§1272 Designating Areas Unsuitable for Surface Coal Mining

Summary

Require each State that wants to run surface coal mining rules to set up a planning process that uses good scientific data to decide if certain areas should be off-limits to some or all surface coal mining. People may petition the State to declare or remove an unsuitable-area designation. A petition must give facts and evidence. The State must hold a public hearing in the area within 10 months of getting the petition, let others join the case before the hearing, and issue a written decision within 60 days after the hearing. States must have a lead agency, a land-and-resource database, ways to make land-use decisions, public notice and hearings, and they must prepare a detailed statement about the area’s coal resources, coal demand, and the economic and environmental effects before making a designation. Areas may be barred if reclamation is not technically or economically possible, or if mining would conflict with local plans, harm fragile or historic places, damage renewable resources (like water or food-producing land and aquifers), or threaten life and property (for example, flood-prone or unstable ground). Designations do not stop mineral exploration. Lands with surface mining already happening on August 3, 1977, or under a permit, or with big legal and financial commitments before January 4, 1977, are not covered. The Secretary of the Interior must review Federal lands using the same rules and may allow mining before the review is finished. If Federal lands are found unsuitable, the Secretary must withdraw or limit leases and must talk with State and local agencies first. After August 3, 1977, new surface coal mining (subject to valid existing rights) is barred in places like National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, national trails, wilderness areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and certain national recreation areas; it is generally barred on national forest lands except in narrow cases (for example, if surface work is only part of an underground mine or specific legal tests are met), and no surface mining is allowed in the Custer National Forest. Mining that would harm public parks or sites on the National Register needs joint approval. Mining is also restricted near people and public places: not within 100 feet of a public road’s outer right-of-way except limited moves, not within 300 feet of an occupied home unless the owner waives it, not within 300 feet of public buildings/schools/churches/parks, and not within 100 feet of a cemetery.