Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 378 > Part III - Resource Extraction Reclamation

• Agency: means an official, committee, department, commission, officer, division, authority, bureau, council, board, section, or unit of government within the state, including a county, municipal, or other local or regional entity or special district. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Annual report: means a detailed report, including maps and aerial photographs, submitted for each mine, which describes and delineates mining operations and reclamation or restoration activities undertaken in the previous calendar year. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Borrow pit: means an area of land upon which excavation of surface resources has been conducted, is being conducted, or is planned to be conducted, as the term is commonly used in the mining trade, and is not considered a mine. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Protection. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Existing mine: means any area upon which an operation is being conducted, or has been conducted, on October 1, 1986. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Heavy minerals: means those resources found in conjunction with sand deposits which have a specific gravity of not less than 2. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Limestone: means any extracted material composed principally of calcium or magnesium carbonate. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Local government: means any county or municipality. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Mine: means an area of land upon which mining operations have been conducted, are being conducted, or are planned to be conducted, as the term is commonly used in the trade. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• New mine: means any mine that is not an existing mine. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Operation: means any activity, other than prospecting, necessary for site preparation, extraction, waste disposal, storage, or reclamation. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Operator: means any person engaged in an operation. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Overburden: means soil and rock removed to gain access to the resource in the process of extraction and means such soil or rock before or after its removal. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Peat: means a naturally occurring substance derived primarily from plant materials in a range of decomposing conditions and formed in a water-saturated environment. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Reclamation: means the reasonable rehabilitation of land where resource extraction has occurred. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Resource: means soil, clay, peat, stone, gravel, sand, limerock, metallic ore, or any other solid substance of commercial value found in natural deposits on or in the earth, except phosphate, which is regulated by part III. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• resource extraction: means the removal of resources from their location so as to make them suitable for commercial, industrial, or construction use; but does not include excavation solely in aid of onsite farming or onsite construction, nor the process of searching, prospecting, exploring, or investigating for resources by drilling. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Environmental Protection. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Wetlands: means any area as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 378.403
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01