# 2025-00198: Wyoming Turns Dead Wind Turbines Into Coal Mine Stuffing

2025-00198, Wyoming Regulatory Program, is a Federal Register rule from an unnamed agency published 2025-01-13, effective 2025-02-12 (as of 2026-06-11).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-00198
- As of: 2026-06-11
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2025-00198
- Title: Wyoming Regulatory Program
- Type: Rule
- Agencies: unknown
- Citation: unknown
- Published: 2025-01-13
- Effective: 2025-02-12
- Comments close: not stated
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: no
- Regulation identifier numbers: none
- Last updated: 2026-06-11

## In one line

Wyoming Turns Dead Wind Turbines Into Coal Mine Stuffing

## Summary

Wyoming’s mining rules just got a cool update! Now, old wind turbine blades and towers can be safely buried in coal mining sites, making cleanup smarter and greener. These changes kick in on February 12, 2025, and affect mining companies and the environment, with no extra costs expected.

## Abstract

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are approving an amendment to the Wyoming regulatory program (hereinafter, the Wyoming Program or Program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). On its own initiative, the Wyoming Land Quality Division (LQD), in response to State legislative changes enacted in 2020, proposed rules to its Program that facilitate the disposal of inert decommissioned wind turbine blades and towers as backfill in end walls or the final pit voids in surface coal mining operations. In addition, Wyoming has updated Chapter 2 of its Coal Rules, titled "Permit Application Requirements for Surface Coal Mining Operations," to provide consistency with the Wyoming Secretary of State's Rules on Rules, as well as correct grammatical errors.

## Effects PRIA read

- Wyoming OKs turbine blade burial in mine pits: mixed, medium. Wyoming’s approved rule lets mining operators place ‘‘inert decommissioned wind turbine blades and towers’’ as backfill in end walls or final pit voids, subject to conditions. The rule requires placement at least 20 feet above the pre-mining potentiometric surface of the coal aquifer and at least 2…
- 25% revenue share to State for disposal: cost, medium. If an operator collects revenues for disposing of inert turbine blades or towers, the rule requires the operator to pay Wyoming 25 percent of any such revenues to the State on a quarterly basis.
- Monitoring, permit, and bonding obligations: cost, medium. Operators who accept turbine blades/towers must include specified groundwater monitoring (including installing wells per Chapter 4, Section 8(b)(iv)(A)), vegetation monitoring, and other permit conditions; monitoring must continue until final bond release and operators must meet existing bonding re…
- Deed disclosure and surface-owner consent required: cost, low. Where inert turbine blades and towers are disposed on a site, Wyoming requires a disclosure of that disposal be placed on the real property deed for the described lands before final bond release, and the State requires surface-owner consent before disposal; Federal lands require necessary Federal a…
- Must meet landfill and federal criteria (RCRA overlap): cost, medium. Disposal facilities (including SMCRA sites receiving turbine blades/towers) must be permitted and meet Wyoming's Construction and Demolition Landfill Regulations in Chapter 4 and the Federal criteria at 40 CFR part 257, subpart A, as interpreted by EPA; OSMRE conditioned approval on meeting those s…
- Agency finds no significant small-entity impact: benefit, low. OSMRE certified under the Regulatory Flexibility Act that this final rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, and the rule is not a 'major rule' under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act.

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## Sources
- [2025-00198 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/13/2025-00198/wyoming-regulatory-program)
- [2025-00198 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-13/pdf/2025-00198.pdf)

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Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-00198 (as of 2026-06-11).