Arcadia Municipal Code Part 1 Purpose, Intent, Definitions and Scope

(a) This Chapter is adopted pursuant to the California Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975, Chapter 9, Public Resources Code.

The City Council hereby finds and declares that the extraction of minerals is essential to the continued economic well-being of the City of Arcadia and to the needs of the society, and that the reclamation of mined lands is necessary to prevent or minimize adverse effects on the environment and to protect the public health and safety.

The City Council further finds that the reclamation of mined lands as provided in this Chapter will permit the continued mining of minerals and will provide for the protection and subsequent beneficial use of the mined and reclaimed land.

The City Council further finds that surface mining takes place in diverse areas where the geologic, topographic, climatic, biological, and social conditions are significantly different and that reclamation operations and the specifications therefor may vary accordingly.

For the purpose of this Chapter, certain words and terms are hereinafter defined and shall have the meaning thus ascribed.

"Exploration" or "prospecting" means the search for minerals by geological, geophysical, geochemical or other techniques including, but not limited to, sampling, assaying, drilling, or any surface or underground works needed to determine the type, extent, or quantity of materials present.

"Mined Lands": Includes the surface, subsurface, and groundwater of an area in which surface mining operations will be, are being, or have been conducted, including private ways and roads appurtenant to any such area, land excavations, workings, mining waste, and areas in which structures, facilities, equipment, machines, tools, or other materials or property which result from, or are used in, surface mining operations are located.

"Minerals": Any naturally occurring chemical element or compound, or groups of elements and compounds, formed from inorganic processes and organic substances, including, but not limited to, coal, peat, and bituminous rock, but excluding geothermal resources, natural gas, and petroleum.

"Mining Waste": Includes the residual of soil, rock, mineral, liquid, vegetation, equipment, machines, tools, or other materials or property directly resulting from, or displaced by, surface mining operations.

"Operator": Any person who is engaged in surface mining operations, himself, or who contracts with others to conduct operations on his behalf.

"Overburden": Soil, rock, or other materials that lie above a natural mineral deposit or in between deposits, before or after their removal, by surface mining operations.

"Permit": Any formal authorization from, or approved by, the City of Arcadia the absence of which would preclude surface mining operations.

"Person": Any individual, firm, association, corporation, organization, or partnership, or any city, county, district, or the state or any department or agency thereof.

"Reclamation": The process of land treatment that minimizes water degradation, air pollution, damage to aquatic or wildlife habitat, flooding, erosion, and other adverse effects from surface mining operations, including adverse surface effects incidental to underground mines, so that mined lands are reclaimed to a usable condition which is readily adaptable for alternate land uses and create no danger to public health or safety. The process may extend to affected lands surrounding mined lands, and may require backfilling, grading, resoiling, revegetation, soil compaction, stabilization, or other measures.

"State Board": State Mining and Geology Board, in the Department of Conservation, State of California.

"State Geologist": Individual holding office as structured in Section 677 of Article 3, Chapter 2 of Division 1 of the Public Resources Code.

"Surface Mining Operations": All or any part of the process involved in the mining of minerals on mined lands by removing overburden and mining directly from the mineral deposits, open-pit mining of minerals naturally exposed, mining by the auger method, dredging and quarrying, or surface work incident to an underground mine. Surface mining operations shall include, but are not limited to:

(1) In-place distillation, retorting or leaching.

(2) The production and disposal of mining waste.

(3) Prospecting and exploratory activities.

The provisions of this Chapter shall apply to all areas of the City of Arcadia.

The provisions of this Chapter are not applicable to:

(1) Excavations or grading conducted for farming or onsite construction or for the purpose of restoring land following a flood or natural disaster.

(2) Prospecting and exploration for minerals of commercial value where less than 1,000 cubic yards of overburden is removed in any one location of one acre or less.

(3) Any surface mining operation that does not involve either the removal of a total of more than 1,000 cubic yards of minerals, ores, and overburden, or involve more than one acre in any one location.

(4) Surface mining operations that are required by federal law in order to protect a mining claim, if such operations are conducted solely for that purpose.

(5) Such other mining operations that the City of Arcadia determines to be of an infrequent nature, and which involve only minor surface disturbances and are categorically identified by the State Board pursuant to Sections 2714(d) and 2758(c) of the Public Resources Code. California Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975.

(Chapter 5 of Article IX added by Ord. 1678 adopted 6-5-79)