[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee
of the Township of Pilesgrove 11-9-1993 by Ord. No. 93-6. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Land use — See Ch. 145.
In addition to all other requirements regarding
land mining operations in Pilesgrove Township, all land mining operations
currently existing or approved as a use variance in accordance with
N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70d of the Municipal Land Use Law shall be required
to be licensed by the Township Committee of Pilesgrove Township. As
part of the requirements for obtaining a land mining license from
the Township Committee, site plan approval from the Township Planning
Board shall be required.
In addition to the details required for preliminary major site plans contained in Chapter 145, Land Use, § 145-57B, which may be applicable and not contrary to the requirements contained herein, the site plan for any land mining operation shall provide the following information:
A.
An accurate map at the scale of not less than 50 feet
to the inch, prepared, signed and sealed by a licensed New Jersey
engineer or land surveyor, showing the following:
(1)
The location of the production site, the excavation
area, setbacks from existing property and street lines and proposed
access roads.
(2)
Detailed topographic information (contours at two-foot
intervals for slopes averaging 5% or greater and one-foot contours
for slopes less than 5%) showing the existing surface contours and
drainage patterns and the proposed surface contours and drainage patterns
following the termination of the excavation and restoration of the
site.
(3)
The present grades on a one-hundred-foot layout.
(4)
The proposed grades on a one-hundred-foot layout.
(5)
Existing floodplains, brooks, streams or bodies of
water both within 500 feet of the property in question and on the
property in question.
(6)
The location and depth to water surface of any and
all wells and septic systems on the site and within 1,000 feet of
the site.
(7)
All property boundaries.
(8)
The designated area for soil storage.
(9)
All man-made structures on the site and within 200
feet of the site.
(10)
All existing trees on the site with a five-inch
caliper or greater and all existing vegetation in the area to be mined
with the number and size of each species adequately documented for
the reestablishment of the existing vegetation pursuant to the reclamation
requirement of this chapter.
(11)
Cross sections every 10 feet starting beyond
the limits of excavation. Each cross section should show the present
grades, the limits of proposed excavation and the proposed finished
grades.
B.
A grading plan proposed, signed and sealed by a licensed
New Jersey engineer, and shall be submitted to indicate the extent
and manner of excavation. The plan shall indicate the ultimate depth
and contours of each cell (five acre maximum disturbance at any given
time). Any changes to the drainage facilities due to conditions encountered
in the field shall be subject to the approval of the Township Engineer.
Bench marks and reference points, as approved by the Township Engineer,
shall be established which indicate existing grades so that the amount,
depth and extent of excavations can be monitored.
C.
Soil borings shall be made from January 1 to April
1 to clearly indicate the depth to seasonal high-water table. The
applicant shall obtain soil ore borings and groundwater determinations
at the rate of one boring for every one acre of land, uniformly distributed
over the site. The borings should extend to a point at least 10 feet
below the lowest point of excavation. The results of the test should
be witnessed and certified by a licensed New Jersey professional engineer
and should be submitted with the application. The Township Engineer
should be notified at least 48 hours prior to the commencement of
the borings or verify any information obtained. The persons performing
the borings should cooperate in obtaining such additional information
as the Township Engineer might reasonably request and shall take such
additional borings as the Township Engineer might direct.
D.
A description of the nature of the proposed operation,
including:
(1)
Period and hours of operation.
(2)
Type of equipment to be used and measures proposed
for avoiding safety hazards, wind erosion, excessive noise and other
nuisance characteristics.
(3)
The purpose or description of the type of mining operation
involved, including the material actually excavated, which is the
final product of the mining operation.
(4)
The kind and quality (in cubic yards) of soil to be
removed during a license year as well as what is proposed to be removed
over the entire life of the entire site.
(5)
The proposed dates of commencement and completion
of the work within the license year as well as a projection of the
final completion date on the entire site.
(6)
The name, address and telephone number of the person
having direct charge or supervision over the soil removal operation.
E.
An operations plan narrative prepared by a licensed
New Jersey engineer or professional planner which shall address the
existing conditions at the site and the effect of the proposed activity
upon those conditions, including any adverse environmental impacts
and the method the applicant proposes to eliminate, mitigate or minimize
potential adverse impacts. The conditions to be addressed in the impact
statement shall include topography, hydrology, ecology, vegetation,
wildlife, soils, historic sites, groundwater, surface water and quality,
soil erosion and sedimentation and air quality, transportation of
earth materials and traffic and geology, aquatic organisms, land use,
aesthetics and archaeology. Where housing is on the site or within
200 feet of the site, the conditions to be addressed should include
water quality, water supply and septic systems. A listing of all licenses,
permits or other approvals as required by law and the status of each
also shall be provided.
F.
A traffic impact study and analysis report prepared
by a New Jersey licensed professional engineer specializing in traffic
engineering. The place to which the soil is to be removed and what
roads within the Township are to be used to transport the soil shall
be indicated in the study.
G.
Sufficient information on the plans and in the impact
statement as determined by the Board and Township Engineer to demonstrate
conformance with the design standards and conditions of this section.
H.
All Freshwater Wetlands and Wetland Transition areas
on the site shall be delineated and verified by the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection and Energy.
I.
A plan prepared by a New Jersey licensed engineer
showing the location and details of proposed monitoring wells and
a program for sampling and monitoring groundwater in the highest water
table entering and leaving its site, by a New Jersey certified laboratory,
to determine any adverse effect of the land mine on safe drinking
water standards.
J.
In order to keep adjacent streams, ponds or water
bearing strata free from undesirable obstruction, silting, contamination
or pollution of any kind, the following shall be considered by documented
drawings and specifications prepared by a licensed New Jersey professional
engineer and should be submitted at the time of application:
Site plan approval and the land mining license for any land mining operation shall remain valid only for one year from the date of issuance and only as long as the land mining operation continues to comply with the following standards and requirements, together with any special requirements established by the approving authority where unusual circumstances exist. If the land mining operation ceases to function for a period of one year, it shall be considered abandoned, and the site plan approval and land mining license therefore shall become null and void, but reapproval rights indicated in § 141-1 shall apply.
Any land mining or earth extraction operation
shall meet the following design standards:
A.
Any tract of land proposed for earth excavation or
land mining shall be at least 25 acres in area unless it is contiguous
to land already used by an active land mining operation, in which
case it shall be at least 10 acres in area, and coordination of restoration
plans shall be required.
B.
All excavation land disturbance activities or the
stockpiling of material shall not be carried out or located closer
than 200 feet to any property or street line.
C.
No excavation or soil removal shall be deeper than
two feet above the seasonal high-water table.
D.
All access or haulage roads shall be paved according
to Township specifications. The roads shall be at least 24 feet in
width. The roads shall be paved to a point not more than 100 feet
from the point at which haul vehicles are loaded. Areas in which haul
vehicles are parked prior to loading should be similarly paved.
E.
A statement shall be added stipulating that bulldozing,
digging, scraping and loading of excavated materials shall be done
in a manner which reduces to the minimum level possible the raising
of dust. Other techniques shall be used as necessary.
F.
There shall be no excavation within 500 feet of any
nonindustrial or nonresidential building or within 500 feet of any
residential structure not on the subject premises or within any private
or public water supply well or sanitary disposal system.
G.
Proof of legal right of access to land mining sites
must be shown where no frontage on a public road or highway exists,
and access easements or rights-of-way shall not pass through predominantly
residential areas.
H.
No more than five acres of land shall be excavated
or disturbed and unrestored at any one time.
I.
There shall be a buffer zone two hundred feet wide
around the perimeter of the site kept free of all activities and uses
other than an entrance lane. There shall be a landscaped berm of at
least 10 feet in height within 100 feet of all property lines which
shall be planted with six-foot-high evergreens. Additionally, where
existing vegetation does not provide an adequate screen within the
buffer zone, plantings of six-foot-high evergreen trees on 12 feet
by 12 feet spacing throughout those parts of the buffer shall be required.
Trees in the buffer area shall be maintained by replanting them on
a semiannual basis.
J.
Between the two-hundred-foot buffer and the mining
operation, there shall be a seven-foot-high chain-link fence of commercial
grade topped with triple strand angled barbed wire with a security
gate of similar structure and height as the fence to permit access
for the access road, and it shall be kept locked except during operating
hours. Duplicate keys to this gate shall be provided to the local
fire company, Township Clerk, Zoning Officer and Public Works Department.
K.
There shall be no operations performed between the
buffer zone and the fence.
L.
Site plan approval and a land mining license shall
be applied for and obtained pursuant to this chapter.
M.
The owner of the premises shall give to the Township
a recordable grant easement for access to the site by the Township
of Pilesgrove and its agents for the purpose of its inspections and
for restoration in the event that the landowners neglect or fail to
comply with or perform the conditions of the approval. Said document
shall be approved as to form by the Township Solicitor and accepted
by the Township Committee.
N.
The inside edge of the buffer area, i.e., the boundary
of the buffer zone on the side next to the excavation, shall be indicated
by the chain-linked fence to be erected or by permanent markers set
at two-hundred-foot intervals and at corners so that the inside buffer
line can be easily determined in the field. These permanent markers
shall be iron stakes at least four inches in diameter with fluorescent
coating and extending six feet above grade.
O.
There shall be no operating on Sundays or at any time
other than in the daylight between the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m., except that on Saturdays the hours of operation shall be limited
to 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. No engines shall be started before or after
the permitted hours of operation.
P.
No graded or backfilled area shall be permitted to
collect stagnant water.
Q.
No ponding of water during or after cessation of operation
shall be permitted.
R.
The back-up beepers on all equipment and trucks entering
or used at the site shall not exceed the required minimum Occupational
Safety and Health Administration and state safety regulations by more
than 5%.
S.
At least three down-gradient and one up-gradient monitoring
wells shall be installed, and a sampling and monitoring program by
a New Jersey certified laboratory shall be carried out by the applicant
for the life of the operation plus five years to determine any effects
of the land mine or safe drinking water standards.
T.
No operation shall utilize blasting or explosives.
U.
Without the express written approval of the Township
Engineer, no fertile top layer (topsoil) shall be removed from the
site. All such material shall be appropriately stockpiled for use
in restoration and repair on the site. The height of topsoil to be
stockpiled for site restoration shall be no more than six feet. The
stored soil should be seeded.
V.
The burial of trees, stumps, brush, limbs, debris,
trade waste or trash on the property shall be prohibited, and any
such material shall be removed from the property and promptly disposed
of at a properly licensed facility.
W.
A traffic control plan shall be proposed. If more
than 50 truckloads of material are to be removed from the site on
any day, a special police officer should be provided by the applicant
to direct traffic at all authorized entrances.
A.
Before any site plan approval or land mining license
may be issued for any land mining operation, the owner and operator
shall file with the Township Clerk a performance guaranty. This may
be a performance bond issued by an insurance company authorized to
do business in the State of New Jersey or may be any security, including
cash, that is approved by the Township Committee. Such performance
guaranty shall be in an amount not to exceed 120% of the amount sufficient
in the opinion of the Planning Board, based on recommendations by
the Township Engineer, to assure the installation and maintenance
of the required improvements and to assume the rehabilitation and
any required monitoring of the site of operations, after having considered
the area and depth of the excavation or proposed excavation along
with any facts relevant to the cost of improving, maintaining, rehabilitating
and monitoring the site. Any performance guaranty shall be approved
as to form by the Township Solicitor.
B.
The operator of any land mining operation shall enter
into an agreement with the Township whereby the operator or contractor
shall repair and maintain any Township roads which suffer damage as
a result of the mining operation or by its vehicles passing over Pilesgrove
Township, county and state roads in connection with the mining operation.
Such repair and maintenance shall be included on the performance guaranty.
C.
Any such performance guaranty shall be accompanied
by an agreement recordable as a deed in the County Clerk's office,
signed by the applicant and landowner, if a different person, approved
as to form by the Township Solicitor, granting the municipality and
its agents the rights of access to inspect the premises at any time
and to install and maintain required improvements and to perform all
necessary rehabilitation and monitoring of the site of operations
in the event of forfeiture of the performance guaranty.
D.
In the event of default, forfeiture shall be taken
by the Township Committee after finding of default by the Township
Committee after a public hearing held by the Township Committee on
not less than 10 days' written notice, mailed to the principal and
surety at their last known post office addresses, which notice shall
be complete upon mailing. Forfeiture also shall be taken by the Township
Committee upon a determination by it that a land mining operation
has been abandoned, after a public hearing as provided above, or when,
on the basis of a formal complaint and after a public hearing as provided
above, the Township Committee finds that a public nuisance or hazardous
condition has been permitted to exist for a period of 30 days by the
owner or operator of a land mining operation after due notice thereof
by the Construction Code Official or Zoning Officer.
E.
The performance guaranty may be released by the Township
Committee upon a finding by the Township Planning Board of satisfactory
installation and maintenance of required improvements and restoration
and monitoring of the completed project area. Portions of the performance
guaranty may be released by the Township Committee upon the finding
of the Planning Board that proportional stages of restoration have
been accomplished in accordance with the above-listed operating standards
and restoration standards with the terms of the permit, license, conditional
use, site plan approval or certificate of occupancy.
A.
Any applicant hereunder for approval for a land mining
operation shall, at the time of this application, in addition to the
usual site plan application fees, pay a nonrefundable application
fee of $150. In addition, at the time of application, the applicant
shall deposit with the Municipal Treasurer $5,000 which the Municipal
Treasurer shall in turn deposit in a separate escrow account (which
shall be a savings account) and carry under the municipality's trust
fund section of the account on the books of the municipality as an
escrow fund. Interest on said account shall be accumulated until it
reaches $100, when it may be paid out to the one who made the deposit.
Said fund shall be used to pay all attorney's fees and engineer's
fees in connection with the review of the application as well as all
engineering and legal expenses to the Township before and after approval
in connection with the inspection, administration of the site plan
approval for the land mining operation and any enforcement proceedings.
If this fund diminishes to less than $500 at any time, the applicant
shall, within five business days of notification of the same, deposit
sufficient funds with the Municipal Treasurer to restore the escrow
funds to the original amount of $5,000. If such deposit is not so
made upon request, the approval shall become immediately void, and
the Township Committee shall, upon notification of the same, declare
the performance guaranty forfeited. Upon termination of any approval
and a finding by the Planning Board that complete restoration of the
site in accordance with the above-listed operating standards and restoration
standards have been met as well as all conditions of the site plan
approval complied with, any balance in said escrow account after payment
of all applicable engineering and legal expenses shall be returned
to the party who made the deposit.
B.
The applicant shall evidence liability insurance in
sums not less than $500,000/$1,000,000 per accident. Such insurance
shall indemnify the Township from the operations of the applicant.
A certificate or copy of said policy shall be delivered to the Township
Clerk for filing.
All excavation areas shall be restored according
to the following restoration standards:
A.
Submission of a proposed plan for landscaping and
rehabilitating the mined area and other areas used in the mining operation,
including:
(1)
A comprehensive plan for reforestation of any pit
or cavity created by the mining.
(2)
A description of areas to be topsoiled, seeded and
planted and the amount and type of plantings.
(3)
A comprehensive plan for restoration of any pit or
cavity created by the mining or, if the pit or cavity is to be left
unfilled as an improvement to the land, a comprehensive plan to reshape
the sides and prevent erosion.
(4)
Disposition of all roads, buildings and equipment
utilized in connection with the mining activities.
B.
Restoration shall be a continuous process, and each
portion of the parcel shall be restored within six months after resource
extraction is completed for that portion.
C.
All restored areas shall be graded so as to conform
to the natural contours of the parcel. The slope of the surface of
restored surfaces shall not exceed one foot vertical to three feet
horizontal.
D.
Topsoil shall be restored to a minimum four-inch depth,
with topsoil meeting current New Jersey Department of Transportation
Standards Specification for Bridge and Road Construction. In those
areas underlain with acid formations with a pH factor below 4.0, grading
shall cover the exposed acid material with a minimum of two feet of
nonacid soil suitable for plant growth, including nine inches of topsoil.
E.
Drainage flows, including direction and volume, shall
be restored to the maximum extent practical to those flows existing
at the time the resource extraction operation was initiated, but in
no case shall the finished final condition of the area permit stagnant
water to collect.
F.
All equipment, machinery and structures, except for
structures that are usable for recreational purposes or any other
use authorized for the area, shall be removed within six months after
the resource extraction operation is terminated and restoration is
completed.
G.
Reclamation shall, to the maximum extent practical,
result in the reestablishment of the vegetation associated which existed
prior to the extraction activity and shall include at least one of
the following:
(1)
The planting of a minimum of 1,000 one-year-old natural
native species to the areas per acre.
(2)
Stabilization of exposed areas by established ground
cover vegetation.
(3)
Cluster planting of characteristic native species
to the areas, including oak, and such other trees as blackjack, oak,
bear oak, chestnut oak, black oak, maple, pine, pitch pine or such
other trees as are natural to the area, not limited to these listed
herein, and such shrubs, including but not limited to black huckleberry,
sheep laurel and mountain laurel, at a shaping sufficient to ensure
establishment of these species.
H.
All slopes and other dry excavated areas shall be
graded and covered with topsoil, fertilized, mulched and reseeded
so as to establish a firm cover of grass or other vegetation sufficient
to prevent erosion.
I.
The applicant shall demonstrate that the final restoration
plan shall render this site reasonably usable for at least one use
that is permitted in that zoning district.
Site plan approvals for land mining operations shall be valid only for one year from the date of issuance, but, upon formal application and the updating of information under § 141-2 hereinabove and review by the site plan approval, may be renewed for an unlimited number of additional periods of one year each. This requirement is based upon the fact that an operating land mine is a continuing construction project which is not completed until the mine is abandoned. However, at the time of each renewal, the approval fee and the escrow requirements in effect at that time shall be met as for a new application, and new conditions may be imposed. A land mining operation that has already been in existence and has operated under an approval granted prior to the time of the adoption of this chapter shall not be required to supply soil test borings and an operations plan narrative for a new approval unless substantial change is sought in the operation or in the site previously approved by eventual excavation. A land mining operation that has already been in existence and has operated without formal approval, as was the case prior to the passage of this chapter, and which desires to continue operating shall submit within six months of the passage of this chapter a complete land mining application for site plan approval and a land mining license in conformance with this chapter.
In the event of forfeiture of any performance
guaranty required by this chapter, any approval or land mining license
granted conditioned upon such performance guaranty shall be automatically
revoked and may not be renewed.
Because of the nature of land mining operations,
site plan approvals and land mining licenses are not transferable.
Each proposed new operator must comply with all the requirements and
procedures of this chapter.
It is a condition of any site plan approval
pursuant to this chapter, and a prerequisite for any issuance of a
land mining license by the Township Committee, that the applicant
file with the Township Clerk a map showing final site plan approval
in conformity with the Map Filing Law of the State of New Jersey.[1] Additionally, it is a further condition that the applicant
file a revised map annually on the anniversary date of final site
plan approval showing all conditions, deletions, additions or amendments
thereto. This map shall be used as the Official Map of the Township
of Pilesgrove referencing a land mining operation approval and shall
be so designated on file with the Township Clerk.
[1]
Editor's Note: See N.J.S.A. 46:26B-1 et seq.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any
of the provisions of this chapter shall be fined not more that $2,000
and/or imprisoned for not more than 90 days, or both, as the Judge
shall determine is appropriate. Each and every violation of a nonconformance
with this chapter or each day that any provision of this chapter shall
have been violated shall be construed as a separate and distinct violation
thereof.
