For purposes of this Chapter, the following words and phrases shall be defined as follows:
"DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION" means the Department of Conservation of the State of California Resources Agency.
"IDLE" means to curtail for a period of one year of more surface mining operations by more than ninety percent of the operation's previous maximum annual mineral production, with the intent to resume those surface mining operations at a future date.
"MINERALS" means 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. For purposes of this Chapter, minerals shall also include but not be limited to sand, gravel, clay, cinders, diatomaceous earth, shale, limestone, flagstone, decorative stone and rip-rap.
"OPERATOR" means any person or persons who is engaged in surface mining operations or who contracts with others to conduct operations on his or her behalf, except a person who is engaged in surface mining operations as an employee with wages as his or her sole compensation.
"OVERBURDEN" means soil, rock or other materials that lie above a natural mineral deposit or in between mineral deposits, before or after their removal by surface mining operations.
"PERSON" means any individual, firm, association, corporation, organization or partnership; or any city, county, district or the state; or any department or agency thereof.
"PLANNING DIRECTOR" means the Planning Director of the City of Anaheim or his or her duly authorized designee.
"RECLAMATION" means the combined process of land treatment that minimizes water degradation, air pollution, damage to aquatic or wildlife habitat, flooding, erosion, and other adverse effects from mining operations, including adverse surface effects incidentalto underground mines, so that mined lands are reclaimed to a useable condition which is readily adaptable to alternative land uses and creates 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.
"SURFACE MINING OPERATIONS" means 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 auger method, dredging and quarrying, or surface work incidental to an underground mine. Surface mining operations shall include, but are not limited to:
(1) In-place distillation or retorting or leaching;
(2) The production and disposal of mining waste; and
(3) Prospecting and exploratory activities.
Surface mining operations shall also include the creation of borrow pits, streamed skimming, segregation, stockpiling of mined materials and recovery of same. (Ord. 5699 § 1 (part); September 21, 1999.)