§ 15-57-402. Definitions

As used in this subchapter:

1. (1) “Active” means a quarry wall where extraction is occurring or is planned to occur;

2. (2) “Affected land” means the area of land to the nearest acre, where the quarrying of stone, industrial activity, and the stockpiling of topsoil and spoil occur;

3. (3) “Citation” means a written warning of a violation that may be accompanied by a fine when given two (2) times for the same violation;

4. (4) “Commission” means the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, or such commission or other entity as may lawfully succeed to the powers and duties of the commission;

5. (5) “Default” means an operation that has uncorrected violations of the requirements of this subchapter which allows the Division of Environmental Quality to forfeit the bond to have the site reclaimed as per the reclamation plan;

6. (6) [Repealed.]

7. (7) [Repealed.]

8. (8) “Exhausted quarry” means a quarry where the stone is depleted;

9. (9) “Fee” means the notification or annual operating payment made by the operator to the division. The amount cannot be changed except by legislative action. This fee will be payable on or before July 1 for all operating quarries in the current calendar year;

10. (10) “Final floor” means the bottom surface created in a quarry;

11. (11) “Final wall” means the last wall created in a quarry;

12. (12) “Fine” means a penalty for noncompliance which may accompany a second citation, except as provided in other sections of this subchapter for specific violations. Fines are not retroactive, and the amounts cannot be changed except by legislative action;

13. (13) “Inactive status” means the period of time a quarry is inactive or temporarily shutdown;

14. (14) “Notification in process” means that a notification of intent is on file and incomplete;

15. (15) “Notification of intent” is the operator’s proper notification to the division of the operator’s intent to open a quarry, to temporarily close a quarry, to reactivate a quarry, and to shut down an exhausted quarry;

16. (16) “Operator” means any person engaged in or controlling a quarrying operation;

17. (17) “Quarry” means an excavation or pit from which stone is removed;

18. (18) “Quarry rim” means the top surface of the quarry behind the wall from which has been removed the topsoil and spoil;

19. (19) “Reclamation plan” is a plan presented to the division by an operator detailing the reclamation and revegetation of lands affected by quarrying both contemporaneously and after the quarry is exhausted, and required by this subchapter;

20. (20) “Spoil” means the unconsolidated boulders, soil and other naturally occurring materials which lie above a deposit of quarriable stone, which must be excavated from above a deposit so that extraction can begin;

21. (21) “Start-up” means the date an operator begins site preparation for quarrying; and

22. (22) “Topsoil” means the top strata of soil normally associated with the growth of vegetation. It is generally free of boulders, cobbles, or other floating rock and exhibits the growing properties normally associated with, at a minimum, the pasturing of cattle.