) (a) "Approved notice of intention" means a formally filed notice of intention to
172 commence mining operations, including revisions to the notice of intention that is approved
173 under Section 40-8-13.
174 (b) An approved notice of intention is not required for small mining operations.
175 (4) (a) "Basalt" means fine-grained[
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177 formed in the tertiary or quaternary periods.
178 (b) A Utah Geological Survey published map or [
179 Survey published [
180 evidence that the material meets the requirements of Subsection (4)(a). An unmapped area
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182 professional geologist licensed in the state.
183 (5) "Board" means the Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining.
184 (6) "Conference" means an informal adjudicative proceeding conducted by the division
185 or board.
186 (7) (a) "Deposit" or "mineral deposit" means an accumulation of mineral matter in the
187 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 Chapter 6, Board and Division of Oil, Gas, and
193 Mining, but includes oil shale and bituminous sands extracted by mining operations.
194 (8) "Development" means the work performed in relation to a deposit following the
195 deposit's discovery but before and in contemplation of production mining operations, aimed at[
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197 drilling or other means, conducting pilot plant operations, constructing roads or ancillary
198 facilities, and other related activities.
199 (9) "Division" means the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining.
200 (10) "Emergency order" means an order issued by the board in accordance with Title
201 63G, Chapter 4, Administrative Procedures Act.
202 (11) (a) "Exploration" means surface-disturbing activities conducted for the purpose of:
203 (i) discovering a deposit or mineral deposit;
204 (ii) delineating the boundaries of a deposit or mineral deposit; and
205 (iii) identifying regions or specific areas in which deposits or mineral deposits are most
206 likely to exist.
207 (b) "Exploration" includes:
208 (i) sinking shafts;
209 (ii) tunneling;
210 (iii) drilling holes and digging pits or cuts;
211 (iv) building of roads, and other access ways; and
212 (v) constructing and operating other facilities related to the activities described in this
213 Subsection (11)(b).
214 (12) "Gravel" means a naturally occurring unconsolidated to moderately consolidated
215 accumulation of rock and mineral particles, the dominant size range being between 4
216 millimeters and 75 millimeters, that has been deposited by sedimentary processes.
217 (13) "Hearing" means a formal adjudicative proceeding conducted by the board under
218 the board's procedural rules.
219 (14) (a) "Imminent danger to the health and safety of the public" means the existence
220 of a condition or practice, or a violation of a permit requirement or other requirement of this
221 chapter in a mining operation, which condition, practice, or violation could reasonably be
222 expected to cause substantial physical harm to persons outside the permit area before the
223 condition, practice, or violation can be abated.
224 (b) A reasonable expectation of death or serious injury before abatement exists if a
225 rational person, subjected to the same conditions or practices giving rise to the peril, would not
226 expose the rational person to the danger during the time necessary for abatement.
227 (15) (a) "Land affected" means the surface and subsurface of an area within the state
228 where mining operations are being or will be conducted, including:
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) Lands are excluded from Subsection (15)(a) that would:
241 (i) be includable as land affected, but which have been reclaimed in accordance with an
242 approved plan, as may be approved by the board; and
243 (ii) include lands in which mining operations have ceased before July 1, 1977.
244 (16) (a) "Mining operation" means activities conducted on the surface of the land for
245 the exploration for, development of, or extraction of a mineral deposit, including surface
246 mining and the surface effects of underground and in situ mining, on-site transportation,
247 concentrating, milling, evaporation, and other primary processing.
248 (b) "Mining operation" does not include:
249 (i) the extraction of sand, gravel, and rock aggregate;
250 (ii) the extraction of basalt for an area not to exceed 50 acres under active surface
251 mining;
252 (iii) the extraction of oil and gas as defined in Chapter 6, Board and Division of Oil,
253 Gas, and Mining;
254 (iv) the extraction of geothermal steam;
255 (v) smelting or refining operations;
256 (vi) off-site operations and transportation;
257 (vii) reconnaissance activities; or
258 (viii) activities that will not cause significant surface resource disturbance or involve
259 the use of mechanized earth-moving equipment, such as bulldozers or backhoes.
260 (17) "Notice" means:
261 (a) notice of intention, as defined in this chapter; or
262 (b) written information given to an operator by the division describing compliance
263 conditions at a mining operation.
264 (18) "Notice of intention" means a notice to commence mining operations, including
265 revisions to the notice.
266 (19) "Off-site" means the land areas that are outside of or beyond the on-site land.
267 (20) (a) "On-site" means the surface lands on or under which surface or underground
268 mining operations are conducted.
269 (b) A series of related properties under the control of a single operator, but separated
270 by small parcels of land controlled by others, are considered to be a single site unless an
271 exception is made by the division.
272 (21) "Operator" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver,
273 trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
274 representative, either public or private, owning, controlling, or managing a mining operation or
275 proposed mining operation.
276 (22) "Order" means written information provided by the division or board to an
277 operator or other parties, describing the compliance status of a permit or mining operation.
278 (23) "Owner" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver,
279 trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
280 representative, either public or private, owning, controlling, or managing a mineral deposit or
281 the surface of lands employed in mining operations.
282 (24) "Permit area" means the area of land indicated on the approved map submitted by
283 the operator with the application or notice to conduct mining operations.
284 (25) "Permit" means a permit or notice to conduct mining operations issued by the
285 division.
286 (26) "Permittee" means a person holding, or who is required by Utah law to hold, a
287 valid permit or notice to conduct mining operations.
288 (27) "Person" means an individual, partnership, association, society, joint stock
289 company, firm, company, corporation, or other governmental or business organization.
290 (28) "Reclamation" means actions performed during or after mining operations to
291 shape, stabilize, revegetate, or treat the land affected in order to achieve a safe, stable
292 ecological condition and use that is consistent with local environmental conditions.
293 (29) (a) "Rock aggregate" means those consolidated rock materials associated with a
294 sand deposit, a gravel deposit, or a sand and gravel deposit that were created by alluvial
295 sedimentary processes.
296 (b) "Rock aggregate" excludes any solid rock in the form of bedrock, other than basalt,
297 that is exposed at the surface of the earth or overlain by unconsolidated material.
298 (30) "Sand" means a naturally occurring unconsolidated to moderately consolidated
299 accumulation of rock and mineral particles, the dominant size range being between .004
300 millimeters to 4 millimeters, that has been deposited by sedimentary processes.
301 (31) "Small mining operations" means mining operations that disturb or will disturb 20
302 or less surface acres at any given time in an unincorporated area of a county or 10 or less
303 surface acres at any given time in an incorporated area of a county.
304 (32) "Unwarranted failure to comply" means the failure of a permittee to prevent the
305 occurrence of a violation of the permit or a requirement of this chapter due to indifference, lack
306 of diligence, or lack of reasonable care, or the failure to abate a violation of the permit or this
307 chapter due to indifference, lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care.