10.40.030 Minimum standards.
Reclamation shall be conducted in accordance with those of the following minimum standards that are applicable for each site:
(1) Excavations made to a depth of not less than two feet below the low groundwater mark, which will result in the establishment of a lake of sufficient area and depth of water to be useful for residential, recreational, game, or wildlife purposes, shall be reclaimed in the following manner:
(a) All banks in soil, sand, gravel, and other unconsolidated materials shall be sloped to two feet below the low groundwater line at a slope no steeper than one and one-half feet horizontal to one foot vertical;
(b) Portions of solid rock banks shall be stepped or other measures be taken to permit a person to escape from the water.
(2) In all other excavations in soil, sand, gravel, and other unconsolidated materials, the side slopes and the slopes between successive benches shall be no steeper than one and one-half feet horizontal to one foot vertical for their entire length.
(3) The sides of all strip pits and open pits in rock and other consolidated materials shall be no steeper than one foot horizontal to one foot vertical, or other precautions must be taken to provide adequate safety.
(4) The slopes of quarry walls in rock or other consolidated materials shall have no prescribed angle of slope, but where a hazardous condition is created that is not indigenous to the immediate area, the quarry shall be either graded or backfilled to a slope of one foot horizontal to one foot vertical or other precautions must be taken to provide adequate safety.
(5) In strip mining operations, the peaks and depressions of the soil banks shall be reduced to a gently rolling topography which will minimize erosion and which will be in substantial conformity with the immediately surrounding land area.
(6) In no event shall any provision of this section be construed to allow stagnant water to collect or remain on the surface mined area. Suitable drainage systems shall be constructed or installed to avoid such conditions if natural drainage is not possible.
(7) All grading and backfilling shall be made with nonnoxious, noninflammable, noncombustible solids unless approval has been granted by the director for a supervised sanitary fill.
(8) In all types of surface mining, in order to prevent water pollution, all acid-forming surface mining refuse shall be disposed of by covering all acid-forming materials with at least two feet of clean fill. The final surface covering shall be graded so that surface water will drain away from the disposal area.
(9) Vegetative cover will be required in the reclamation plan as appropriate to the future use of the land.
(10) All surface mining that will disturb streams must comply with the requirements of the State Fisheries Laws (Title 75 RCW), and every application for an operating permit for such operations must have a reclamation plan that shall have been approved by the department of fisheries with regard to operations in streams, as required by Title 75 RCW. (Amended by Res. adopted Jan. 4, 1971).