Sec. 26.551. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:

(1) "Aggregates" means any commonly recognized construction material originating from a quarry or pit by the disturbance of the surface, including dirt, soil, rock asphalt, granite, gravel, gypsum, marble, sand, stone, caliche, limestone, dolomite, rock, riprap, or other nonmineral substance. The term does not include clay or shale mined for use in manufacturing structural clay products.

(2) "John Graves Scenic Riverway" means that portion of the Brazos River Basin, and its contributing watershed, located downstream of the Morris Shepard Dam on the Possum Kingdom Reservoir in Palo Pinto County, Texas, and extending to the county line between Parker and Hood Counties, Texas.

(3) "Operator" means any person engaged in or responsible for the physical operation and control of a quarry.

(4) "Overburden" means all materials displaced in an aggregates extraction operation that are not, or reasonably would not be expected to be, removed from the affected area.

(5) "Owner" means any person having title, wholly or partly, to the land on which a quarry exists or has existed.

(6) "Pit" means an open excavation from which aggregates have been or are being extracted with a depth of five feet or more below the adjacent and natural ground level.

(7) "Quarry" means the site from which aggregates for commercial sale are being or have been removed or extracted from the earth to form a pit, including the entire excavation, stripped areas, haulage ramps, and the immediately adjacent land on which the plant processing the raw materials is located. The term does not include any land owned or leased by the responsible party not being currently used in the production of aggregates for commercial sale or an excavation to mine clay or shale for use in manufacturing structural clay products.

(8) "Quarrying" means the current and ongoing surface excavation and development without shafts, drafts, or tunnels, with or without slopes, for the extraction of aggregates for commercial sale from natural deposits occurring in the earth.

(9) "Refuse" means all waste material directly connected with the production, cleaning, or preparation of aggregates that have been produced by quarrying.

(10) "Responsible party" means the owner, operator, lessor, or lessee who is responsible for overall function and operation of a quarry required to apply for and hold a permit pursuant to this subchapter.

(11) "Water quality protection area" means a contributing watershed of a river the water quality of which is threatened by quarrying activities.

(12) "Water body" means any navigable watercourse, river, stream, or lake within the water quality protection area.

Added by Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 374 (S.B. 1354), Sec. 2, eff. June 17, 2005.