30 U.S.C. § 1291 — Definitions

For this chapter:

(1) “Alluvial valley floors” means unconsolidated deposits laid down by streams that hold streams where enough water is available for subirrigation or flood-irrigation agriculture. It does not include upland areas generally covered by a thin layer of colluvial deposits made mainly of debris from sheet erosion, unconcentrated runoff or slope wash, talus, other mass-movement deposits, or windblown deposits.

(2) “Approximate original contour” means the surface configuration created by backfilling and grading the mined area so that the reclaimed area, including terraces or access roads, closely resembles the land’s general surface before mining and blends into and complements the surrounding terrain’s drainage pattern. All highwalls and spoil piles must be eliminated. Water impoundments may be permitted if the regulatory authority determines that they comply with section 1265(b)(8) of this title.

(3) “Commerce” means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the States, between a State and a place outside it, or between points in the same State that directly or indirectly affect interstate commerce.

(4) “Federal lands” means all land, including mineral interests, owned by the United States, regardless of how the United States acquired it or which agency manages it, except Indian lands. For this chapter, land or mineral interests east of the 100th meridian west longitude that the United States owns and the Tennessee Valley Authority has been entrusted with or manages are not subject to sections 1304 and 1305 of this title.

(5) “Federal lands program” means a program the Secretary establishes under section 1273 of this title to regulate surface coal mining and reclamation operations on Federal lands.

(6) “Federal program” means a program the Secretary establishes under section 1254 of this title to regulate surface coal mining and reclamation operations on lands within a State under this chapter’s requirements.

(7) “Fund” means the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund established under section 1231 of this title.

(8) “Imminent danger to the health and safety of the public” means a condition, practice, or violation of a permit or other requirement of this chapter in a surface coal mining and reclamation operation that could reasonably be expected to cause substantial physical harm to people outside the permit area before it can be corrected. A reasonable expectation of death or serious injury before correction exists when a rational person exposed to the same conditions or practices would not expose themself to the danger during the time needed for correction.

(9) “Indian lands” means all land, including mineral interests, within the outer boundaries of a Federal Indian reservation, even if a patent has been issued. It also includes rights-of-way and all land, including mineral interests, held in trust for or supervised by an Indian tribe.

(10) “Indian tribe” means an Indian tribe, band, group, or community with a governing body recognized by the Secretary.

(11) “Lands within any State” or “lands within such State” means all land within a State other than Federal lands and Indian lands.

(12) “Office” means the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement established under subchapter II.

(13) “Operator” means a person, partnership, or corporation engaged in coal mining that removes or intends to remove more than 250 tons of coal from the earth by coal mining within 12 consecutive calendar months at one location.

(14) “Other minerals” means clay, stone, sand, gravel, metalliferous and nonmetalliferous ores, and any other commercially valuable solid material or substance excavated in solid form from natural deposits on or in the earth. It does not include coal or minerals that naturally occur in liquid or gaseous form.

(15) “Permit” means a permit to conduct surface coal mining and reclamation operations issued by the State regulatory authority under a State program or by the Secretary under a Federal program.

(16) “Permit applicant” or “applicant” means a person applying for a permit.

(17) “Permit area” means the land shown on the approved map submitted by the operator with the application. The operator’s bond required by section 1259 of this title must cover that land, and appropriate markers at the site must make it readily identifiable.

(18) “Permittee” means a person holding a permit.

(19) “Person” means an individual, partnership, association, society, joint-stock company, firm, company, corporation, or other business organization.

(20) “Prime farmland” has the meaning previously prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture, based on factors such as water availability, temperature, chemical balance, permeability, the composition of the surface layer, flooding risk, and erosion characteristics, and based on land historically used for intensive agriculture, as published in the Federal Register.

(21) “Reclamation plan” means a plan an applicant submits for a permit under a State or Federal program that sets out a plan for reclaiming the proposed surface coal mining operations under section 1258 of this title.

(22) “Regulatory authority” means the State regulatory authority when a State administers this chapter under an approved State program, or the Secretary when the Secretary administers this chapter under a Federal program.

(23) “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Interior, unless this chapter describes the Secretary otherwise.

(24) “State” means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or Guam.

(25) “State program” means a program a State establishes under section 1253 of this title to regulate surface coal mining and reclamation operations on lands within that State, consistent with this chapter and the Secretary’s regulations under it.

(26) “State regulatory authority” means the department or agency in each State with primary responsibility at the State level for administering this chapter.

(27) “Surface coal mining and reclamation operations” means surface mining operations and all activities necessary for, or incident to, reclaiming those operations after August 3, 1977.

(28) “Surface coal mining operations” means: (A) activities on the surface of land connected with a surface coal mine, or surface operations and surface effects connected with an underground coal mine subject to section 1266 of this title, when the products enter commerce or the operations directly or indirectly affect interstate commerce. These activities include excavating to obtain coal, including contour, strip, auger, mountaintop-removal, box-cut, open-pit, and area mining; using explosives and blasting; in-situ distillation or retorting; leaching or other chemical or physical processing; cleaning, concentrating, or otherwise processing or preparing coal; and loading coal for interstate commerce at or near the mine. They do not include coal extracted incidentally to extracting other minerals when coal is no more than 16 2/3 percent of the mineral tonnage removed for commercial use or sale, or coal exploration subject to section 1262 of this title. (B) the areas where those activities occur or disturb the natural land surface. These areas also include adjacent land used incidentally for those activities; land affected by building new roads or improving or using existing roads to reach the site or haul materials; and excavations, workings, impoundments, dams, ventilation shafts, entryways, refuse banks, dumps, stockpiles, overburden piles, spoil banks, culm banks, tailings, holes or depressions, repair areas, storage areas, processing areas, shipping areas, and other areas containing surface structures, facilities, or other property or materials resulting from or incident to those activities.

(29) “Unwarranted failure to comply” means a permittee’s failure to prevent a violation of the permit or a requirement of this chapter because of indifference, lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care. It also means a permittee’s failure to correct such a violation for those same reasons.

(30) “Lignite coal” means consolidated lignitic coal with fewer than 8,300 British thermal units per pound, with moisture and mineral matter excluded.

(31) “Coal laboratory,” as used in subchapter VIII, means a university coal research laboratory established and operated under a designation made under section 1311 of this title.

(32) “Institution of higher education,” as used in subchapters VIII and IX, means an institution defined by section 1001 of title 20.

(33) “Unanticipated event or condition,” as used in section 1260(e) of this title, means an event or condition encountered in a remining operation that was not contemplated by the applicable surface coal mining and reclamation permit.

(34) “Lands eligible for remining” means land that would otherwise be eligible for expenditures under section 1234 of this title or section 1232(g)(4) of this title.