Chapter 16.04
SURFACE MINING
Sections:
16.04.020 Surface mining administrator.
16.04.050 Operational requirements.
16.04.060 County mining operations.
16.04.070 Operational requirements.
16.04.080 Reclamation for county surface mining site.
16.04.010 Purpose.
The purpose of this chapter is to permit Crook County under ORS 517.780 to take responsibility for its surface mining operations while leaving control of private surface mining with the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and other Crook County ordinances, to establish a local surface mining administrator, and to adopt rules. (Ord. 25 § 1, 1983)
16.04.020 Surface mining administrator.
The surface mining administrator is hereby appointed. The administrator shall be the Crook County roadmaster. (Ord. 25 § 2, 1983)
16.04.030 Definitions.
(1) “Landowner” means a person possessing fee title to a site where surface mining takes place.
(2) “Mineral” includes soil, coal, clay, stone, sand, gravel, metallic ore, and any other inorganic solid excavated from a natural deposit in the earth for commercial, industrial or construction use.
(3) “Overburden” means earth that lies above a natural deposit of a mineral.
(4) “Reclamation” means activity to minimize disruption by surface mining or to rehabilitate earth surface adversely affected by such mining.
(5) “Processing” includes, but is not limited to, crushing, washing, milling and screening as well as the batching and blending of mineral aggregate into asphaltic and Portland cement concrete products located within the operating area.
(6) “Surface mining”:
(a) Includes the mining of minerals by removing overburden and extracting a natural mineral deposit thereby exposed, or simply such extraction;
(b) Includes open-pit mining, auger mining, production of surface mining waste, prospecting and exploring that extracts minerals or affects land, and excavation of adjacent or off-site borrow pits, other than those excavated for building access roads;
(c) Does not include excavation by a landowner or tenant primarily for the purpose of constructing or maintaining an access road, farming, operating a cemetery, or on-site construction; and
(d) Does not include removing material from a bed or bank of state water under a permit authorized by ORS 541.705 to 541.660. (Ord. 25 § 3, 1983)
16.04.040 Permit requirement.
(1) Only under a state permit may a person other than the county engage in surface mining in which during 12 consecutive months more than 2,500 cubic yards of minerals are extracted or land equivalent in area to one acre or more is affected.
(2) An owner of land may allow such mining on the land by a person required to have a state permit only if that person is carrying on the mining under such permit.
(3) All surface mining, regardless of size, shall be conducted in accordance with the ordinances of Crook County. (Ord. 25 § 4, 1983)
16.04.050 Operational requirements.
A person engaged in surface mining under a state permit shall carry on the mining in accordance with the operational requirements of state law. (Ord. 25 § 5, 1983)
16.04.060 County mining operations.
All surface mining operations of the county shall comply with the Crook County surface mining and reclamation ordinance. (Ord. 25 § 6, 1983)
16.04.070 Operational requirements.
(1) The county surface mining administrator shall see that the mining meets all operation requirements on all county-operated surface mines.
(2) An access or service road, while used for the mining, shall be maintained to minimize dust on thoroughfares and residences off the property being mined.
(3) Screening of the mining site may be desirable to obscure the view or minimize dust and other annoyance from adjoining occupied property and adjacent public thoroughfares. Unless an alternative is appropriate, the screening shall be at the boundary of the property on which the site is located and shall be accomplished by an ornamental fence or wall, a landscaped berm or preservation of a natural slope, or vegetation.
(4) If sound from the county surface mining exceeds the maximum permitted by the State Department of Environmental Quality for a new industry, a berm shall be installed near the site to reduce the sound off the site to a level permitted by the department for a new industry.
(5) Vehicular parking off public thoroughfares shall be available for employees, customers and visitors at the mining site.
(6) Where a surface mining pit is located within 20 feet of a public thoroughfare or of a structure in which one or more persons reside, a fence to control access to the site shall be maintained.
(7) Erosion shall be controlled in accordance with an erosion control plan approved by the county court.
(8) Reclamation shall be affected in accordance with the reclamation plan approved by the county court.
(9) Excavation shall be away from the property line a distance adequate to maintain a fence on the property line and such additional distance as is necessary to allow a normal safe angle of repose during operations and provide the slopes identified in the reclamation plan for the depth of final excavation. (Ord. 25 § 7, 1983)
16.04.080 Reclamation for county surface mining site.
A plan for reclaiming land used for county surface mining shall state a timetable for continually protecting the land during mining and for reclaiming the land. The timetable shall provide in part for beginning reclamation within 12 months after the mining activity ceases on any segment of the area where the mining has occurred and for completing reclamation within three years after the mining ceases. If stated in the plan, the reclamation may be for a use other than the use of the land before the mining.
The county surface mining administrator shall see that the plan is executed.
The plan shall provide for the following, where applicable:
(1) Rehabilitation of stream channels and banks to prevent erosion, sedimentation and other water-polluting effects of stream flow from exceeding their degree before the mining.
(2) Sloping and other control to stabilize final surfaces and minimize public hazards.
(3) Vegetating disturbed areas in a manner conducive to restoring them to a natural state or to a state consistent with the future use stated in the reclamation plan.
(4) Preventing pools of water from becoming public nuisance or health hazards.
(5) Providing shoreline safety by use of a slope to permit safe entry to and exit from the water to a point five feet below the water level for all water levels to be experienced during any year, or an equivalent form of shoreline safety.
(6) Removing structures and equipment that otherwise would be abandoned after termination of the mining.
(7) Otherwise minimizing the adverse impact of the mined land on the liveability, value and appropriate development of adjacent property, at least to the extent that adjacent property could be adversely affected by other common development that is allowable on the mined property. (Ord. 25 § 8, 1983)