§1267 Inspections and Monitoring

Summary

The Secretary must inspect surface coal mining and reclamation sites and may send authorized people to enter the sites to check how programs are being run and to help enforce the law. Companies with permits must keep records, send monthly reports, install and use needed monitoring equipment, check results as the agency requires, and give other information the agency asks for. If mining affects aquifers, the agency must require monitoring of surface water, groundwater (including under the lowest coal seam), well logs or borehole records, and rainfall. The monitoring must meet the agency’s standards. Inspectors may enter sites or places with required records without advance notice, copy records, and inspect equipment. Inspections must happen irregularly but average at least one partial inspection per month and one complete inspection per calendar quarter for each permit. Permit holders must post a visible sign at site entrances with their name, address, phone number, and permit number. Inspectors must write to the operator and report any violations. Records, reports, and inspection materials must be made available right away at central locations in the county, multicounty, and State mining area. State employees who carry out these duties may not have a direct or indirect financial interest in any coal mine. Anyone who knowingly breaks that rule can be fined up to $2,500, jailed for up to one year, or both. The Secretary had to publish rules to enforce that conflict rule within sixty days after August 3, 1977, and must report actions each year in the Annual Report. People who may be harmed by a mine can tell the Secretary in writing about suspected violations; the Secretary must have review procedures and must give written reasons for decisions about citations and whether inspections were adequate.