Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement May 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Missouri Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Fund and Abandoned Mine Reclamation and Restoration regulations (hereinafter, the Plan) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). As a result of Missouri's Red Tape Reduction Initiative (Executive Order 17- 03), Missouri proposes amendments to its Plan in order to reduce the volume of these regulations without reducing the Plan's requirements. Missouri also proposes revisions to several sections of its Plan to align with the 2006 amendments to SMCRA and the subsequent November 14, 2008, changes to the Federal regulations. This document gives the times and locations where the Missouri Plan and this proposed amendment to that Plan are available for your inspection, establishes the comment period during which you may submit written comments on the amendment, and describes the procedures that we will follow for the public hearing, if one is requested.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are approving an amendment to the North Dakota regulatory program (North Dakota program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). This amendment, proposed by North Dakota, makes numerous rule changes to the North Dakota Administrative Code for surface coal mining and reclamation operations based on statutory changes that were made during North Dakota's 2015 Legislative Session. The statutory changes added a definition of ``commercial leonardite'' (oxidized lignite) and excluded commercial leonardite from the statutory definition of ``coal.'' The statutory changes also added the phrase ``and commercial leonardite'' and ``or commercial leonardite'' to many other sections of North Dakota's reclamation statute. The statutory changes necessitated a number of similarly related changes to North Dakota's administrative rules. Finally, some of North Dakota's proposed rule revisions include minor non-substantive grammatical, codification, and statutory citation cross-reference changes. North Dakota's revisions are intended to improve operational efficiency. OSMRE does not have any corresponding statutes or regulations about leonardite, and the changes are consistent with OSMRE policy about leonardite. As such, North Dakota's proposed statutory and regulatory changes add specificity about the regulation of leonardite beyond that contained in SMCRA and the Federal regulations, and we are approving them. OSMRE's approval of North Dakota's proposed statutory and regulatory changes are solely for purposes of complying with SMCRA and may not be viewed as waiving any property interests that the United States may have in leonardite deposits that are part of the federal coal estate in certain lands in North Dakota.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has prepared a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Westmoreland San Juan Mining, LLC (SJCC) proposed Deep Lease Extension (DLE) at the existing San Juan Mine (Project) in San Juan County, New Mexico. This Notice of Availability (NOA) serves to notify the public that the ROD has been prepared and is available for review. In developing the ROD, the OSMRE considered the public comments received on the Final EIS.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a request to remove a required amendment to the Pennsylvania regulatory program, hereinafter the Pennsylvania program, under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Pennsylvania provided a rationale it believes supports its position that an amendment we required related to the timing of the reclamation of temporary storm water control facilities (siltation structures) should be removed. This document gives the times and locations that the Pennsylvania program and this request are available for your inspection, the comment period during which you may submit written comments, and the procedures that we will follow for the public hearing, if one is requested.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Kentucky regulatory program, hereinafter the Kentucky program, under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Through this proposed amendment, Kentucky seeks to revise its program to include statutory changes that remove the requirement to permit the area overlying underground mine works and amend related public notification requirements. Kentucky also seeks to revise or add administrative regulations that implement the statutory changes, define necessary terms, prescribe how underground permitting would be addressed moving forward, remove the requirement to submit a preliminary application, and update required forms. This document gives the times and locations that the Kentucky program and this proposed amendment to that program are available for your inspection, the comment period during which you may submit written comments on the amendment, and the procedures that we will follow for the public hearing, if one is requested.