§22-4-1. Short Title
This article shall be known and may be cited as the Quarry Reclamation Act.
§22-4-10. Modification of Permits
(a) Prior to expanding or otherwise altering quarrying operations beyond the activities authorized under an existing quarry permit, a permittee shall obtain approval for modification from the director. The application shall be in writing on forms provided by the division, or the application may be submitted electronically. Applicants shall verify electronic submissions by signed affidavit. […]
§22-4-11. Transfer of Permits
(a) When the interest of a permittee of any quarry operation is sold, leased, assigned, or otherwise disposed of, the director may transfer the permit and shall release the transferor from his or her liabilities imposed by this article or rules issued under this article if both the transferor and transferee have complied with the […]
§22-4-12. Preblast Survey Requirements
(a) For all new permits issued after the effective date of this section, at least thirty days prior to commencing blasting, an operator or an operator's designee shall make the following notifications in writing to all owners and occupants of protected structures that the operator or operator's designee will perform preblast surveys in accordance with […]
§22-4-13. Blasting Restrictions; Blasting Formula; Filing Preplan; Site Specific Blasting Requirements; Penalties; Notice
(a) Where blasting of overburden or mineral is necessary, the blasting shall be done in accordance with established principles for preventing injury to persons and damage to residences, buildings and communities, and comply with the following: (1) The weight in pounds of explosives to be detonated in any period less than an eight millisecond period […]
§22-4-14. Performance Standards
Each permit issued by the director pursuant to this article shall require the quarry operation, at a minimum, to meet the following performance standards: (a) The operator shall impound, drain or treat all runoff water so as to reduce soil erosion, damage to agricultural lands and prevent unlawful pollution of streams and other waters. The […]
§22-4-15. Groundwater Protection
The Groundwater Protection Act provisions contained in subsection (b), section four, article twelve of this chapter do not apply to mineral extraction areas of quarry mining sites regulated under this article. All other areas of the mine, including groundwater beneath the mineral extraction area, and water discharges from the quarry shall meet the requirements of […]
§22-4-16. Water Rights and Replacement; Waiver of Replacement
(a) Nothing in this article affects the rights of any person to enforce or protect, under applicable law, that person's interest in water resources affected by removal of mineral resources. (b) Any permittee shall replace the water supply of an owner of interest in real property who obtains all or part of the owner's supply […]
§22-4-17. Quarrying and Reclamation Plan
(a) The application for a new permit shall include a proposed quarrying and reclamation plan. In developing this complete quarrying and reclamation mining plan all reasonable measures shall be taken to eliminate damages to members of the public, their real and personal property, public roads, streams and all other public property from soil erosion, rolling […]
§22-4-18. Land Reclamation Requirements
(a) Quarries shall meet the final design requirements for slopes and gradients: (1) Final slope gradients of fill areas shall be designed using recognized standards and certified by a professional engineer or other approved professional specialist, except for backfill within the mineral excavation pit area, where no standard applies.
§22-4-19. Time Period for Reclamation
(a) The operator shall commence the reclamation of the incremental area of land disturbed by the operator after the completion of all quarrying of that area in accordance with the approved quarrying and reclamation plan. The quarrying and reclamation plan for each operation shall be site specific in describing how the quarrying and reclamation activities […]
§22-4-2. Legislative Findings
The Legislature finds that: The extraction of noncoal minerals by quarrying is a basic, essential and vital industry making an important contribution to the economic well-being of West Virginia. From the small family-owned chert pit to the multinational limestone quarry, quarry aggregate production plays a vital role in West Virginia's economy and the quality of […]
§22-4-20. Fiscal Responsibility
(a) Each applicant must provide a certificate of insurance issued by an insurance company authorized to do business in this state for all operators at the site including blasting and quarrying operators. Blasting insurance is not required of quarry operations which do not conduct blasting. The coverage shall include not less than $1 million for […]
§22-4-21. Release of Bonds
On completion of the reclamation, and after the requirements of the permit have been fully complied with, the director shall release the bond. An amount of the bond or cash deposit, proportioned to the reclaimed portion of the disturbed land in ratio to all of the disturbed land covered by the permit, may be released […]
§22-4-22. Bond Pooling Fund
(a) Quarry operators who have operated for five years without a serious violation under previous West Virginia mining law or the provisions of this article, in lieu of the bonding requirements of section twenty of this article, shall contribute to the "Bond Pooling Fund," as provided in this section. (b) For each quarry, permittees contributing […]
§22-4-23. Quarry Reclamation Fund
(a) All funds received by the division from forfeiture of bonds, civil administrative penalties, or interest from the bond pooling fund shall be deposited into a special interest-bearing account in the state Treasury designated the Quarry Reclamation Fund. The quarry reclamation fund shall be used by the division for reclamation of abandoned quarries. (b) If […]
§22-4-24. Orders, Inspections and Enforcement; Permit Revocation, Damages, Civil and Criminal Penalties
(a) The director may at reasonable times without prior notice and upon presentation of appropriate credentials, enter any quarry and conduct periodic inspections and examine any required documentation to effectively implement and enforce the provisions of this article and rules promulgated thereunder. (b) Whenever the director finds that an ongoing quarry operation is causing or […]
§22-4-25. Appeals to Board
Any person claiming to be aggrieved or adversely affected by any ruling or order of the director or his or her failure to enter an order may appeal to the surface mine board, pursuant to the provisions of article one, chapter twenty-two-b of this code, for an order vacating or modifying the ruling or order, […]
§22-4-26. Required Fees, Quarry Inspection and Enforcement Fund
The permit application fee is $1,000. The fee for the original permit is $1,000. The permit renewal fee of $500 shall be submitted with the renewal application and a progress report map. The fee for transferring a permit is $500. The fee for a minor permit modification is $200 and for major modifications, $500. There […]
§22-4-27. Exception for Certain Existing Quarries
(a) Quarries that are in operation on or before the effective date of this article, shall comply with the following: (1) Within two years of the effective date of this article, all quarry operations shall submit to the director a quarrying and reclamation plan to bring the facility into compliance with the requirements of this […]