§130A-309.201. Definitions

Unless a different meaning is required by the context, the definitions of G.S. 130A-290 and the following definitions apply throughout this Part:

(1)        "Beneficial and beneficial use" means projects promoting public health and environmental protection, offering equivalent success relative to other alternatives, and preserving natural resources.

(2)        "Boiler slag" means the molten bottom ash collected at the base of slag tap and cyclone type furnaces that is quenched with water. It is made up of hard, black, angular particles that have a smooth, glassy appearance.

(3)        "Bottom ash" means the agglomerated, angular ash particles formed in pulverized coal furnaces that are too large to be carried in the flue gases and collect on the furnace walls or fall through open grates to an ash hopper at the bottom of the furnace.

(4)        "Coal combustion products" it means fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, or flue gas desulfurization materials that are beneficially used, including use for structural fill.

(5)        "Coal combustion residuals" has the same meaning as defined in G.S. 130A-290.

(6)        "Coal combustion residuals surface impoundment" means a topographic depression, excavation, or diked area that is (i) primarily formed from earthen materials; (ii) without a base liner approved for use by Article 9 of Chapter 130A of the General Statutes or rules adopted thereunder for a combustion products landfill or coal combustion residuals landfill, industrial landfill, or municipal solid waste landfill; and (iii) designed to hold accumulated coal combustion residuals in the form of liquid wastes, wastes containing free liquids, or sludges, and that is not backfilled or otherwise covered during periods of deposition. "Coal combustion residuals surface impoundment" shall only include impoundments owned by a public utility, as defined in G.S. 62-3. "Coal combustion residuals surface impoundment" includes all of the following:

a.         An impoundment that is dry due to the deposited liquid having evaporated, volatilized, or leached.

b.         An impoundment that is wet with exposed liquid.

c.         Lagoons, ponds, aeration pits, settling ponds, tailings ponds, and sludge pits, when these structures are designed to hold accumulated coal combustion residuals.

d.         A coal combustion residuals surface impoundment that has been covered with soil or other material after the final deposition of coal combustion residuals at the impoundment.

(7)        "Commission" means the Environmental Management Commission.

(8)        "Flue gas desulfurization material" means the material produced through a process used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from the exhaust gas system of a coal-fired boiler. The physical nature of these materials varies from a wet sludge to a dry powdered material, depending on the process, and their composition comprises either sulfites, sulfates, or a mixture thereof.

(9)        "Fly ash" means the very fine, powdery material, composed mostly of silica with nearly all particles spherical in shape, which is a product of burning finely ground coal in a boiler to produce electricity and is removed from the plant exhaust gases by air emission control devices.

(10)      "Minerals" means soil, clay, coal, phosphate, metallic ore, and any other solid material or substance of commercial value found in natural deposits on or in the earth.

(11)      "Open pit mine" means an excavation made at the surface of the ground for the purpose of extracting minerals, inorganic and organic, from their natural deposits, which excavation is open to the surface.

(12)      "Owner" or "owner of a coal combustion residuals surface impoundment" means a public utility, as defined in G.S. 62-3, that owns a coal combustion residuals surface impoundment.

(13)      "Receptor" means any human, plant, animal, or structure which is, or has the potential to be, affected by the release or migration of contaminants. Any well constructed for the purpose of monitoring groundwater and contaminant concentrations shall not be considered a receptor.

(14)      "Structural fill" means an engineered fill with a projected beneficial end use constructed using coal combustion products that are properly placed and compacted. For purposes of this Part, the term includes fill used to reclaim open pit mines and for embankments, greenscapes, foundations, construction foundations, and for bases or sub-bases under a structure or a footprint of a paved road, parking lot, sidewalk, walkway, or similar structure.

(15)      "Use or reuse of coal combustion products" means the procedure whereby coal combustion products are directly used as either of the following:

a.         As an ingredient in an industrial process to make a product, unless distinct components of the coal combustion products are recovered as separate end products.

b.         In a function or application as an effective substitute for a commercial product or natural resource.

(2014-122, s. 3(a).)