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(a) Sections 22-14 and 22-71, regarding the storage and use of explosives, apply to licensees and licensed quarries.
(b) The operation of any quarry must not cause vibration by blasting, equipment operation, or any high-energy impulse that exceeds a peak particle velocity of 1 inch per second.
(c) The maximum allowable air blast must not exceed 130 linear decibels peak through the frequency range of 6-200 hertz.
(d) (1) On request of the Director, a licensee must produce a seismographic record, using response spectrum analysis, of each blast.
(2) The Director must approve the measurement method and instrumentation necessary to comply with this Section.
(3) The licensee must employ a person who is competent to use an approved instrument that has been calibrated according to the manufacturer's specifications.
(4) Vibration and air blast must be measured at the property line of the nearest occupied building that is not owned or leased by the licensee.
(e) The licensee must promptly report to the Director each blast or high-energy impulse that exceeds the standards set in subsections (b) and (c). (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 98-13; 1981 L.M.C., ch. 30, § 1; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1.)
(a) For any quarry originally licensed before January 1, 1981, the maximum allowable property line sound levels for all operations, including blasting, must not exceed 80 A-weighted decibels between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m., the maximum allowable property line sound levels must not exceed the levels specified in Chapter 31B.
(b) For any quarry originally licensed after January 1, 1981, the maximum allowable property line sound levels for all operations except blasting must not exceed the levels specified in Chapter 31B. The maximum allowable property line sound levels for blasting must not exceed 80 A-weighted decibels between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
(c) During 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., blasting is prohibited at any quarry.
(d) The Director may set stricter noise standards than those set in subsections (a) and (b) as license conditions for any quarry if the Director finds that stricter standards will better protect the public health, safety, or welfare.
(e) The Director may waive any noise monitoring requirement with respect to a minor quarry if the Director finds that the monitoring is unnecessary to protect the public health, safety, or welfare or the environment. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 98-14; 1972 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 5; 1981 L.M.C., ch. 30, § 2; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1.)
(a) (1) All processing and materials handling equipment and systems and control equipment within the license boundary must be constructed and maintained to comply with permit standards of the state Department of the Environment or any successor agency.
(2) (A) A licensee must not discharge any emission visible to a human observer from any processing or materials handling equipment or control equipment, except water vapor in an uncombined form.
(B) However, a licensee may discharge emissions that do not exceed 40% opacity (unaveraged) for not more than 6 minutes in any 60-minute period and not more than 12 minutes in any 24-hour period because of start-up, process modifications or adjustments, occasional cleaning, or non-negligent equipment malfunctions.
(3) (A) The licensee must report any excess emissions from any installation to the Department.
(B) The Director may establish specific excess emission duration limitations, stricter than those set in subsection (a)(2), and reporting requirements as a license condition.
(C) Any period of excess emissions does not comply with the license. The Director may consider any information reported by a licensee in deciding if any excess emission results from a legitimate installation malfunction or violates a license and this Chapter.
(b) A licensee or other person must not install or use any equipment or other device which, without reducing the total weight of any emission, conceals or dilutes any emission that would otherwise violate a license, this Chapter, or any other law.
(c) (1) Each licensee must use reasonable control measures to prevent particulate matter from becoming airborne.
(2) As part of any license application or renewal, the licensee must submit and the Director must approve a particulate control plan.
(3) The Director may require reasonable particulate control measures as license conditions.
(d) Except for stockpiles of product, excavation, and processing areas, any other disturbed area must be maintained in accordance with Chapter 19 and County regulations issued under it.
(e) The Director may require a licensee to install and maintain particulate and gas monitoring equipment to monitor control equipment performance. If the Director requires a licensee to install monitoring equipment after issuance or renewal of a license, the Director must give the licensee advance written notice that the monitoring equipment must be selected, sited, and installed with the concurrence of the Director. The licensee must make all data obtained from any monitoring equipment available to the Department on request.
(f) Emission or deposition of any material or substance beyond the license boundary violates the license and this Chapter.
(g) If the Director finds after reasonable investigation that a substance that is hazardous or toxic under federal, state, or County environmental, health, or safety laws or regulations is likely to be present in the air, water, or soil at or within one mile of a quarry in amounts that may be hazardous or toxic, the Director;
(1) may require further monitoring if the hazard is potentially continuous or recurring; and
(2) must order reasonable steps to remedy or abate the hazard, which may include periodic or continuous monitoring, testing, or analyses, or take other appropriate action to ensure maximum practicable protection of the public health and safety. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 98-14; 1972 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 5; 1981 L.M.C, ch.30, § 2.)
(a) Within the license boundary.
(1) Roads for entrance and exit to public roads must be at least 20 feet wide and constructed of impervious material such as concrete or asphalt.
(2) Access roads listed in subsection (1) must be constructed and maintained for a distance of 150 feet, or more, if required by the Director for dust control, from the public road into the license boundary. All other roads must be treated as needed with a preventive to control dust.
(3) The licensee must inspect and clean all vehicles exiting the license boundary so that residues or entrained material are removed from any non-load carrying parts of the vehicle. Any vehicle with any residue or entrained material on any non-load carrying part of the vehicle must not exit until it is thoroughly cleaned. The Director may, in the license, waive this condition for vehicles leaving office parking or other non-processing areas if these areas are totally segregated from other quarry activities.
(b) Outside the license boundary.
(1) When necessary, the Director may, in the license or by special order, designate truck routes to and from the quarry and restrict traffic originating at the quarry to those routes to prevent damage to public roads, to avoid unsafe traffic conditions, and to protect residential areas.
(2) All haulers must comply with routes designated under subsection (b)(1). The Director may issue a stop order to any hauler who has received 5 or more citations or warning notices for using a route other than designated routes within a 60-day period. The stop order may prohibit the licensed quarry from furnishing materials to the hauler for up to 30 days. After the Department has given a copy of the stop order to a licensee, the licensee must not furnish any quarry product to a hauler who is subject to a stop order.
(3) The licensee must keep the public roads free of foreign material and spillage, particularly dust-producing substances, at each entrance to or exit from the quarry and for a distance of up to one mile from the license boundary along the principal haul routes designated by the Director. The licensee must remove any spillage from the public roadway that originated from its quarry and properly dispose of the spillage within the license boundary.
(4) Each hauler also must remove any spillage on public roads that originated from its vehicle and properly dispose of the spillage. Each hauler and the licensee are jointly and severally responsible for cleanup of spillage within the one-mile boundary set in subsection (3) in addition to any other liability for spillage under applicable law. Beyond the one-mile boundary each hauler must remove its spillage and properly dispose of it.
(5) Unless authorized by the Director in writing, road washing is not an acceptable means of removing spillage. The Director may require a licensee or hauler to provide water quality and sediment control mitigation measures as a condition of authorizing road washing to remove a spillage from a roadway.
(6) If the licensee or haulers do not remove spillage or other quarry-related road debris from a roadway promptly, the Department or the Department of Transportation may arrange to remove the spillage or debris at the expense of the licensee and haulers. The licensee and all haulers using the quarry during the week the spillage occurred are jointly and severally responsible for this expense.
(c) The Director may waive any requirement of this Section with respect to a minor quarry if the Director finds that waiver will not significantly reduce the protection of the public health, safety, or welfare or the environment. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 98-18; 1981 L.M.C., ch. 30, § 4; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1; 1996 L.M.C., ch. 4, § 1; 2008 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 1.)
Editor’s note—2008 L.M.C., ch. 5, § 3, states: Sec. 3. Any regulation in effect when this Act takes effect that implements a function transferred to another Department or Office under Section 1 of this Act continues in effect, but any reference in any regulation to the Department from which the function was transferred must be treated as referring to the Department to which the function is transferred. The transfer of a function under this Act does not affect any right of a party to any legal proceeding begun before this Act took effect.
Formerly, § 38-18.
(a) (1) Except for blasting activities and as provided in this Section, a licensee must engage in excavation, mining, processing, or materials handling only between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday. Blasting must only be conducted between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
(2) From 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., only administration and maintenance activities are permitted within the license boundary.
(3) A licensee may conduct secondary and tertiary crushing of materials, associated conveyance of materials inside the license boundary, and screening and stockpiling of materials, between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, from April 1 through September 30 of each year.
(4) Only those operations necessary for administration or security of a quarry may be conducted on Sunday.
(5) Activities listed in this subsection are permitted only if sound levels do not exceed the maximum property line sound levels specified in Chapter 31B or other requirements established in this Chapter or by regulation or as a license condition.
(b) The Director may approve extended operating hours for processing and materials handling under the procedures of this subsection.
(1) A licensee may submit an application for extended operating hours at least 12 days before the extended operating hours would begin. The Director must require each applicant to pay a fee, established by regulation under method (3), that is sufficient to pay the Department's cost of processing the application, notifying the public, and monitoring the extended operating hours.
(2) After receiving an application for extended operating hours, the Director must notify the public and civic associations in each affected community by direct mail or other means that will effectively inform them of the proposed extended hours at least 10 days before the extended operating hours begin.
(3) Any person may submit written comments to the Director before the Director decides whether to approve the extended operating hours.
(4) The Director may approve extended operating hours only if the Director finds that:
(A) the applicant has shown substantial public need for the extended hours; and
(B) the public interest will generally be served by allowing the extended hours.
(5) The Director may also allow a licensee to load materials on trucks and haul the materials outside the license boundary during the extended operating hours if the Director finds that:
(A) the materials are required for work done by or for a government agency; and
(B) timely completion of the work requires that the materials be delivered to a work site between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
(6) Any approval order must specify the period of time during which the extended operating hours are effective and any other conditions of operation necessary to protect the public health, safety, or welfare or the environment.
(7) During extended operating hours, sound levels must not exceed the maximum property line sound levels specified in Chapter 31B or set under Section 38-14(d).
(8) The Director may require additional noise mitigation measures during extended operating hours. These measures may include:
(A) strobe light backup warning devices on mobile equipment during periods of darkness; and
(B) audible warning devices which are adjustable to 5 decibels over ambient background sound, measured 20 feet from the device.
(c) Materials must not be loaded on trucks or hauled outside the license boundary between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., except as allowed under subsection (b)(5).
(d) The Director may require additional periodic ambient air quality or noise monitoring during activities allowed under subsection (a)(3) or extended operating hours authorized under subsection (b) when necessary to protect the public health, safety, or welfare or the environment.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section, any independent asphalt production and distribution operation that was active within a license boundary before January 1, 1992, may operate from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. if it complies with all applicable noise, water quality, and air quality requirements under this Chapter. This subsection does not allow any other licensee to operate during those hours. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 98-19; 1972 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 5; 1981 L.M.C., ch. 30, § 5; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 20, § 1.)
Note-Formerly, § 38-19.
(a) Minimum rehabilitation requirements.
(1) An applicant for a license or license renewal must file with the application an abandonment plan for the safe and environmentally sound termination of quarry activities on any property within the license boundary. As each site or part of a site is abandoned in accordance with the abandonment plan, the licensee must perform the following minimum rehabilitation program to the area abandoned. Failure to renew the license for a site or part of a site is conclusive evidence that the area is abandoned.
(A) Regrading. All disturbed land must be regraded to no more than the maximum stable slope angle as the Department determines for the particular site.
(B) Drainage. All damming or ponding areas within the abandoned site must be drained and filled, except where dams and ponds were in existence before the quarry was licensed or where authorized to remain by the Director for soil erosion or other rehabilitation purposes.
(C) Landscaping, erosion and backfilling. All piles of disturbed earth or material resulting from the excavating operation must be graded to a smooth contour to control erosion and to prevent ponding and undrained water pockets. Whenever erosion may cause silting of streams or wash onto public roads, or may cause erosion or silting on adjoining property not owned by the licensee, the area causing erosion or wash must be graded, covered with suitable soil to sustain growth, and then sodded or seeded. All such areas not sodded must be landscaped by planting grass and trees where soil conditions permit. Seedling trees must be planted at a rate of at least 200 per acre as required by the Director and maintained through 1 year's growth. Other reasonable measures to prevent erosion may be prescribed by the Director as necessary.
(D) Removal of machinery and buildings. All machinery and buildings must be completely removed and underlying excavations filled and properly compacted to grade, except such buildings or machinery that are to be continued in operation for a use permitted under the zoning classification.
(E) Fencing. Whenever the side of any excavation is greater than 75% grade, the excavated area must be fenced with a durable galvanized or masonry fence 6 feet high, located not less than 20 feet from the edge of the quarry excavation. The Department may enter and repair or maintain such fence whenever the licensee or property owner has failed to do so after notice and a reasonable opportunity to comply. The licensee and property owner are liable to the county for the cost of repairs or maintenance.
(F) Prohibited fill. Solid waste, as defined in Chapter 48, must not be used as fill for the abandoned quarry unless the quarry is licensed as an approved place of final disposal under Chapter 48 and state law. However, nothing in this Chapter prevents the use of excavation for a solid waste acceptance facility under applicable law and regulations.
(G) Performance bond. Failure of the licensee or property owner, after notice, to comply with the approved abandonment plan, license, or this Chapter must cause the performance bond or security to be forfeited. The Director must use the proceeds to correct the violation of the license or this Chapter or to carry out the approved rehabilitation plan including the minimum rehabilitation requirements hereunder. If the cost of correction or rehabilitation exceeds the bond amount, the licensee and the property owner are jointly and severally liable for all excess costs incurred by the County.
(H) Access roads. All access roads must be suitably barricaded to prevent the passage of vehicles in or out of the abandoned area, except as needed for vehicles engaged in rehabilitation work until the plan for rehabilitation has been completed and other use necessitating access has commenced on the property.
(b) Exception. Quarries already abandoned on November 9, 1961, are not subject to this Section. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 98-21; 1972 L.M.C., ch. 16, § 5; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1.)
Note-Formerly, § 38-21.
(a) Any person who violates this Chapter and any licensee who violates a license condition is subject to punishment for a class A violation. Each day a violation continues is a separate offense.
(b) The Department may seek injunctive or other appropriate judicial relief to prevent or stop violations of this Chapter or a license. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, 398-24; 1983 L.M.C., ch. 22, § 44; 1992 L.M.C., ch. 1, § 1.)
Note-Formerly, § 38-24.