Ohio Code 1514.41 – Inspections by the Chief
(A) If a surface mining operation is not inspected by the mine safety and health administration in the United States department of labor, the chief of the division of mineral resources management annually shall conduct a minimum of two inspections of the operation.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 1514.41
- Minerals: means sand, gravel, clay, shale, gypsum, halite, limestone, dolomite, sandstone, other stone, metalliferous or nonmetalliferous ore, or other material or substance of commercial value excavated in a solid state from natural deposits on or in the earth, but does not include coal or peat. See Ohio Code 1514.01
- Surface mining: means all or any part of a process followed in the production of minerals from the earth or from the surface of the land by surface excavation methods, such as open pit mining, dredging, placering, or quarrying, and includes the removal of overburden for the purpose of determining the location, quantity, or quality of mineral deposits, and the incidental removal of coal at a rate less than one-sixth the total weight of minerals and coal removed during the year, but does not include: test or exploration boring; mining operations carried out beneath the surface by means of shafts, tunnels, or similar mine openings; the extraction of minerals, other than coal, by a landowner for the landowner's own noncommercial use where such material is extracted and used in an unprocessed form on the same tract of land; the extraction of minerals, other than coal, from borrow pits for highway construction purposes, provided that the extraction is performed under a bond, a contract, and specifications that substantially provide for and require reclamation practices consistent with the requirements of this chapter; the removal of minerals incidental to construction work, provided that the owner or person having control of the land upon which the construction occurs, the contractor, or the construction firm possesses a valid building permit; the removal of minerals to a depth of not more than five feet, measured from the highest original surface elevation of the area to be excavated, where not more than one acre of land is excavated during twelve successive calendar months; routine dredging of a watercourse for purely navigational or flood control purposes during which materials are removed for noncommercial purposes, including activities conducted by or on behalf of a conservancy district, organized under Chapter 6101. See Ohio Code 1514.01
- surface mining operation: means all of the premises, facilities, and equipment used in the process of removing minerals, or minerals and incidental coal, by surface mining from a mining area in the creation of which mining area overburden or minerals, or minerals and incidental coal, are disturbed or removed, such surface mining area being located upon a single tract of land or upon two or more contiguous tracts of land. See Ohio Code 1514.01
- United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
(B) If a surface mining operation is identified through a safety performance evaluation as having three or more violations per day during an inspection conducted by the mine safety and health administration in the United States department of labor, the chief shall conduct a minimum of two inspections of the operation for one year following the identification. However, the chief, in consultation with a statewide organization representing the industrial minerals surface mining organization, may adopt rules, in accordance with Chapter 119 of the Revised Code, establishing exceptions to the safety inspection requirement under this division.
(C) If a fatality of a miner occurs at a surface mining operation as a result of an unsafe condition or a practice at the operation, the chief shall conduct a minimum of one inspection every three months at the operation for two years following the fatality.
(D) If a life-threatening injury of a miner occurs at a surface mining operation as a result of an unsafe condition or a practice at the operation, the chief shall conduct a minimum of one inspection every three months at the operation for one year following the injury.