Section 10. Definitions

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Actual distance" means the distance in feet from the blast location to the nearest dwelling house, public building, school, church, or commercial or institutional building neither owned nor leased by the person conducting the blast.

"DMLR" means the Division of Mined Land Reclamation.

"Fly rock" means uncontrolled material generated by the blast traveling along the ground and shall not be cast from the blasting vicinity more than half the distance to the nearest dwelling or other occupied structure and in no case beyond the Division of Mined Land Reclamation (DMLR) permit boundary.

"Inhabited building" means a building regularly occupied in whole or in part as a habitation for human beings, or any church, schoolhouse, railroad station, store, or other structure where people are accustomed to assemble, except any building or structure occupied in connection with the manufacture, transportation, storage or use of explosives.

"Mudcapping," also known as bulldozing, adobe blasting or dobying, means a method of blasting by placing a quantity of explosives in contact with a rock, boulder, or other object without confining the explosives in a drill hole.

"Person" means and includes individuals, firms, partnerships, associations, corporations, receivers, or any officer of the Commonwealth, or any agent or officer of the above-mentioned classes employing any person in this Commonwealth.

"Stemming" means that inert material placed in a borehole after the explosive charge for the purpose of confining the explosion gases in the borehole or that inert material used to separate the explosive charges (decks) in decked holes.

Historical Notes

Derived from VR480-05-97, Part I, eff. December 11, 1985; amended, Volume 15, Issue 22, eff. August 18, 1999.

Statutory Authority

§§ 45.1-161.3, 45.1-161.254 and 45.1-161.286 of the Code of Virginia.