Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement July 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are approving, on an interim basis, an amendment to the West Virginia regulatory program (the West Virginia program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). West Virginia revised its Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act to effect changes concerning its alternative bonding system. The tax provisions of the amendment are intended to increase and extend the special reclamation tax, subject to biennial review by the legislature, and remove the additional tax. We are approving the increase and extension of the special reclamation tax, at the rate of fourteen and four-tenths cents per ton of clean coal mined, for deposit in the Special Reclamation Fund and the Special Reclamation Water Trust Fund, on an interim basis, with our approval becoming effective upon publication of this interim rule.

This rule adjusts the penalty amount of certain civil monetary penalties authorized by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). The rule implements the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 which requires that civil monetary penalties be adjusted for inflation at least once every four years.