§1263 Public notice and public hearings

Summary

When someone files for a surface coal mining permit or to change a permit, they must give the regulator a copy of a newspaper ad that shows who owns the land, the exact location, and the boundaries. At filing time the ad must run in a local paper at least once a week for four consecutive weeks. The regulator must tell local governments, planning agencies, sewage and water treatment authorities, and local water companies about the planned mine, give the permit number, and say where the mining and reclamation plan can be seen. Those local groups may send written comments within a reasonable time set by the regulator about environmental effects in their area. The regulator must send those comments to the applicant right away and make them available to the public where the application is shown. Anyone who might be harmed by the mining, or the head of a federal, state, or local agency, can file written objections with the regulator within 30 days after the last ad. Objections are sent to the applicant and made public. If objections are filed and a party asks for an informal conference, the regulator must hold one in the local area if the request is timely. The regulator must advertise the date, time, and place in a local paper at least two weeks before the meeting. Parties may be allowed to visit the proposed mining area to gather information. The conference must be recorded electronically or by a reporter unless everyone agrees not to record it. That record is kept and available to the parties until the applicant’s performance bond is finally released. If federal lease hearings under section 201(a)(3)(A), (B), and (C) already covered the same issues, those hearings count instead of new ones, and their findings are added to the record and treated as conclusive for the related sections.