§1260 Permit Approval or Denial

Summary

The permit agency must approve, change, or deny a mining permit after it gets a complete application and plan and follows the state or federal program rules, including public notice and any hearing. The applicant must prove the application meets all rules. If a permit is granted, the agency must tell local government officials within 10 days and say where the land is. To approve a permit, the agency must write findings showing the application is complete and accurate, the reclamation plan will work, likely effects on water have been assessed and won’t cause material damage outside the permit area, the site is not in an area banned or under study for mining (with a limited exception for operators who made big legal or financial commitments before January 1, 1977, where the Secretary may arrange coal lease or title exchanges), operations west of the 100th meridian must not stop farming on irrigated valley floors or harm water that feeds them, and if the mineral rights are separate from the surface rights the applicant must have the surface owner’s consent or a legal right to mine. The applicant must include a list of any notices of violations in the past three years and how they were resolved. The agency won’t issue a permit until current violations are fixed, and it can deny a permit after a hearing if the applicant has a pattern of willful violations causing serious, lasting environmental harm. If the land is prime farmland, the agency—after consulting the Secretary of Agriculture and following Interior rules—may only approve a permit if the operator can restore the land, within a reasonable time, to equal or better crop yields and meet the law’s soil-rebuilding standards; this does not apply to permits issued before August 3, 1977. After October 24, 1992, the rule blocking permits for violations does not apply to violations caused by unexpected events at operations on lands eligible for remining when the applicant already holds the remining permit.