Locatable Minerals Claim Location and Maintenance Fees Act of 2015

Locatable Minerals Claim Location and Maintenance Fees Act of 2015 This bill requires the owner or holder of a claim (claimant), for each unpatented lode mining claim, placer claim, mill site, or tunnel site located under the general mining laws (claim), to pay the Department of the Interior a location fee of $37 at the time the claim location notice is recorded with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). A claimant shall also pay Interior a claim maintenance fee of $155 per 20.66-acre claim or fraction thereof to maintain such claim for the following assessment year. Failure to pay either a claim maintenance fee or a location fee for an unpatented mining claim shall subject the claim to forfeiture. All mining claim validity exams shall be completed by Certified Mineral Examiners and reviewed by Certified Review Mineral Examiners. Mineral potential reports for areas withdrawn from mineral entry, and any mining claim validity exams on claims located within those areas, must be completed or prepared by a Certified Mineral Examiner and reviewed by a Certified Review Mineral Examiner. The U.S. Geological Survey shall enter into separate memorandum of understanding to share data to expand the U.S. Mineral Deposit Database with the BLM, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the Forest Service. There is established in Interior an Abandoned Noncoal Mine Lands Program to: identify, secure, and remediate physical safety hazards and environmental hazards associated with inactive and abandoned noncoal mine lands that are on or affecting federal public lands or adjacent lands; maintain an inventory of the sites of such mines, affected federal public lands, and adjacent lands; and identify the persons responsible for paying the costs to remediate such hazards. Interior, through the BLM, and the Department of Agriculture, through the Forest Service, shall identify 20 priority sites on federal land containing inactive or abandoned mine sites suitable for Good Samaritan projects. Good Samaritan Cleanup of Abandoned Mine Lands Act Under the Good Samaritan program a permitting authority (the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] or, in the case of a state or tribal program, the lead agency) may issue a permit to a Good Samaritan to carry out remediation at or related to an inactive or abandoned mine site. A Good Samaritan is a person with an ownership interest in the inactive or abandoned mine site but who did not participate in, nor has any liability for remediation costs relating to, activities that caused any historic mine residue at the site. Projects authorized under the Good Samaritan permit program shall be eligible for nonpoint source management program grants under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act).