Title 38 — Mining and Gas and Oil Production

This chapter must be known as the Surface Owner Protection Act.

1. The legislative assembly finds that it is necessary to exercise the police power of the state as described in this chapter to protect the public welfare of North Dakota which is largely dependent on agriculture and to protect the economic well-being of individuals engaged in a…

It is the purpose of this chapter to provide the maximum amount of constitutionally permissible protection to surface owners from the undesirable effects of development, without their consent, of minerals underlying their surface. This chapter is to be interpreted in light of the…

This chapter applies to and places requirements on the holder of the mineral estate, on the mineral developer, and on the public service commission regardless of the means used to separate the mineral estate from the surface estate.

In this chapter, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires: 1. "Agricultural production" means the production of any growing grass or crop attached to the surface of the land, whether or not the grass or crop is to be sold commercially, and the production of any far…

1. Unless the mineral lease, surface lease, or consent statement executed by the surface owner provides for payments to the surface owner, the mineral developer shall annually pay to the surface owner a sum of money equal to the amount of damages sustained by the surface owner fo…

1. It is hereby declared to be the financial obligation of the mineral developer to pay the entire cost of the surface reclamation necessitated by that developer's mining operation. This obligation is in no way limited by the amount of the bond required of an "operator" by chapte…