In this chapter,

1. (1) “alluvial valley floors” means the unconsolidated stream-laid deposits holding streams where water availability is sufficient for subirrigation or flood irrigation agricultural activities but does not include upland areas that are generally overlain by a thin veneer of colluvial deposits composed chiefly of debris from sheet erosion, deposits by unconcentrated runoff or slope wash, together with talus, other mass movement accumulation, and windblown deposits;
2. (2) “applicant” means a person or other entity seeking a permit from the commissioner to conduct surface coal mining or underground mining activities under this chapter;
3. (3) “coal” means all forms of coal, including lignite;
4. (4) “commissioner” means the commissioner of natural resources or the commissioner's authorized representatives or agents;
5. (5) “department” means the Department of Natural Resources;
6. (6) “imminent danger to the health or safety of the public” means the existence of a condition or practice, or a violation of a permit or other requirement of this chapter, in a surface coal mining and reclamation operation under which a rational person would not submit to exposure for fear of substantial physical harm;
7. (7) “operation” means a surface coal mining operation or a surface coal mining and reclamation operation;
8. (8) “operator” means a person engaged in coal mining who removes or intends to remove more than 250 tons of coal from the earth by coal mining within 12 consecutive calendar months in any one location;
9. (9) “other minerals” means clay, stone, sand, gravel, metalliferous and non-metalliferous ores, and other solid materials or substances of commercial value excavated in solid form from natural deposits on or in the earth, exclusive of coal, and those minerals that occur naturally in liquid or gaseous form;
10. (10) “permit” means a permit to conduct a surface coal mining and reclamation operation issued by the commissioner under the terms of this chapter;
11. (11) “permit area” means the area of land indicated on the approved maps submitted by the operator with the application that must be covered by the operator's bond as required by AS 27.21.160(a) — (f) or by the individual performance and payment requirements for the operator who participates in the statewide bonding pool for mining operations as authorized by AS 27.21.160(g), and must be readily identifiable by appropriate markers on the site;
12. (12) “permittee” means a person holding a permit to conduct a surface coal mining and reclamation operation or underground mining activities under this chapter;
13. (13) “person” means an individual, partnership, association, society, joint-stock company, firm, company, corporation, or other business organization;
14. (14) “reclamation plan” means a plan for the reclamation of an applicant's proposed surface coal mining operation submitted by the applicant under regulations adopted under AS 27.21.110;
15. (15) “significant imminent environmental harm to land, air, or water resources” means a condition, practice, or violation that is causing or can be expected to cause an appreciable, reparable adverse impact to land, air, or water resources including, but not limited to, plant and animal life;
16. (16) “surface coal mining and reclamation operation” means a surface coal mining operation and the activities necessary and incidental to the reclamation of that operation after August 3, 1977;

17. (17) “surface coal mining operations” means

    1. (A) an activity

       1. (i) conducted on the surface of land in connection with a surface coal mine or, to the extent that the activity affects the surface of land, conducted in connection with an underground coal mine;
       2. (ii) the products of which enter commerce or the operation of which directly or indirectly affects interstate commerce;
       3. (iii) that may include contour, strip, auger, mountain top removal, boxcut, open pit, and area mining; the use of explosives and blasting; on-site distillation or retorting, leaching, or other chemical or physical processing of coal; and loading of coal for interstate commerce at or near the mine site;
       4. (iv) other than an activity relating to the extraction of coal incidental to the extraction of other minerals under which the coal extracted does not exceed 16 2/3 percent of the total tonnage of coal and other minerals removed annually for purposes of commercial use or sale and other than a coal exploration activity subject to this chapter; and
    2. (B) the areas on which an activity described in (A) of this paragraph occurs or where the activity disturbs the natural land surface, including adjacent land, the use of which is incidental to the activity; and affected by the construction of new roads or the improvement or use of existing roads to gain access to the site of the activity and for haulage; and excavation, workings, impoundments, dams, ventilation shafts, entry ways, 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 upon which are situated structures, facilities, or other property or materials on the surface resulting from or incidental to the activity;
18. (18) “Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977” means P.L. 95-87, 91 Stat. 447-532, 30 U.S.C. secs. 1201-1328, as amended;
19. (19) “unwarranted failure to comply” means the failure of a permittee to prevent or abate a violation of a permit or of this chapter because of indifference, lack of diligence, or lack of reasonable care.