Rep. Norm Thurston — Voting Record

Bill

Number

H.B. 294 (2020GS)

Sponsor

Rep. Brooks, W.

Final action

Governor Signed 3/24/2020

Outcome

Became law — signed by Gov. Gary R. Herbert

Summary

What it does

• This bill:
• modifies definitions under the Utah Mined Land Reclamation Act; and
• makes technical corrections.

Every vote on this bill

Bill text

This document includes House Committee Amendments incorporated into the bill on Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 2:15 PM by pflowers.
This document includes House Floor Amendments incorporated into the bill on Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 4:15 PM by naomigarrow.
MINING OPERATIONS AMENDMENTS
GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH
Chief Sponsor: Walt Brooks
Senate Sponsor: 
 Don L. Ipson
LONG TITLE
General Description:
This bill addresses mining. 
Highlighted Provisions:
This bill:
▸ modifies definitions under the Utah Mined Land Reclamation Act; and
▸ makes technical corrections. 
Money Appropriated in this Bill:
None
Other Special Clauses:
None
Utah Code Sections Affected:
AMENDS:
17-41-101
, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2019, Chapter 227
40-8-4
, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2011, Chapter 231
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section 
17-41-101
 is amended to read:
17-41-101.
Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Advisory board" means:
(a) for an agriculture protection area, the agriculture protection area advisory board
created as provided in Section 
17-41-201
;
(b) for an industrial protection area, the industrial protection area advisory board
created as provided in Section 
17-41-201
; and
(c) for a critical infrastructure materials protection area, the critical infrastructure
materials protection area advisory board created as provided in Section 
17-41-201
.
(2) (a) "Agriculture production" means production for commercial purposes of crops,
livestock, and livestock products.
(b) "Agriculture production" includes the processing or retail marketing of any crops,
livestock, and livestock products when more than 50% of the processed or merchandised
products are produced by the farm operator.
(3) "Agriculture protection area" means a geographic area created under the authority
of this chapter that is granted the specific legal protections contained in this chapter.
(4) "Applicable legislative body" means:
(a) with respect to a proposed agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or
critical infrastructure materials protection area:
(i) the legislative body of the county in which the land proposed to be included in the
relevant protection area is located, if the land is within the unincorporated part of the county; or
(ii) the legislative body of the city or town in which the land proposed to be included in
the relevant protection area is located; and
(b) with respect to an existing agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or
critical infrastructure materials protection area:
(i) the legislative body of the county in which the relevant protection area is located, if
the relevant protection area is within the unincorporated part of the county; or
(ii) the legislative body of the city or town in which the relevant protection area is
located.
(5) "Board" means the Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining created in Section 
40-6-4
.
(6) "Critical infrastructure materials" means sand, gravel, or rock aggregate.
(7) "Critical infrastructure materials operations" means the extraction, excavation,
processing, or reprocessing of critical infrastructure materials.
(8) "Critical infrastructure materials operator" means a natural person, corporation,
association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or
other organization or representative, either public or private, including a successor, assign,
affiliate, subsidiary, and related parent company, that:
(a) owns, controls, or manages a critical infrastructure materials operation; and
(b) has produced commercial quantities of critical infrastructure materials from the
critical infrastructure materials operations.
(9) "Critical infrastructure materials protection area" means a geographic area created
under the authority of this chapter on or after May 14, 2019, that is granted the specific legal
protections contained in this chapter.
(10) "Crops, livestock, and livestock products" includes:
(a) land devoted to the raising of useful plants and animals with a reasonable
expectation of profit, including:
(i) forages and sod crops;
(ii) grains and feed crops;
(iii) livestock as defined in Section 
59-2-102
;
(iv) trees and fruits; or
(v) vegetables, nursery, floral, and ornamental stock; or
(b) land devoted to and meeting the requirements and qualifications for payments or
other compensation under a crop-land retirement program with an agency of the state or federal
government.
(11) "Division" means the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining created in Section
40-6-15
.
(12) "Industrial protection area" means a geographic area created under the authority of
this chapter that is granted the specific legal protections contained in this chapter.
(13) "Mine operator" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
representative, either public or private, including a successor, assign, affiliate, subsidiary, and
related parent company, that, as of January 1, 2009:
(a) owns, controls, or manages a mining use under a large mine permit issued by the
division or the board; and
(b) has produced commercial quantities of a mineral deposit from the mining use.
(14) "Mineral deposit" [
has the same meaning as
] 
means the same as that term is
defined in Section 
40-8-4
, but excludes:
(a) building stone, decorative rock, and landscaping rock; and
(b) consolidated rock that:
(i) is not associated with another deposit of minerals;
(ii) is or may be extracted from land; and
(iii) is put to uses similar to the uses of sand, gravel, and other aggregates.
(15) "Mining protection area" means land where a vested mining use occurs, including
each surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that a mine operator with a vested mining use
owns or controls.
(16) "Mining use":
(a) means:
(i) the full range of activities, from prospecting and exploration to reclamation and
closure, associated with the exploitation of a mineral deposit; and
(ii) the use of the surface and subsurface and groundwater and surface water of an area
in connection with the activities described in Subsection (16)(a)(i) that have been, are being, or
will be conducted; and
(b) includes, whether conducted on-site or off-site:
(i) any sampling, staking, surveying, exploration, or development activity;
(ii) any drilling, blasting, excavating, or tunneling;
(iii) the removal, transport, treatment, deposition, and reclamation of overburden,
development rock, tailings, and other waste material;
(iv) any removal, transportation, extraction, beneficiation, or processing of ore;
(v) any smelting, refining, autoclaving, or other primary or secondary processing
operation;
(vi) the recovery of any mineral left in residue from a previous extraction or processing
operation;
(vii) a mining activity that is identified in a work plan or permitting document;
(viii) the use, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, or alteration of a building,
structure, facility, equipment, machine, tool, or other material or property that results from or is
used in a surface or subsurface mining operation or activity;
(ix) any accessory, incidental, or ancillary activity or use, both active and passive,
including a utility, private way or road, pipeline, land excavation, working, embankment, pond,
gravel excavation, mining waste, conveyor, power line, trackage, storage, reserve, passive use
area, buffer zone, and power production facility;
(x) the construction of a storage, factory, processing, or maintenance facility; and
(xi) any activity described in Subsection 
40-8-4
 [
(14)
] 
(16)
(a).
(17) (a) "Municipal" means of or relating to a city or town.
(b) "Municipality" means a city or town.
(18) "New land" means surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that a mine
operator gains ownership or control of, whether that land or mineral estate is included in the
mine operator's large mine permit.
(19) "Off-site" [
has the same meaning as provided in
] 
means the same as that term is
defined in
 Section 
40-8-4
.
(20) "On-site" [
has the same meaning as provided in
] 
means the same as that term is
defined in
 Section 
40-8-4
.
(21) "Planning commission" means:
(a) a countywide planning commission if the land proposed to be included in the
agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
protection area is within the unincorporated part of the county and not within a planning
advisory area;
(b) a planning advisory area planning commission if the land proposed to be included
in the agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
protection area is within a planning advisory area; or
(c) a planning commission of a city or town if the land proposed to be included in the
agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials
protection area is within a city or town.
(22) "Political subdivision" means a county, city, town, school district, local district, or
special service district.
(23) "Proposal sponsors" means the owners of land in agricultural production,
industrial use, or critical infrastructure materials operations who are sponsoring the proposal
for creating an agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure
materials protection area.
(24) "State agency" means each department, commission, board, council, agency,
institution, officer, corporation, fund, division, office, committee, authority, laboratory, library,
unit, bureau, panel, or other administrative unit of the state.
(25) "Unincorporated" means not within a city or town.
(26) "Vested mining use" means a mining use:
(a) by a mine operator; and
(b) that existed or was conducted or otherwise engaged in before a political subdivision
prohibits, restricts, or otherwise limits a mining use.
Section 2. Section 
40-8-4
 is amended to read:
40-8-4.
Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Adjudicative proceeding" means:
(a) a division or board action or proceeding determining the legal rights, duties,
privileges, immunities, or other legal interests of one or more identifiable persons, including
actions to grant, deny, revoke, suspend, modify, annul, withdraw, or amend an authority, right,
permit, or license; or
(b) judicial review of a division or board action or proceeding specified in Subsection
(1)(a).
(2) "Applicant" means a person who has filed a notice of intent to commence mining
operations, or who has applied to the board for a review of a notice or order.
(3) (a) "Approved notice of intention" means a formally filed notice of intention to
commence mining operations, including revisions to it, which has been approved under Section
40-8-13
.
(b) An approved notice of intention is not required for small mining operations.
(4) (a) "Basalt" means fine grained, dark-colored igneous rock associated with a lava
flow or igneous intrusion composed primarily of plagioclase and pyroxene.
(b) Utah Geological Survey or the United States Geological Survey published maps
that classify material as "basalt" is prima facie evidence that the material meets the
requirements of Subsection (4)(a). An unmapped area can be classified by a Utah Geological
Survey Geologist or a licensed professional geologist in the state.
[
(4)
] 
(5)
 "Board" means the Board of Oil, Gas, and Mining.
[
(5)
] 
(6)
 "Conference" means an informal adjudicative proceeding conducted by the
division or board.
[
(6)
] 
(7)
 (a) "Deposit" or "mineral deposit" means an accumulation of mineral matter in
the form of consolidated rock, unconsolidated material, solutions, or occurring on the surface,
beneath the surface, or in the waters of the land from which any product useful to man may be
produced, extracted, or obtained or which is extracted by underground mining methods for
underground storage.
(b) "Deposit" or "mineral deposit" excludes sand, gravel, rock aggregate, 
basalt,
 water,
geothermal steam, and oil and gas as defined in Title 40, Chapter 6, Board and Division of Oil,
Gas, and Mining, but includes oil shale and bituminous sands extracted by mining operations.
[
(7)
] 
(8)
 "Development" means the work performed in relation to a deposit following
[
its
] 
the deposit's
 discovery but [
prior to
] 
before
 and in contemplation of production mining
operations, aimed at, but not limited to, preparing the site for mining operations, defining
further the ore deposit by drilling or other means, conducting pilot plant operations,
constructing roads or ancillary facilities, and other related activities.
[
(8)
] 
(9)
 "Division" means the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining.
[
(9)
] 
(10)
 "Emergency order" means an order issued by the board in accordance with
[
the provisions of
] Title 63G, Chapter 4, Administrative Procedures Act.
[
(10)
] 
(11)
 (a) "Exploration" means surface-disturbing activities conducted for the
purpose of discovering a deposit or mineral deposit, delineating the boundaries of a deposit or
mineral deposit, and identifying regions or specific areas in which deposits or mineral deposits
are most likely to exist.
(b) "Exploration" includes[
, but is not limited to
]:
(i)
 sinking shafts;
(ii)
 tunneling;
(iii)
 drilling holes and digging pits or cuts;
(iv)
 building of roads, and other access ways; and
(v)
 constructing and operating other facilities related to [
these
] 
the
 activities 
described
in this Subsection (11)(b)
.
(12) "Gravel" means a naturally occurring unconsolidated to moderately consolidated
accumulation of rock and mineral particles, the dominant size range being between 4
millimeters and 75 millimeters, that has been deposited by sedimentary processes.
[
(11)
] 
(13)
 "Hearing" means a formal adjudicative proceeding conducted by the board
under [
its
] 
the board's
 procedural rules.
[
(12)
] 
(14)
 (a) "Imminent danger to the health and safety of the public" means the
existence of a condition or practice, or a violation of a permit requirement or other requirement
of this chapter in a mining operation, which condition, practice, or violation could reasonably
be expected to cause substantial physical harm to persons outside the permit area before the
condition, practice, or violation can be abated.
(b) A reasonable expectation of death or serious injury before abatement exists if a
rational person, subjected to the same conditions or practices giving rise to the peril, would not
expose [
himself or herself
] 
the rational person
 to the danger during the time necessary for
abatement.
[
(13)
] 
(15)
 (a) "Land affected" means the surface and subsurface of an area within the
state where mining operations are being or will be conducted, including[
, but not limited to
]:
(i) on-site private ways, roads, and railroads;
(ii) land excavations;
(iii) exploration sites;
(iv) drill sites or workings;
(v) refuse banks or spoil piles;
(vi) evaporation or settling ponds;
(vii) stockpiles;
(viii) leaching dumps;
(ix) placer areas;
(x) tailings ponds or dumps; and
(xi) work, parking, storage, or waste discharge areas, structures, and facilities.
(b) [
All lands shall be
] 
Lands are
 excluded from [
the provisions of
] Subsection [
(13)
]
(15)
(a) that would:
(i) be includable as land affected, but which have been reclaimed in accordance with an
approved plan, as may be approved by the board; and
(ii) 
include
 lands in which mining operations have ceased [
prior to
] 
before
 July 1,
1977.
[
(14)
] 
(16)
 (a) "Mining operation" means activities conducted on the surface of the
land for the exploration for, development of, or extraction of a mineral deposit, including[
, but
not limited to,
] surface mining and the surface effects of underground and in situ mining,
on-site transportation, concentrating, milling, evaporation, and other primary processing.
(b) "Mining operation" does not include:
(i) the extraction of sand, gravel, and rock aggregate;
(ii) the extraction of
Ĥ→ [
sand, gravel, and
] ←Ĥ
basalt
Ĥ→ 
for an area not to exceed 50
252a 
acres under
252aa 
active surface mining
 ←Ĥ
;
[
(ii)
] 
(iii)
 the extraction of oil and gas as defined in Title 40, Chapter 6, Board and
Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining;
[
(iii)
] 
(iv)
 the extraction of geothermal steam;
[
(iv)
] 
(v)
 smelting or refining operations;
[
(v)
] 
(vi)
 off-site operations and transportation;
[
(vi)
] 
(vii)
 reconnaissance activities; or
[
(vii)
] 
(viii)
 activities [
which
] 
that
 will not cause significant surface resource
disturbance or involve the use of mechanized earth-moving equipment, such as bulldozers or
backhoes.
[
(15)
] 
(17)
 "Notice" means:
(a) notice of intention, as defined in this chapter; or
(b) written information given to an operator by the division describing compliance
conditions at a mining operation.
[
(16)
] 
(18)
 "Notice of intention" means a notice to commence mining operations,
including revisions to the notice.
[
(17)
] 
(19)
 "Off-site" means the land areas that are outside of or beyond the on-site
land.
[
(18)
] 
(20)
 (a) "On-site" means the surface lands on or under which surface or
underground mining operations are conducted.
(b) A series of related properties under the control of a single operator, but separated
by small parcels of land controlled by others, [
will be
] 
are
 considered to be a single site unless
an exception is made by the division.
[
(19)
] 
(21)
 "Operator" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
representative, either public or private, owning, controlling, or managing a mining operation or
proposed mining operation.
[
(20)
] 
(22)
 "Order" means written information provided by the division or board to an
operator or other parties, describing the compliance status of a permit or mining operation.
[
(21)
] 
(23)
 "Owner" means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or
representative, either public or private, owning, controlling, or managing a mineral deposit or
the surface of lands employed in mining operations.
[
(22)
] 
(24)
 "Permit area" means the area of land indicated on the approved map
submitted by the operator with the application or notice to conduct mining operations.
[
(23)
] 
(25)
 "Permit" means a permit or notice to conduct mining operations issued by
the division.
[
(24)
] 
(26)
 "Permittee" means a person holding, or who is required by Utah law to
hold, a valid permit or notice to conduct mining operations.
[
(25)
] 
(27)
 "Person" means an individual, partnership, association, society, joint stock
company, firm, company, corporation, or other governmental or business organization.
[
(26)
] 
(28)
 "Reclamation" means actions performed during or after mining operations
to shape, stabilize, revegetate, or treat the land affected in order to achieve a safe, stable,
ecological condition and use [
which will be
] 
that is
 consistent with local environmental
conditions.
(29) (a) "Rock aggregate" means those consolidated rock materials associated with a
sand deposit, a gravel deposit, or a sand and gravel deposit that were created by alluvial
sedimentary processes.
(b) "Rock aggregate" excludes any solid rock in the form of bedrock, other than basalt,
that is exposed at the surface of the earth or overlain by unconsolidated material.
(30) "Sand" means a naturally occurring unconsolidated to moderately consolidated
accumulation of rock and mineral particles, the dominant size range being between .004
millimeters to 4 millimeters, that has been deposited by sedimentary processes.
[
(27)
] 
(31)
 "Small mining operations" means mining operations that disturb or will
disturb 10 or less surface acres at any given time in an unincorporated area of a county or five
or less surface acres at any given time in an incorporated area of a county.
[
(28)
] 
(32)
 "Unwarranted failure to comply" means the failure of a permittee to prevent
the occurrence of a violation of the permit or a requirement of this chapter due to indifference,
lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care, or the failure to abate a violation of the permit or
this chapter due to indifference, lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care.