Section 295.11. Definitions.

  In this subchapter:

(1)  “Department" means the department of natural resources.

(2)  “Environmental pollution" means the contaminating or rendering unclean or impure the air, land or waters of the state, or making the same injurious to public health, harmful for commercial or recreational use, or deleterious to fish, bird, animal or plant life.

(3)  “Nonmetallic mining" means all of the following:

(a) Operations or activities for the extraction from the earth for sale or use by the operator of mineral aggregates or nonmetallic minerals such as stone, sand, gravel, asbestos, beryl, clay, feldspar, peat, talc and topsoil, including such operations or activities as excavation, grading and dredging.

(b) On-site processes that are related to the extraction of mineral aggregates or nonmetallic minerals, such as stockpiling of materials, blending mineral aggregates or nonmetallic minerals with other mineral aggregates or nonmetallic minerals, crushing, screening, scalping and dewatering.

(4)  “Nonmetallic mining reclamation" means the rehabilitation of a nonmetallic mining site to achieve a land use specified in an approved nonmetallic mining reclamation plan, including removal or reuse of nonmetallic mining refuse, grading of the nonmetallic mining site, removal, storage and replacement of topsoil, stabilization of soil conditions, reestablishment of vegetative cover, control of surface water and groundwater, prevention of environmental pollution and, if practical, restoration of plant, fish and wildlife habitat.

(5)  “Nonmetallic mining refuse" means waste soil, rock, mineral and other natural material resulting from nonmetallic mining. This term does not include marketable by-products resulting directly from or displaced by the nonmetallic mining.

(6)  

(a) “Nonmetallic mining site" means all of the following, except as provided in par. (b) :

1. The location where nonmetallic mining is proposed or conducted.

2. Storage and processing areas that are in or contiguous to areas excavated for nonmetallic mining.

3. Areas where nonmetallic mining refuse is deposited.

4. Areas disturbed by activities such as the construction or improvement of private roads or haulageways for nonmetallic mining.

5. Areas where grading or regrading is necessary to conduct nonmetallic mining or to achieve a land use specified in an approved nonmetallic mining reclamation plan.

(b) “Nonmetallic mining site" does not include any area described in par. (a) 1. to 5. that is not used for nonmetallic mining or for purposes related to nonmetallic mining on or after October 14, 1997.

(7)  “Operator" means any person who is engaged in, or who has applied for a permit to engage in, nonmetallic mining, whether individually, jointly or through subsidiaries, agents, employees, contractors or subcontractors.

(8)  “Person" means an individual, owner, operator, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, association, municipality, interstate agency, state agency or federal agency.

(9)  “Replacement of topsoil" means the replacement of the topsoil that was removed or disturbed by nonmetallic mining, or the provision of material to substitute for the topsoil that was removed or disturbed, for the purposes of providing adequate vegetative cover and stabilization of soil conditions to achieve a land use specified in an approved nonmetallic mining reclamation plan.

(10)  “Solid waste" means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded or salvageable materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solids or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under ch. 283 , or source material, as defined in s. 254.31 (10) , special nuclear material, as defined in s. 254.31 (11) , or by-product material, as defined in s. 254.31 (1) .

Cross-reference: See also s. NR 135.03 , Wis. adm. code.