Ch. NR 182 NoteNote: Chapter NR 182 as it existed on December 31, 2021, was repealed and a new chapter NR 182 was created effective January 1, 2022.
NR 182.101NR 182.101 Purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to regulate the location, design, construction, operation, maintenance, closure, and long-term care of the sites and facilities for the storage and disposal of nonferrous metallic mining and prospecting wastes and to coordinate the review, approval and oversight of such sites with the permitting and oversight processes specified in chs. NR 131 and 132 and chs. 289 and 293, Stats. NR 182.101 HistoryHistory: CR 20-043: cr. Register December 2021 No. 792, eff. 1-1-22; correction made under s. 35.17, Stats., Register December 2021 No. 792. NR 182.102(1)(1) This chapter governs sites and facilities used for storage and disposal of nonferrous metallic mining waste, as defined in this chapter which are part of a nonferrous metallic mineral mining or prospecting operation as defined in s. 293.01 (9) and (18), Stats. NR 182.102(2)(2) This chapter establishes specific groundwater quality protection standards and procedures that are applicable to all facilities regulated under this chapter and to other facilities constructed as part of nonferrous metallic mining or prospecting operations permitted under ch. NR 131 or 132. NR 182.102(3)(3) To the extent that nonferrous metallic prospecting or mining wastes are identified by the department as hazardous under s. 291.05 (1), Stats., the department shall regulate the disposal of such wastes under this chapter, and not under chs. NR 660 to 670, subject to amendment, if necessary, to comply with applicable federal regulations or otherwise to adequately protect the environment. NR 182.102(4)(4) An operator shall maintain sites and facilities utilized for the storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal of non-mining solid wastes generated as part of nonferrous metallic mining operation, not covered by the definition of mining waste, in compliance with the provisions of chs. NR 500 to 544 and NR 660 to 670, as applicable. NR 182.102(5)(5) The provisions of this chapter are not applicable to the design, construction, or operation of industrial wastewater facilities, sewerage systems, and waterworks treating liquid waste approved under s. 281.41, Stats., or permitted under ch. 283, Stats., nor to sites used solely for the disposal of liquid industrial wastes which have been approved under s. 281.41, Stats., or permitted under ch. 283, Stats. NR 182.102(6)(6) To the extent mining wastes are used in the reclamation or construction of other facilities and structures on mining or prospecting sites, other than the waste facility itself, or for backfilling an underground mine or a prospecting excavation, the facilities where such waste are placed shall be exempt from the requirements of ch. 289, Stats., and this chapter but shall comply with the review and approval requirements of ch. 293, Stats., and ch. NR 131 or 132. Facilities used to store mining waste prior to being used for construction or reclamation or as backfill for an underground mine or prospecting excavation shall comply with this chapter. NR 182.102(7)(7) Surface mines that are backfilled with mining waste shall be subject to the requirements of this chapter except for ss. NR 182.105 and 182.106. For surface mines that are backfilled with mining waste, the mine pit and any land or appurtenances used for the storage of mining waste prior to its use as backfill shall be considered a single waste site. Facilities used to store mining waste prior to its being used as backfill for a surface mine shall comply with this chapter. NR 182.102(8)(8) An underground mine or a prospecting excavation which is backfilled with nonferrous mining waste in accordance with a prospecting permit or a mining permit issued under ch. NR 131 or 132 is not a waste site subject to regulation under this chapter. NR 182.102 HistoryHistory: CR 20-043: cr. Register December 2021 No. 792, eff. 1-1-22; correction in (4) made under s. 13.92 (4) (b) 7., Stats., Register December 2021 No. 792. NR 182.103NR 182.103 Definitions. In this chapter: NR 182.103(1)(1) “Active dam” means a dam and associated settling area into which tailings or wastewater, or both, are being introduced for purposes of clarification or that has not been reclaimed in an approved manner. NR 182.103(2)(2) “Active facility life” means the period of operation beginning with the initial receipt of mining waste at a facility until the facility ceases to accept waste and has completed all closure and reclamation activities in accordance with this chapter, chs. NR 131 and 132, and any applicable plan approvals and permits. NR 182.103(4)(4) “Applicant” means a person who has submitted a feasibility report or plan of operation or applied for a waste facility license under this chapter. NR 182.103(5)(5) “Aquifer” means a geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is saturated with water and can store and transmit water, such as to a well or a spring, in quantities sufficient to constitute a usable supply. NR 182.103(6)(6) “Asbestos” means the asbestiform varieties of serpentinite (chrysotile), riebeckite (crocidolite), cummingtonite-grunerite (amosite), anthophyllite, and actinolite-tremolite. NR 182.103(7)(7) “Background concentration” or “background water quality” means surface water or groundwater quality at or near a facility, practice or activity which has not been affected by that facility, practice or activity, established by monitoring at the proposed site, upgradient and downgradient of the proposed site and at representative reference sites, as necessary. NR 182.103(8)(8) “Baseline concentration” or “baseline water quality” means the concentration of a substance in groundwater or surface water as determined by monitoring at or near a proposed facility, practice, or activity before the facility has been constructed or the practice or activity has commenced. NR 182.103(9)(9) “Closure” means those actions to be taken by the owner or operator of a mining waste site or facility to prepare the site for long-term care and to make it suitable for other uses. NR 182.103(10)(10) “Closure plan” means a written report and supplemental engineering plans detailing those actions that will be taken by the owner or operator to effect proper closure of a nonferrous mining waste facility. NR 182.103(11)(11) “Closing” means the time at which a nonferrous mining waste site or facility ceases to accept wastes, and includes those actions taken by the owner or operator of the facility to prepare the site for long-term care and make it suitable for other uses. NR 182.103(12)(12) “Completeness” means a determination by the department that the minimum submittal requirements as established by this chapter for a plan or report have been met. NR 182.103(12m)(12m) “Composite liner” or “composite capping system” means a liner or capping system consisting of 2 low permeability components installed in direct and uniform contact, with the upper component consisting of a geomembrane material and the lower component consisting of compacted low permeability soils or compacted fine-grained soils combined with a geosynthetic clay liner. NR 182.103(13)(13) “Construct” means to engage in construction and closure activities for a new or expanded mining waste facility including any of the following: NR 182.103(13)(b)(b) Preparation and construction of facility base grade, leachate collection systems, liner systems, and final cover systems. NR 182.103(13)(d)(d) Replacement, expansion, remodeling, alteration, or extension of existing structures. NR 182.103(13)(e)(e) Acquisition and installation of equipment associated with new, expanded, or remodeled structures. NR 182.103(14)(14) “Construction documentation report” means a written report submitted under the seal of a licensed professional engineer documenting that a nonferrous mining waste disposal site or facility has been constructed in substantial compliance with a department approved plan of operation and this chapter. NR 182.103(15)(15) “Department” means the department of natural resources. NR 182.103(16)(16) “Depth of useable groundwater” means the depth into the Precambrian bedrock, as determined by the department, below which the groundwater is not reasonably capable of being used or made suitable for human consumption and is not hydrologically connected to other sources of groundwater that are suitable for human consumption. NR 182.103(17)(17) “Design capacity” means the total volume in cubic yards of waste that can be placed in a waste site, including the volume of any daily or intermediate cover material utilized in the facility, but not including final cover or topsoil. NR 182.103(19)(19) “Disposal” means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, or placing of any mining or prospecting waste into or on any land or water so that the mining and prospecting waste or any constituent of the waste may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwaters. NR 182.103(21)(21) “Establish” means to bring a mining waste disposal site or facility into existence, in compliance with applicable approvals and rules of the department. NR 182.103(22)(22) “Expand an existing site or facility” means to dispose of nonferrous mining waste on land not previously licensed, to dispose of mining waste not in accordance with a department issued plan approval, if one exists, or to dispose of mining waste in a manner significantly different from past operations. NR 182.103(23)(23) “Facility” means any land or appurtenances to the land used for the storage or disposal of nonferrous mining wastes, but does not include land or appurtenances used in the production or transportation of mining wastes, such as the concentrator, haul roads, or tailings pipelines, that are permitted under ch. NR 131 or 132. NR 182.103(24)(24) “Feasibility report” means a report for a specific nonferrous mining waste disposal site or facility that describes the facility, surrounding area, and proposed operation in terms of land use, topography, soils, geology, hydrology, groundwater, surface water, proposed waste quantities and characteristics, and preliminary site or facility design concepts. NR 182.103(25)(25) “Fill area” means the area of a facility proposed to receive or that is receiving direct placement of nonferrous mining waste. NR 182.103(26)(26) “Floodplain” means land that has been, prior to January 1, 2022, or may be after January 1, 2022, as determined by the department, covered by flood water during the regional flood as defined in ch. NR 116 and includes the floodway and the flood fringe as defined in ch. NR 116. NR 182.103(27)(27) “Freeboard” means the height of the crest of the dam above the adjacent liquid surface within the impoundment. NR 182.103(27g)(27g) “Geomembrane” means a highly impermeable membrane made from plastic or rubber-based material by polymerization. NR 182.103(27r)(27r) “Geosynthetic clay liner” or “GCL” means factory manufactured geosynthetic product consisting of a layer of bentonite contained between geotextiles that are attached by adhesion, stitch bonding or needlepunching or a layer of bentonite attached to a geomembrane by adhesion. NR 182.103(28)(28) “Groundwater” means any waters of the state, as defined in s. 281.01 (18), Stats., occurring in a saturated subsurface geological formation of rock or soil. NR 182.103(29)(29) “Groundwater quality” means the chemical, physical, biological, thermal, or radiological quality of groundwater at a site or within an underground aquifer. NR 182.103(30)(30) “Groundwater standard” means a preventive action limit, alternative concentration limit, or enforcement standard established in accordance with ch. NR 140 and this chapter. NR 182.103(31)(31) “Inactive dam” means a dam and associated settling area that is no longer being used for disposal of wastewater or tailings, or both, and that has been reclaimed in an approved manner. NR 182.103(33)(33) “Leachate” means water or other liquid that has percolated through or contacted nonferrous mining waste materials. NR 182.103(34)(34) “Licensed professional engineer” means a professional engineer registered with or licensed by the Wisconsin department of safety and professional services. NR 182.103(35)(35) “Licensed professional geologist” means a professional geologist registered with or licensed by the Wisconsin department of safety and professional services. NR 182.103(36)(36) “Limits of filling” means the outermost limit at which waste from a facility has been disposed of or approved or proposed for disposal. NR 182.103(39)(39) “Mine” means an excavation at or below the earth’s surface made to extract nonferrous metallic minerals. NR 182.103(42)(a)(a) “Mining waste” or “nonferrous mining waste” means any refuse, sludge, or other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from nonferrous metallic mineral prospecting or mining, or from the cleaning, preparation or concentration of nonferrous metallic minerals during prospecting or mining operations. NR 182.103(42)(b)(b) “Mining waste” include tailings, waste rock, mine overburden, and waste treatment sludges. NR 182.103(42)(c)(c) “Mining waste” does not include topsoil and mine overburden not disposed of in a waste site, but placed in a facility permitted under ch. NR 131 or 132, to be returned to the mine site or used in the reclamation process, and does not include merchantable by-products. NR 182.103(42)(d)(d) “Mining waste” does not include trees and other vegetation removed from the mining site during site preparation and facility construction. NR 182.103(43)(43) “Monitoring” means all procedures used to systematically inspect and collect data on the performance of a facility relating to leachate and gas production or the effect on the quality of the air, groundwater, surface water, unsaturated zone, or soils. NR 182.103(44)(44) “Non-mining solid waste” means solid waste generated as part of a nonferrous prospecting or mining operation that is not mining waste and includes materials such as discarded vegetation, tires, barrels, sanitary waste, and various other solid waste materials defined in ch. NR 500, including construction and demolition waste, garbage, commercial solid waste and municipal solid waste. NR 182.103(45)(45) “Operator” means the person who is responsible for the overall operation of a nonferrous mining waste facility or for part of a nonferrous mining waste facility. NR 182.103(46)(46) “Ore” means a naturally occurring material from which nonferrous metallic minerals can be recovered at a profit. NR 182.103(47)(47) “Overburden” means any unconsolidated geologic material such as till, sand and gravel, or weathered bedrock that may be removed during mining. NR 182.103(48)(48) “Owner” means any person who owns a nonferrous mining waste facility or part of a nonferrous mining waste facility whether individually, jointly, or through subsidiaries, agents, employees, or contractors. NR 182.103(49)(49) “Person” means an individual, trust, firm, cooperative, institution, joint stock company, corporation, including a government corporation, partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, interstate body, or federal or state department, agency, or instrumentality. NR 182.103(50)(50) “Plan of operation” means a report submitted for a nonferrous mining waste disposal site or facility that describes its location, design, construction, sanitation, operation, maintenance, closing, and long-term care. NR 182.103(51)(51) “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. NR 182.103(53)(53) “Proof of financial responsibility” means a deposit or other financial instrument in compliance with ss. 289.41 and 293.51 (1g), Stats., ensuring that sufficient funds will be available to comply with the closure and long-term care requirements of this chapter and the approved plan of operation. NR 182.103(55)(55) “Reclamation plan” means the proposal for the reclamation of the nonferrous prospecting or mining site, including the closure of a mining waste disposal site or facility, that is approved by the department under s. 293.45 or 293.49, Stats., and ch. NR 131 or 132 as part of the prospecting or mining permit. NR 182.103(57)(57) “Soil” means material that has been physically and chemically derived from the bedrock by nature. NR 182.103(59)(59) “Statistically significant change” means an amount of change determined by the use of valid statistical procedures for measuring significance at a level of 0.05. NR 182.103(60)(60) “Storage” means the temporary placement of nonferrous mining waste in such a manner as to not constitute ultimate disposal, in compliance with a mining permit or prospecting permit and plans approved under this chapter. NR 182.103(61)(61) “Tailings” means waste material resulting from the washing, concentration, chemical extraction or treatment of crushed ore. NR 182.103(62)(62) “Termination” means the final actions taken by an owner or operator of a nonferrous mining waste facility when formal responsibilities for long-term care cease. NR 182.103(63)(63) “Topsoil” means natural loam, sandy loam, silt loam, silt clay loam, or clay loam humus-bearing soils or other material that will easily produce and sustain dense growths of vegetation capable of preventing wind and water erosion of the material itself and other materials beneath.
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Chs. NR 100-199; Environmental Protection – General
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