Ohio Code 1514.50 – Right of entry to perform inspections or reclamation
(A) The chief of the division of mineral resources management or an authorized employee of the division of mineral resources management may enter on lands to make inspections in accordance with this chapter and rules adopted under it when necessary in the discharge of the duties specified in this chapter and the rules. No person shall prevent or hinder the chief or an authorized employee of the division in the performance of those duties.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 1514.50
- Cone of depression: means a depression or low point in the water table or potentiometric surface of a body of ground water that develops around a location from which ground water is being withdrawn. See Ohio Code 1514.01
- Ground water: means all water occurring in an aquifer. See Ohio Code 1514.01
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- 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
(B) For purposes of performing reclamation of land affected by surface mining operations on which the holder of a permit issued under this chapter has defaulted or otherwise failed to timely conduct the reclamation required by section 1514.05 of the Revised Code, the chief may enter on the land and perform reclamation that the chief determines is necessary to protect public health or safety or the environment. In order to perform the reclamation, the chief may enter on adjoining land or other land that is necessary to access the land on which the surface mining occurred and on which the reclamation is to be performed. The chief shall provide reasonable advance notice to the owner of any land to be entered for the purpose of access for reclamation under this chapter. The division shall return the land that was used to access the former surface mining operation to the same or an improved grade, topography, and condition that existed prior to its use by the division.
(C) When conducting investigations pursuant to section 1514.13 of the Revised Code, the chief or an authorized employee of the division may enter on lands to conduct water supply surveys, measure ground water levels and collect data when necessary to define the cone of depression, or perform other duties for the purposes of that section.