§ 15-57-410 - Site safety.
15-57-410. Site safety.
The quarry operator will take the following measures to safeguard the operations for the benefit of neighbors and other citizens and to restrain trespassers from entering onto the quarry or plant site:
(1) One (1) or a combination of the following will be installed around the quarry and plant site to complement natural barriers to trespassing as required:
(A) A minimum four-foot high, four-strand barbed wire fence boundary attached to steel posts;
(B) A five-foot high earth berm or rock berm, or both, with slopes steeper than 1.5:1 and a minimum top width of five feet (5'); and
(C) A protective barrier of boulders, concrete, or other objects capable of discouraging pedestrian or vehicular traffic;
(2) Brightly colored warning signs (blaze orange is recommended) will be installed every three hundred feet (300') in clear view;
(3) Barriers or lockable gates capable of withstanding normal vandalism are to be installed at all quarry site entrances. During temporary closure and after full reclamation of an exhausted quarry, barriers of rock or securely locked gates will be installed at all entrances on safety benches and haul roads so that no traffic or dumping can occur on the affected lands or in the quarry itself;
(4) After January 1, 1998, no active quarry wall will be closer than fifty feet (50') to a public road right-of-way where the quarry's adjacent floor elevation is at or above the elevation of the right-of-way of the public road at the property line. Where active quarry floors are below said right of way, quarrying will be permitted only after a vegetated berm a minimum of ten feet (10') high, eight feet (8') wide at the crest, and with 1.5:1 slopes is installed for public safety;
(5) After January 1, 1998, no active quarry wall will be closer than fifty feet (50') from any private property line unless written permission is given by the adjacent property owner. Permission will be on file at the operator's office and a copy will be sent to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality;
(6) Where truck traffic to and from the quarry site entrance creates a public safety nuisance because of fugitive dust, the operator will take the appropriate measures to treat the roadbed for dust control in the vicinity of the quarry entrance;
(7) Blasting will be regulated under present United States Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) or state labor codes;
(8) Hazardous wastes will be regulated under the present hazardous waste codes;
(9) Active quarry and plant sites will have until January 1, 1998, to comply with the requirements of this section, except for subdivision (6) of this section. Requirements of subdivision (6) of this section are to be in force by July 1, 1997;
(10) If the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality finds the operator to be out of compliance with any of the requirements of subdivisions (1), (2), and (3) of this section, a citation will be given to the operator to comply within ninety (90) days. If the operator fails to comply within the ninety-day time requirement or shows no effort to comply, the department may levy by citation a fine of not more than one hundred dollars ($100) per day until the operator complies with said requirements. The maximum fine is five thousand dollars ($5,000); and
(11) Any operator quarrying in violation of subdivisions (4) and (5) of this section will be subject to an immediate assessment of a fine of not more than one hundred dollars ($100) per day or a shut down order by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, or both. The order will stay in effect at the discretion of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality until the operator is no longer in violation.