PURPOSE: This rule defines terms used throughout the land reclamation performance requirements for coal strip mining of this chapter and in keeping with sections 444.510 and 444.535, RSMo.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The secretary of state has determined that the publication of the entire text of the material which is incorporated by reference as a portion of this rule would be unduly cumbersome or expensive. Therefore, the material which is so incorporated is on file with the agency who filed this rule, and with the Office of the Secretary of State. Any interested person may view this material at either agency’s headquarters or the same will be made available at the Office of the Secretary of State at a cost not to exceed actual cost of copy reproduction. The entire text of the rule is printed here. This note refers only to the incorporated by reference material.

1. (1) Acid drainage means water with a pH of less than 6.0 discharged from active or abandoned mines and from areas affected by coal mining operations.
2. (2) Acid-forming materials means earth materials that contain sulfide mineral or other materials which, if exposed to air, water or weathering processes, will cause acids that may create acid drainage.
3. (3) Affected land means the pit area or area from which overburden has been removed, or upon which overburden has been deposited.
4. (4) Approximate original contour means that surface configuration achieved by backfilling and grading of the mined area so that the reclaimed area, including any terracing or access roads, closely resembles the general surface configuration of the land prior to mining and blends into and complements the drainage pattern of the surrounding terrain, with all highwalls and spoil piles eliminated.
5. (5) Aquifer means a zone, stratum or group of strata that can store and transmit water in sufficient quantities for a specific use.
6. (6) Coal means combustible carbonaceous rock, classified as anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous or lignite by American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) designation 0-388-66.
7. (7) Combustible material means organic material that is capable of burning either by fire or through a chemical process (oxidation) accompanied by the evolution of heat and a significant temperature rise.
8. (8) Commission means the Land Reclamation Commission.
9. (9) Compaction means the reduction of pore spaces among the particles of soil or rock, generally done by running heavy equipment over the earth materials.
10. (10) Director means the director of the Land Reclamation Commission.
11. (11) Diversion means a channel, embankment or other man-made structure constructed for the purpose of diverting water from one (1) area to another.
12. (12) Downslope means the land surface between a valley floor and the projected outcrop of the lowest coalbed being mined along each highwall.
13. (13) Embankment means an artificial deposit of material that is raised above the natural surface of the land and used to contain, divert or store water, support roads or railways, or other similar purposes.
14. (14) Federal lands means any land, including mineral interests, owned by the United States without regard to how the United States acquired ownership of the lands and without regard to the agency having responsibility for management of those lands.
15. (15) Flood irrigation means irrigation through natural overflow or the temporary diversion of high flows in which the entire surface of the soil is covered by a sheet of water.
16. (16) Gob means that portion of refuse consisting of waste coal or bony coal of relatively large size which is separated from the marketable coal in the cleaning process of solid refuse material, not readily waterborne or pumpable, without crushing.
17. (17) Groundwater means subsurface water that fills available openings in rock or soil 10 CSR 40-2

materials such that they may be considered water saturated.

1. (18) Highwall means that side of the pit adjacent to unmined land.
2. (19) Hydrologic balance means the relationship between the quality and quantity of inflow to outflow from, and storage in, a hydrologic unit such as a drainage basin, aquifer, soil zone, lake or reservoir. It encompasses the quantity and quality relationships between precipitation, runoff, evaporation and the change in ground and surface water storage.
3. (20) Hydrologic regime means the entire state of water movement in a given area. It is a function of the climate, and includes the phenomena by which water first occurs as atmospheric water vapor, passes into a liquid or solid form and falls as precipitation, then moves along or into the ground surface, and returns to the atmosphere as vapor by means of evaporation and transpiration.
4. (21) Impoundment means a closed basin formed naturally or artificially built, which is dammed or excavated for the retention of water, sediment or waste.
5. (22) Imminent danger to the health and safety to the public means the existence of any condition, or practice or any violation of a permit or other requirement of this chapter in a coal strip mining and reclamation operation, which condition, practice or violation could reasonably be expected to cause substantial physical harm to persons outside the permit area before that condition, practice or violation can be abated. A reasonable expectation of death or serious injury before abatement exists if a rational person, subjected to the same condition or practice giving rise to the peril, would not expose him/herself to the danger during the time necessary for abatement.
6. (23) Intermittent or perennial stream means a stream or part of a stream that flows continuously during all (perennial) or for at least one
7. (1) month (intermittent) of the calendar year as a result of groundwater discharge or surface runoff. The term does not include an ephemeral stream which is one that flows for less than one (1) month of a calendar year and only in direct response to precipitation in the immediate watershed and whose channel bottom is always above the local water table.
8. (24) Leachate means a liquid that has percolated through soil, rock or waste and has extracted, dissolved or suspended materials.
9. (25) Noxious plants means species that have been included on official Missouri lists of noxious plants.
10. (26) Operator means any person, firm or corporation engaged in or controlling a strip mining operation.
11. (27) Outslope means the exposed area sloping away from a bench or terrace being constructed as a part of a coal strip mining and reclamation operation.
12. (28) Overburden, as applied to the strip mining of coal, means all of the earth and other materials which lie above natural deposits of coal and includes earth and other materials disturbed from their natural state in the process of strip mining, excluding topsoil.
13. (29) Person means any individual, partnership, copartnership, firm, company, public or private corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, political subdivision, or any agency, board, department or bureau of the state or federal government, or any other legal entity whatever, which is recognized by law as the subject of rights and duties.
14. (30) Pit means the place where coal is being or has been mined by strip mining.
15. (31) Productivity means the vegetative yield produced by a unit area for a unit of time.
16. (32) Recharge capacity means the ability of the soils and underlying materials to allow precipitation and runoff to infiltrate and reach the zone of saturation.
17. (33) Roads means access and haul roads constructed, used, reconstructed, improved or maintained for use in coal strip mining and reclamation operations, including use by coal-hauling vehicles leading to transfer, processing or storage areas. The term includes any such road used and not graded to approximate original contour within forty-five (45) days of construction other than roads used for topsoil removal and coal haulage roads within the pit area. Roads maintained with public funds such as all federal, state, county or local roads are excluded.
18. (34) Recurrence interval means the precipitation event expected to occur, on the average, once in a specified interval. For example, the ten (10)-year, twenty-four (24)-hour precipitation event would be that twenty-four (24)- hour precipitation event expected to be exceeded on the average once in ten (10) years. Magnitude of these events are as defined by the National Weather Service Technical Paper No. 40, Rainfall Frequency Atlas of the U.S., May 1961, or equivalent regional or rainfall probability information developed from the National Weather Service.
19. (35) Runoff means precipitation that flows overland before entering a defined stream channel and becoming stream flow.
20. (36) Safety factor means the ratio of the available shear strength to the developed shear stress on a potential surface of sliding determined by accepted engineering practice.
21. (37) Sediment means undissolved organic and inorganic material transported or deposited by water.
22. (38) Sedimentation pond means any natural or artificial structure or depression used to remove sediment from water and store sediment or other debris.

23. (39) Significant, imminent environmental harm to land, air or water resources is determined as follows:

    1. (A) An environmental harm is any adverse impact on land, air or water resources, including, but not limited to, plant and animal life;

    2. (B) An environmental harm is imminent if a condition, practice or violation exists which—

       1. 1. Is causing environmental harm; or
       2. 2. May reasonably be expected to cause

environmental harm at any time before the end of a reasonable abatement time; and

1. (C) An environmental harm is significant if that harm is appreciable and not immediately reparable.

1. (40) Slope means average inclination of a surface, measured from the horizontal. Normally expressed as a unit of vertical distance to a given number of units of horizontal distance (for example, 1v:5h=20%=11.3°).
2. (41) Soil horizons means contrasting layers of soil lying one (1) below the other, parallel or nearly parallel to the land surface. Soil horizons are differentiated on the basis of field characteristics and laboratory data. The three

3. (3) major soil horizons are—

   1. (A) A Horizon. The uppermost layer in the soil profile often called the surface soil. It is the part of the soil in which organic matter is most abundant and where leaching of soluble or suspended particles is the greatest;
   2. (B) B Horizon. The layer immediately beneath the A horizon and often called the subsoil. This middle layer commonly contains more clay, iron or aluminum than the A or C horizon; and
   3. (C) C Horizon. The deepest layer of the soil profile. It consists of loose material or weathered rock that is relatively unaffected by biologic activity.
4. (42) Spoil means overburden that has been removed during surface mining.
5. (43) Stabilize means any method used to control movement of soil, spoil piles or areas of disturbed earth and includes increasing bearing capacity, increasing shear strength, draining, compacting or revegetating.
6. (44) Strip mining means mining by removing the overburden lying above natural deposits of coal and mining directly from the natural deposits exposed by strip mining, and includes mining of exposed natural deposits of coal over which no overburden lies.
7. (45) Subirrigation means irrigation of plants with water delivered to the roots from underneath.
8. (46) Surface water means water, either flowing or standing, on the surface of the earth.
9. (47) Suspended solids means organic or inorganic materials carried or held in suspension in water that will remain on a 0.45 micron filter.
10. (48) Toxic-forming materials means earth materials or wastes which, if acted upon by air, water, weathering or microbiological processes, are likely to produce chemical or physical conditions in soils or water that are detrimental to biota or uses of water.
11. (49) Toxic-mine drainage means water that is discharged from active or abandoned mines and other areas affected by coal mining operations and which contains a substance which, through chemical action or physical effects, is likely to kill, injure or impair biota commonly present in the area that might be exposed to it or is detrimental to use of water.
12. (50) Valley fill and head-of-hollow fill means a structure consisting of any materials other than waste placed so as to encroach upon or obstruct to any degree any natural stream channel other than those minor channels located on highland areas where overland flow in natural rills and gullies is the predominant form of runoff. These fills are normally constructed in the uppermost portion of a V-shaped valley in order to reduce the upstream drainage area (head-of-hollow fills). Fills located farther downstream (valley fills) must have larger diversion structures to minimize infiltration. Both fills are characterized by rock underdrains and are constructed in compacted lifts from the toe to the upper surface in a manner to promote stability.
13. (51) Waste means earth materials which are combustible, physically unstable, acidor toxic-forming, wasted or otherwise separated from product coal and are slurried or otherwise transported from coal processing facilities or preparation plants after physical or chemical processing, cleaning or concentrating of coal.
14. (52) Water table means upper surface of a zone of saturation, where the body of groundwater is not confined by an overlying impermeable zone.

AUTHORITY: sections 444.510 and 444.535, RSMo 1986.* Original rule filed July 13, 1978, effective Jan. 13, 1979.

*Original authority: 444.510, RSMo 1971, amended 1976, 1979, 1990; 444.535, RSMo 1978, amended 1988.