Tenn. Code Ann. § 59-8-202 (2024)

Except as otherwise required by the context, the following terms when used in this part or in regulations issued thereunder shall be construed to mean:

• (1) "Area affected" means the area of land from which overburden is to be or has been removed and upon which a spoil bank is to be or has been deposited. It also includes areas of land on which haul roads or other access roads (other than public roads) are to be or have been located. Insofar as clay is concerned, affected land shall not be construed to include land upon which overburden is deposited if, in the opinion of the commissioner, the deposition of such overburden amounts to reclamation of a previously mined area;

• (2) "Bench" means the ledge, shelf or terrace formed in the contour method of surface mining;
  • (A) "Fill bench" means that portion of the bench which is formed by depositing overburden beyond the cut section; and
  • (B) "Solid bench" means the portion of the bench between the highwall and the fill bench and thereby within the region once occupied by the mineral or overburden;

• (3) "Board" means the Tennessee board of water quality, oil, and gas, established by § 69-3-104;

• (4) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of environment and conservation or the commissioner's designees;

• (5) "Director" means the director of the division of water pollution control;

• (6) "Highwall" means a slope in excess of thirty-five degrees (35°) which is created by mining operations;

• (7)
  • (A) "Mineral" means, in any county having a population of more than six hundred thousand (600,000), according to the 1970 federal census or any subsequent federal census, clay, stone, gravel, sand, phosphate rock, metallic ore and any other solid material or substance of commercial value found in natural deposits on or in the earth, but does not include limestone, coal, marble, chert or dimension stone;
  • (B) "Mineral" means, in any county having a population of six hundred thousand (600,000) or less, according to the 1970 federal census or any subsequent federal census, clay, stone, phosphate rock, metallic ore, and any other solid material or substance of commercial value found in natural deposits on or in the earth, but does not include limestone, coal, marble, chert, gravel, sand or dimension stone;
  • (C) "Mineral" means, on any land on which the state, or any department, agency, or other unit of state government, owns the surface interest, clay, stone, gravel, sand, phosphate rock, metallic ore, and any other solid material or substance of commercial value found in natural deposits on or in the earth, but does not include coal;

• (8) "Operation" means all of the premises, facilities, and equipment and the use thereof in the process of removing and exploring for minerals from a designated surface mine area;

• (9) "Operator" means any person, partnership or corporation engaged in surface mining who removes or intends to remove more than two hundred fifty (250) tons of any mineral from the earth by surface mining within twelve (12) successive calendar months; or who removes overburden for the purpose of determining the location, quality or quantity of any natural mineral deposit. Any operator who has obtained a permit, and otherwise complied with this part may subcontract any part, or all, of the mining of the lands covered by the permit to subcontractors and such subcontractors are not considered an "operator" within the meaning of this part;

• (10) "Orphan mine" means land affected by surface mining operations prior to enactment of the [former] Tennessee Strip Mine Law of 1967 [repealed];

• (11) "Overburden" means all earth and other materials which are removed to gain access to the mineral in the process of surface mining;

• (12) "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation or any other association of individuals;

• (13) "Provisions of this part" means the rules, regulations and orders issued by the commissioner pursuant to this part as well as the words of the sections themselves;

• (14) "Reclamation" means the process of backfilling, grading and shaping of the disturbed land in the affected area, constructing water control facilities, the taking of measures to control current or future air, water or soil pollution, and the planting of vegetation, and other measures; all directed toward placing the affected area in a condition whereby it can serve some purpose, at least as useful as that in existence before any mining;

• (15) "Shaping" means grading, backfilling and other earth moving required by this part to be done by the operator in connection with the reclamation of the area affected;

• (16) "Spoil bank" means the overburden as it is piled or deposited in the process of surface mining;

• (17) "Stream" means any waterway that normally exhibits water flow at least six (6) consecutive months per year; and

• (18) "Surface mining" means all or any part of the process followed in the production of minerals from a natural mineral deposit by the open pit or open cut method, auger method, highwall mining method which requires a new cut or removal of overburden, or any other mining process in which the strata or overburden is removed or displaced in order to recover the mineral; or in which the surface soil is disturbed or removed for the purpose of determining the location, quality or quantity of a natural mineral deposit.

Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 548, s 3, eff. 5/26/2021.

Acts 1972, ch. 547, § 2; 1974, ch. 590, § 2; 1975, ch. 188, § 1; 1975, ch. 310, § 1; 1976, ch. 752, § 1; 1978, ch. 679, § 3; T.C.A., § 58-1541; Acts 1980, ch. 695, § 1; 1980, ch. 908, § 38; 1981, ch. 406, §§ 1, 2; 1988, ch. 1004, § 1; 1992, ch. 693, §1; 2009 , ch. 211, § 1; 2011 , ch. 341, §§ 1, 2.