Definitions

Terms in this chapter have the same meaning as in North Dakota Century Code chapter 38-12, except: 1. "Abandoned well" means a well whose use has been permanently discontinued or that is in such a state of disrepair that it cannot be used for its intended purpose or for observation purposes. 2. "Background" means the ambient condition that exists as part of the natural environment at a particular location. 3. "Baseline" means a premining condition, concentration, quantity, or quality that is set as a specific value or guideline against which future values are compared. 4. "Baseline well" means a well from which ground water is analyzed to define baseline water quality in the permit area. 5. "Beneficial use" means a practical use of land that has economic or social value and that allows other sustainable uses. 6. "Best available technology" means the best technology, treatment techniques, or other means that the department finds, after examination for efficacy under field conditions and not solely under laboratory conditions, that are available, subject to cost considerations. For the purposes of setting maximum contaminant levels for synthetic organic chemicals, any best available technology must be at least as effective as granular activated carbon. 7. "Byproduct material" means surface wastes or material resulting from in situ leach mining. Underground ore bodies depleted by in situ leach mining do not constitute byproduct material. 8. "Casing" means a pipe or tubing of appropriate material lowered into a borehole during or after drilling to support the sides of the hole to prevent the walls from caving; to prevent loss of drilling mud into porous ground; and to prevent water, gas, or other fluid from entering or leaving the hole. 9. "Catastrophic collapse" means the sudden and complete failure of overlying strata caused by removing underlying materials. 10. "Cementing" means the process of mixing and placing cement grout in a hole to prevent the vertical movement of fluids in the hold or the annulus. 11. "Class III well" means under the federal underground injection control program promulgated under part C of the Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. 300 et seq. (2003), a well that injects fluids for extraction of minerals, including solution mining of minerals. The term includes any well used in: a. Mining of sulfur by the Frasch process; b. In situ leach mining of uranium or other metals (This category includes only in situ production from ore bodies that have not been conventionally mined. Wells used for solution mining, such as stope leaching, are classified as class V wells.); or c. In situ mining of salts, trona, or potash. 12. "Composite liner" means a liner made of two components, typically a geomembrane and a soil liner. 13. "Confining zone" means a geological unit that is stratigraphically adjacent to one or more aquifers and restricts the movement of ground water into and out of the aquifer or aquifers it confines. 14. "Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in water, soil, or air that is potentially harmful to human health or the health of animals or plants. 15. "Contiguous land" means land bordering the land within the permit area. 16. "Control parameter" means a chemical constituent of ground water monitored on a routine basis and used to detect the presence of recovery fluids in a monitoring well. 17. "Department" means the department of mineral resources of the industrial commission. 18. "Ephemeral drainage" means a stream or reach of a stream that flows only in direct response to precipitation or to the melting of snow or ice in the immediate watershed. 19. "Excursion" means any unauthorized movement of recovery fluid out of the production zone as a result of mining. 20. "Exempted aquifer" means an aquifer or portion of an aquifer that meets the criteria in the definition of "underground source of drinking water" but which has been exempted under section 33.1-25-01-05. 21. "Facility" means all contiguous land and all structures and improvements on the permit area used for mining. 22. "Filing date" means the date on which the department notifies the applicant that its application is complete. 23. "Final reclamation" means reclamation performed that satisfies the requirements of the approved reclamation plan and attains the intended postmining land use. 24. "Fluid" means any material or substance that flows or moves whether in a semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas, or other form. 25. "Formation" means a body of consolidated or unconsolidated rock characterized by a degree of lithologic homogeneity that is prevailingly, but not necessarily, tabular and is mapable on the earth's surface or traceable in the subsurface. 26. "Formation fluid" means fluid present in a formation under natural conditions. It does not include introduced fluids. 27. "Geomembrane" means a synthetic, impermeable membrane used in contact with soil or other materials in geotechnical and civil engineering applications to contain liquids. Geomembranes are made of various materials, with each type having different characteristics that affect installation procedures, lifespan, and performance. 28. "Geotechnical analysis" means a study of the engineering characteristics and properties of the site's soils, rocks, and other materials for suitability in construction. 29. "Ground water" means water below the land surface that is in the zone of saturation. 30. "Ground water restoration" means the condition achieved when the quality of ground water affected by injecting mining solution in production and nonproduction zones is returned to restoration values. 31. "Grout" means a slurry used to form a permanent, impervious seal in the annular space or to fill and seal abandoned holes or wells. 32. "Hazardous waste" has the meaning given in subsection 1 of section 33.1-24-02-03 and North Dakota Century Code section 23-20.3-02. 33. "In situ leach mining" means a method of in-place surface mining in which limited quantities of overburden are disturbed to install a conduit or well and minerals are mined by injecting or recovering a liquid, solid, sludge, or gas that causes the leaching, dissolution, gasification, liquefaction, or extraction of minerals. In situ leach mining does not include the primary or enhanced recovery of naturally occurring oil and gas. 34. "Injection well" means a class III well. 35. "Injection zone" means a geological formation, group of formations, or part of a formation receiving fluids through a well for the purposes of mineral recovery. 36. "Intermittent drainage" means a stream or reach of a stream that flows for at least some part of the year and obtains its flow from surface runoff and ground water discharge. 37. "Mechanical integrity" means the condition of an injection well, when there is no significant leak in the casing, tubing, or packer, and there is no significant fluid movement into an unauthorized zone or underground source of drinking water through vertical channels adjacent to the injection well bore. The determination that there are no significant leaks or fluid movement is based on the results of mechanical integrity testing. 38. "Mining" means in situ leach mining, unless the context requires otherwise. 39. "Mining solution" means the injected fluid containing the chemicals used to mobilize the minerals into solution. 40. "Monitoring well" means any cased excavation or opening into the ground made by digging, boring, drilling, driving, jetting, or other methods to determine the physical, chemical, biological, or radiological properties of ground water. 41. "Negative pressure gradient" means the condition that results from the creation of a localized hydrological cone of depression or pressure sink within the production zone caused by the production of more fluid than was injected. The purpose of this pressure gradient is to contain the recovery fluid by causing natural ground water to move from the surrounding area toward the production zone. 42. "Nonproduction zone" means an aquifer that is above or below the production zone. 43. "Occupied dwelling" means a residence that is lived in by a person at least six months throughout a calendar year. 44. "Operator" means the principal that is on the bond covering the facility. 45. "Perennial drainage" means a stream or reach of a stream that flows continuously during all of the calendar year as a result of ground water discharge or surface runoff. 46. "Permit amendment" means a change to an approved mining permit that requires department approval. 47. "Permit application" means a mining permit application. 48. "Permit area" means the area approved by the department in which mining may occur. 49. "Plugging" means the process of filling a borehole or a well to restore hydrologic conditions and to prevent migration of ground water between strata. 50. "Postmining land use" means the beneficial land use or uses upon which a mining operation reclamation plan is based, including forest planting, agriculture or horticulture, rangeland, wildlife habitat, recreation, residential and industrial sites, and future mineral exploration and development. 51. "Pressure" means the total force per unit area acting on a surface. 52. "Process solution" means a solution used in extracting minerals from ore during the milling process. 53. "Production" means removing or processing at least ten percent of the permitted annual minerals or the conduct of other activities, including reclamation, which significantly move the operation toward completion. 54. "Production area" means the area in which mining takes place. 55. "Production well" means a well or conduit through which a recovery fluid, mineral, or product is produced from the subsurface. If a well is used for both injection and recovery, it is considered an injection well for the purposes of this chapter until the operator demonstrates to the department that the well has been converted to uses other than injection. 56. "Production zone" means the geologic interval into which mining solutions are to be injected and recovery fluids extracted. 57. "Radioactive waste" means any waste that contains radioactive material in concentrations that exceed those listed in chapter 33-10-04.1, appendix B, table II, column 2. 58. "Receiving strata" means the geologic units within which the production zones are contained. 59. "Recovery fluid" means the fluid resulting from injecting mining solution that has dissolved or mobilized minerals from the production zone for extraction and recovery. 60. "Restoration table" means a list of parameters in the mining permit with assigned ground water quality restoration values that are the compliance requirements for restoring production and nonproduction zones. 61. "Restored aquifer" means that portion of an aquifer within a restoration area where the water quality has, by natural or artificial processes, returned to restoration values. 62. "Satellite facility" means a mineral recovery or ion exchange facility set up at a remote distance from a central processing plant. 63. "Slope" means the average inclination of a surface measured from the horizontal. 64. "Solid waste" has the meaning given in North Dakota Century Code section 23-29-03. 65. "Submission" means the initial physical delivery of an application to the department. 66. "Surface impoundment" means a natural or artificial closed basin that holds water, slurry, or other liquid or semiliquid material. A permanent surface impoundment is a structure that will remain after final bond release. 67. "Tailings impoundment" means a structure designed to hold tailings, including leach pads and dumps containing treated spent ore of the mined mineral. 68. "Technical revision" means a change in the operating plan, reclamation plan, or permit that the department determines has only a minimal effect on the interests this chapter seeks to protect or advance. 69. "Topsoil" means soil at the earth's surface that will easily produce and sustain vegetation growths specified in an approved reclamation plan. 70. "Treatment" means any method or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of a waste for the purpose of disposal or final reclamation. 71. "Unauthorized zone" means the area outside the production zone that is not permitted for injecting mining solution or extracting recovery fluid, or authorized for any excursion of recovery fluid out of the production zone. 72. "Underground source of drinking water" means an aquifer or part of an aquifer that meets any one of the following: a. Supplies any public water system; b. Contains a sufficient quantity of ground water to supply a public water system and either currently supplies drinking water for human consumption or contains fewer than ten thousand milligrams per liter total dissolved solids; or c. Is not an exempted aquifer. 73. "Upper limit value" means a chemical or physical concentration greater than the maximum value of a parameter that can be attributed to natural fluctuations and analytical variability. Upper limit values are determined by the department from the baseline sampling prior to initiation of mining. Upper limit values are used to determine when there is movement of recovery fluid out of authorized areas or unapproved changes to a chemical or physical parameter. For certain parameters, such as pH, an upper limit value may be defined as an acceptable range of values. 74. "Verifying analysis" means a second sampling and analysis of control parameters for the purpose of confirming a routine sample analysis that indicates an increase in a control parameter to a level exceeding the upper limit value. 75. "Well" means an artificial excavation or opening in the ground with a depth greater than the largest surface dimension by which ground water is sought or through which ground water flows under natural pressure or is artificially withdrawn. A well is made by digging, boring, drilling, jetting, or another artificial method, and is often walled or cased to prevent the sides from caving. 76. "Yellowcake" means a processed oxide of uranium, U3O8, that is extracted and concentrated from uranium ore.