§ 1260. — Permit approval or denial.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 30USC1260]
TITLE 30--MINERAL LANDS AND MINING
CHAPTER 25--SURFACE MINING CONTROL AND RECLAMATION
SUBCHAPTER V--CONTROL OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF SURFACE COAL
MINING
Sec. 1260. Permit approval or denial
(a) Basis for decision; notification of applicant and local government
officials; burden of proof
Upon the basis of a complete mining application and reclamation plan
or a revision or renewal thereof, as required by this chapter and
pursuant to an approved State program or Federal program under the
provisions of this chapter, including public notification and an
opportunity for a public hearing as required by section 1263 of this
title, the regulatory authority shall grant, require modification of, or
deny the application for a permit in a reasonable time set by the
regulatory authority and notify the applicant in writing. The applicant
for a permit, or revision of a permit, shall have the burden of
establishing that his application is in compliance with all the
requirements of the applicable State or Federal program. Within ten days
after the granting of a permit, the regulatory authority shall notify
the local governmental officials in the local political subdivision in
which the area of land to be affected is located that a permit has been
issued and shall describe the location of the land.
(b) Requirements for approval
No permit or revision application shall be approved unless the
application affirmatively demonstrates and the regulatory authority
finds in writing on the basis of the information set forth in the
application or from information otherwise available which will be
documented in the approval, and made available to the applicant, that--
(1) the permit application is accurate and complete and that all
the requirements of this chapter and the State or Federal program
have been complied with;
(2) the applicant has demonstrated that reclamation as required
by this chapter and the State or Federal program can be accomplished
under the reclamation plan contained in the permit application;
(3) the assessment of the probable cumulative impact of all
anticipated mining in the area on the hydrologic balance specified
in section 1257(b) of this title has been made by the regulatory
authority and the proposed operation thereof has been designed to
prevent material damage to hydrologic balance outside permit area;
(4) the area proposed to be mined is not included within an area
designated unsuitable for surface coal mining pursuant to section
1272 of this title or is not within an area under study for such
designation in an administrative proceeding commenced pursuant to
section 1272(a)(4)(D) or section 1272(c) of this title (unless in
such an area as to which an administrative proceeding has commenced
pursuant to section 1272(a)(4)(D) of this title, the operator making
the permit application demonstrates that, prior to January 1, 1977,
he has made substantial legal and financial commitments in relation
to the operation for which he is applying for a permit);
(5) the proposed surface coal mining operation, if located west
of the one hundredth meridian west longitude, would--
(A) not interrupt, discontinue, or preclude farming on
alluvial valley floors that are irrigated or naturally
subirrigated, but, excluding undeveloped range lands which are
not significant to farming on said alluvial valley floors and
those lands as to which the regulatory authority finds that if
the farming that will be interrupted, discontinued, or precluded
is of such small acreage as to be of negligible impact on the
farm's agricultural production, or
(B) not materially damage the quantity or quality of water
in surface or underground water systems that supply these valley
floors in (A) of subsection (b)(5) of this section:
Provided, That this paragraph (5) shall not affect those surface
coal mining operations which in the year preceding August 3, 1977,
(I) produced coal in commercial quantities, and were located within
or adjacent to alluvial valley floors or (II) had obtained specific
permit approval by the State regulatory authority to conduct surface
coal mining operations within said alluvial valley floors.
With respect to such surface mining operations which would have been
within the purview of the foregoing proviso but for the fact that no
coal was so produced in commercial quantities and no such specific
permit approval was so received, the Secretary, if he determines that
substantial financial and legal commitments were made by an operator
prior to January 1, 1977, in connection with any such operation, is
authorized, in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary may
prescribe, to enter into an agreement with that operator pursuant to
which the Secretary may, notwithstanding any other provision of law,
lease other Federal coal deposits to such operator in exchange for the
relinquishment by such operator of his Federal lease covering coal
deposits involving such mining operations, or pursuant to section 1716
of title 43, convey to the fee holder of any such coal deposits
involving such mining operations the fee title to other available
Federal coal deposits in exchange for the fee title to such deposits so
involving such mining operations. It is the policy of the Congress that
the Secretary shall develop and carry out a coal exchange program to
acquire private fee coal precluded from being mined by the restrictions
of this paragraph (5) in exchange for Federal coal which is not so
precluded. Such exchanges shall be made under section 1716 of title 43;
(6) in cases where the private mineral estate has been severed
from the private surface estate, the applicant has submitted to the
regulatory authority--
(A) the written consent of the surface owner to the
extraction of coal by surface mining methods; or
(B) a conveyance that expressly grants or reserves the right
to extract the coal by surface mining methods; or
(C) if the conveyance does not expressly grant the right to
extract coal by surface mining methods, the surface-subsurface
legal relationship shall be determined in accordance with State
law: Provided, That nothing in this chapter shall be construed
to authorize the regulatory authority to adjudicate property
rights disputes.
(c) Schedule of violations
The applicant shall file with his permit application a schedule
listing any and all notices of violations of this chapter and any law,
rule, or regulation of the United States, or of any department or agency
in the United States pertaining to air or water environmental protection
incurred by the applicant in connection with any surface coal mining
operation during the three-year period prior to the date of application.
The schedule shall also indicate the final resolution of any such notice
of violation. Where the schedule or other information available to the
regulatory authority indicates that any surface coal mining operation
owned or controlled by the applicant is currently in violation of this
chapter or such other laws referred to \1\ this subsection, the permit
shall not be issued until the applicant submits proof that such
violation has been corrected or is in the process of being corrected to
the satisfaction of the regulatory authority, department, or agency
which has jurisdiction over such violation and no permit shall be issued
to an applicant after a finding by the regulatory authority, after
opportunity for hearing, that the applicant, or the operator specified
in the application, controls or has controlled mining operations with a
demonstrated pattern of willful violations of this chapter of such
nature and duration with such resulting irreparable damage to the
environment as to indicate an intent not to comply with the provisions
of this chapter.
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\1\ So in original. Probably should be followed by ``in''.
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(d) Prime farmland mining permit
(1) In addition to finding the application in compliance with
subsection (b) of this section, if the area proposed to be mined
contains prime farmland pursuant to section 1257(b)(16) of this title,
the regulatory authority shall, after consultation with the Secretary of
Agriculture, and pursuant to regulations issued hereunder by the
Secretary of \2\ Interior with the concurrence of the Secretary of
Agriculture, grant a permit to mine on prime farmland if the regulatory
authority finds in writing that the operator has the technological
capability to restore such mined area, within a reasonable time, to
equivalent or higher levels of yield as non-mined prime farmland in the
surrounding area under equivalent levels of management and can meet the
soil reconstruction standards in section 1265(b)(7) of this title.
Except for compliance with subsection (b) of this section, the
requirements of this paragraph (1) shall apply to all permits issued
after August 3, 1977.
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\2\ So in original. Probably should be ``of the''.
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(2) Nothing in this subsection shall apply to any permit issued
prior to August 3, 1977, or to any revisions or renewals thereof, or to
any existing surface mining operations for which a permit was issued
prior to August 3, 1977.
(e) Modification of prohibition
After October 24, 1992, the prohibition of subsection (c) of this
section shall not apply to a permit application due to any violation
resulting from an unanticipated event or condition at a surface coal
mining operation on lands eligible for remining under a permit held by
the person making such application. As used in this subsection, the term
``violation'' has the same meaning as such term has under subsection (c)
of this section. The authority of this subsection and section
1265(b)(20)(B) of this title shall terminate on September 30, 2004.
(Pub. L. 95-87, title V, Sec. 510, Aug. 3, 1977, 91 Stat. 480; Pub. L.
102-486, title XXV, Sec. 2503(a), Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 3102.)
Amendments
1992--Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 102-486 added subsec. (e).
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in sections 1256, 1263, 1291, 1300 of
this title.
