OAR 632-035-0025: Requirements for an Operating Permit Application

(1) Prior to initiating any permitting action the applicant is encouraged to meet with the Department and with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). These rules apply to mine areas with ore processing facilities at or removed from the mine site, and apply to monitoring facilities. The Department shall closely coordinate its permit requirements with DEQ so as to avoid duplication of effort and unnecessary delay. (2) An operating permit application shall contain five sections. Those sections are: Existing Environment, General Information, Operating Plan, Reclamation Plan, and Financial Security. (a) Existing Environment: (A) The Department may require environmental baseline information including characterization of the following: (i) Vegetation; (ii) Soil/overburden; (iii) Climate/air quality; (iv) Fish and aquatic biology*; (v) Wildlife* (terrestrial, avian); (vi) Surface and ground water; (vii) Area seismicity; (viii) Geology and geographic hazards; (ix) Mineralogy and chemistry; (x) Noise. NOTE: *These characterizations may be necessary for determinations by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. (B) Other state and federal agencies may have similar baseline requirements. Where possible the Department shall coordinate with agencies that have similar baseline needs, in order to avoid duplication for the applicant; (C) The level of detail required by paragraph (2)(a)(A)(i-ix) of this rule may vary depending on location, size, scope, and type of mining operation. The applicant should contact the Department prior to baseline data collection to determine the level of detail necessary for the applicant's proposal. (b) General Information: (A) The name(s) and address(es) of all owners of the surface estate and mineral estate; (B) The legal structure (e.g., corporation, partnership, individual) of the applicant; (C) The name and mailing address of the facility for correspondence; (D) The name and mailing address of the applicant's resident agent; (E) The proposed starting date and expected life of the proposed operation; (F) A description of the present land use and the proposed post-mine use of the site following mining. The proposed post-mine use must be compatible with the local comprehensive plan as determined by local land use planning agencies; (G) Maps, aerial photographs or design drawings of appropriate scale may be required by the Department. Information that typically may be required on maps, aerial photographs or design drawings includes but is not limited to: (i) Permit area boundary; (ii) Mine location; (iii) Waste rock or overburden stockpiles; (iv) Processing facilities location(s); (v) Ancillary facilities location(s); (vi) Topsoil stockpile locations; (viii) Typical cross sections; (ix) Plan views and profiles; (x) Existing watercourses and ponds; (xi) Interim watercourses and ponds; (xii) Reconstructed watercourses and ponds; (xiii) Post-mining topography; (xiv) Property lines; (xv) General ore body location. (H) The applicant should contact the Department for recommendations regarding scale and amount of detail required. The applicant may be required to submit extra copies of materials to be circulated to other agencies; (I) Written evidence that the surface estate and mineral estate owners concur with the reclamation plan and the proposed use after reclamation and that they will allow the Department access to complete reclamation within the permit area if the permittee fails to comply with the approved reclamation plan. If the applicant can document a legal right to mine without consent of the surface estate owner, and the applicant can demonstrate to the Department’s satisfaction that the Department will have a right to enter upon the permit area to complete the reclamation within the permit area if the permittee fails to complete the approved reclamation, the Department may issue an operating permit. (c) Operating Plan. The Department may require the following in an operating plan: (A) A detailed description of the proposed mining methods; (B) A general list of equipment required for operation; (C) A general schedule of construction and operation starting with the beginning of construction and ending with the completion of mining; (D) General design assumptions plus plans profile, typical cross sections and capacities for mine facilities including but not limited to: (i) Impoundments; (ii) Ponds; (iii) Diversion systems; (iv) Disposal systems; (v) Stockpiles and dumps; (vi) Pits; (vii) Tailing disposal facilities. (E) A plan for the conservation of the pre-mine quantity and maintenance of the pre-mine quality of the surface and ground water resource so as to not degrade the pre-mine use. Any discharge of ore processing solutions off-site would be required to meet DEQ discharge permit standards; (F) A water budget analysis including but not limited to: (i) Precipitation/evaporation data; (ii) Make-up water needs; (iii) Make-up water source; (iv) Procedures to dispose of precipitation water in excess of designed capacities, to include but not be limited to solution treatment facilities or proposed irrigation strategies. This section should be coordinated with procedures for seasonal closure and decommissioning of the operation; (v) Surface water runoff determination for the watershed containing the mine operation; (vi) At a minimum, projects shall be designed to handle the 100-year, 24-hour precipitation event. (G) Seasonal closure procedures if applicable including but not limited to: (i) Target seasonal storage volumes; (ii) Total system storage capacity; (iii) Procedures to handle volumes of water in excess of seasonal storage capacities; (iv) Estimated target dates for closure. (H) Credible accident contingency plan including but not limited to: (i) Accidental discharge scenarios; (ii) Immediate response strategy; (iii) Procedures to mitigate impacts to ground water; (iv) Procedures to mitigate impacts to surface water; (v) Procedures to mitigate impacts to soil/overburden; (vi) Procedures to mitigate impacts to living resources; (vii) Notification procedures; (I) Operational monitoring programs including but not limited to, surface and ground water monitoring systems within and outside the permit boundary, water balance of the process system and leak detection systems. Monitoring may be required after cessation of mining or milling operations to ensure compliance with decommissioning performance standards; (J) Surface water management procedures to provide for protection against contamination of ground water and the off-site discharge of sediments into adjacent waterways; (K) Stable storage of overburden. A vegetative cover of overburden stockpiles may be required to prevent erosion of the overburden storage or spoils area; (L) Isolation and stable storage of the topsoil or equivalent growth media material maintained for use in revegetation; (M) Stable storage of mine dumps. The pre-dump topography, ground preparation, method of emplacement of dump material, height of lifts, total height and final slopes shall be described. The Department may require design and review by a registered professional engineer or certified engineering geologist; (N) Stable storage of mill tailings. Plans and specifications of all dams or impoundments proposed to be constructed for the purpose of storing mill tailings or other materials consequent to the mining and milling operation may be required by the Department to be prepared by a registered professional engineer or certified engineering geologist. Plans shall be reviewed by the Department and other regulatory agencies. Construction of such dams may be required to be reviewed by a registered professional engineer. Procedures to prevent pollution of air, water, and land shall be described. Depending upon the commodity to be mined, tailings impoundments must meet various requirements of the Department of Environmental Quality, the Health Division of the Department of Human Resources, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Department of Energy Department of Water Resources, Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Details on how each tailings disposal facility will be reclaimed must be submitted; (O) Stable storage of mined ore. Plans and specifications prepared by a registered professional engineer or certified engineering geologist of all ore storage facilities may be required by the Department. Storage facilities as used in this paragraph include but are not limited to stored ore, ore stockpiles, storage bins and silos; (P) Subsidence Control Plan for Underground Mines. (i) At the discretion of the Department an application for underground mining activities must include an inventory that shows whether structures, renewable or nonrenewable resources, or water resources exist within the proposed permit area and adjacent area and whether subsidence might damage, or interfere with the reasonably foreseeable uses of, such structures or resources; (ii) If the Department finds, after reviewing the survey, that no structure or renewable or nonrenewable resources exists or no material damage or diminution could be caused in the event of mine subsidence, no further information needs to be provided under this subsection; (iii) If the Department finds, after reviewing the survey, that any structure, renewable or nonrenewable resource, or water resource exists and that subsidence could cause material damage or diminution of value of foreseeable use of the land, then the applicant shall submit a subsidence control plan that contains: (I) A detailed description of all proposed methods of operation that may cause subsidence, including: (I-a) The technique of ore removal; and (II-b) The extent, if any, to which planned and controlled subsidence is intended. (II) A detailed description of the measures to be taken to prevent subsidence from causing material damage or lessening the value or reasonably foreseeable use of the surface including: (II-a) The anticipated effects of planned subsidence, if any; (II-b) Measures to be taken inside the mine to reduce the likelihood of subsidence; and (III) Measures to be taken on the surface to prevent material damage to or diminution of value of reasonably foreseeable use of the surface; (IV) A detailed description of measures to be taken to determine the degree of material damage to or diminution of value of foreseeable use of the surface, including measures such as: (IV-a) The results of pre-subsidence surveys of all structures and surface features that might be materially damaged by subsidence; and (IV-b) Monitoring, if any, proposed to measure deformations near specified structures or features or otherwise as appropriate for the operations. (Q) A list of and procedures for the handling and storage of any chemicals, acid-forming materials or radioactive material generated from or required for mining or processing at the proposed operation. (d) Reclamation Plan. The Department may require the following in a reclamation plan: (A) Provisions for re-contouring, stabilization and/or topsoil replacement of all disturbed areas; (B) Provisions for the revegetation of all disturbed areas consistent with future use, including seedbed preparation, mulching, fertilizing, species selection, and seeding or planting rates and schedules. The Department may consider revegetation successful if it is comparable in stability and utility to adjacent analogous areas. In arid or semi-arid regions, the Department may allow three years of growth prior to evaluation of revegetation. Otherwise revegetation will be evaluated after one growing season. Vegetation test plots and chemical/physical soil and subsoil analysis may be required to ensure establishment feasibility. If applicable the applicant must include a plan for the control of noxious weeds; (C) Provisions for protection of public health and safety; (D) Provisions specifying adequate setbacks; (E) Procedures for all stream channels and stream banks to be rehabilitated so as to minimize bank erosion, channel scour, and siltation. Disturbance within the beds and banks of streams may require a permit from the Department of State Lands; (F) The Department may require the applicant to provide for the prevention of stagnant water; (G) Final slopes shall be stable; (H) Reclaimed cut banks shall not have slopes exceeding 1-1/2 horizontal to 1 vertical (1-1/2:1). The Department may grant exceptions for steeper slopes where the applicant can document that the slopes will be stable and if the steeper slopes: (i) Blend into adjacent terrain features; or (ii) Existed prior to mining; or (iii) Are consistent with approved subsequent beneficial use. (I) Fill slopes shall be 2:1 or flatter unless steeper slopes are approved by the Department. Technical data supporting steeper slope stability may be required by the Department; (J) Procedures for the salvage, storage and replacement of topsoil or acceptable substitute; (K) Provisions for the establishment of 3:1 in-water slopes to six feet below water level for permanent water impoundments. Reasonable alternatives may be approved by the Department when they are consistent with the reclamation plan. For example, safety benches no more than two feet below low water level and five-feet wide may be substituted for the slope requirement where the Department determines that sloping is not practical; (L) Visual screening of the proposed operation may be required, if economically practical, when the operating area is visible from a public highway or residential area. Techniques for visual screening include, but are not limited to, vegetation, fencing or berms; (M) Procedures for the removal or disposal of all equipment, refuse, structures and foundations from the permit area. Permanent structures may remain if they are part of an approved reclamation plan; (N) Provisions to maintain access to utilities when a utility company right-of-way exists; (O) Procedures for decommissioning mine facilities including but not limited to: (i) Procedures for ore storage sites to meet decommissioning performance standards for protection of surface and ground water quality and living resources and to achieve revegetation requirements; (ii) Procedures for tailing disposal facilities to meet decommissioning performance standards for long-term stability, protection of surface and ground water quality and living resources and provide for attainment of site land use objectives; (iii) Procedures for solutions to meet decommissioning performance standards for discharge, containment and evaporation, or other ultimate disposal methods; (iv) Removal of all process chemicals; (v) Appropriate isolation or removal of waste material; (vi) Monitoring system by which the success of the proposed reclamation can be measured for bond release. (e) Financial Security: (A) The applicant shall submit a permit bond or other adequate financial security for the purpose of ensuring completion of the reclamation plan, other requirements of ORS 517.750 to 517.951, and all rules and permit conditions. The financial security amount shall be determined and transmitted to the operator after comments by reviewing agencies on the proposed reclamation plan have been received and evaluated. All land shall have Department-approved and accepted financial security prior to disturbance. The Department must determine the amount of the bond or other security required by estimating the cost of reclamation if the Department were to perform the reclamation; (B) Factors the Department will consider in determining the amount of security may include, but are not limited to, the following: (i) Supervision; (ii) Mobilization; (iii) Costs of equipment; (iv) Equipment capability; (v) Costs of labor; (vi) Removal or disposition of debris, junk, equipment, structures, foundations and unwanted chemicals; (vii) Reduction of hazards such as: in-water slopes, highwalls, and landslides or other mass failure; (viii) Disposition of oversize, rejects, scalpings, and overburden; (ix) Backfilling, contouring or re-grading and topsoil replacement; (x) Draining, establishment of drainage, and erosion control; (xi) Soil tests; (xii) Seedbed preparation, seeding, mulching, fertilizing, netting, tackifiers or other stabilizing agents; (xiii) Tree and shrub planting; (xiv) Fencing; (xv) Liability insurance; (xvi) Long-term stabilization, control, containment or disposal of waste solids and liquids; (xvii) Final engineering design; (xviii) Costs of remedial measures identified to clean up releases of contaminants associated with mining, processing or beneficiation that are reasonably likely to cause a threat to public health, safety, or the environment. (C) Cost estimate information shall be derived from sources such as: (i) Comparable costs from similar projects; (ii) Catalog prices; (iii) Guides and cost estimates obtained from appropriate government and private sources; (iv) Operator estimates; (v) Equipment handbooks; (D) Seed mixes, fertilizer rates, and other requirements will be derived from departmental experience combined with advice from such sources as the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Oregon State University Extension Service, the Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Land Management or United States Forest Service and private sector experts; (E) The security amount shall be based on the cost of reclamation at the time of an inspection plus the predicted disturbance within the next 12 months. Security amounts shall not account for construction of structures or comparable features such as housing developments or industrial construction even if included in a reclamation plan; (F) The Department, in consultation with DEQ, shall make a determination of whether a threat to public health or the environment is reasonably likely to exist from a concentration of metals or minerals resulting from mining, processing or beneficiation at the proposed project. (G) The applicant may be required to submit reclamation/decommissioning cost estimates and/or estimated costs for mitigation, reclamation and/or disposal associated with a credible accident for consideration by the Department; (H) No permit shall be issued or renewed until all financial security for a surface mining site is on file with the Department. Financial security must be maintained until operations have ceased, reclamation has been completed, and all decommissioning performance standards have been met. Financial security must be provided by surety companies authorized to do business in Oregon and acceptable to the Department. A security submitted for multiple surface mining sites under the provisions of ORS 517.810(4) must be accompanied by a list showing the permits covered by the security, the amount of the bond applicable to each surface mining site, and the number of acres bonded at each site.