Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement May 2023 – 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 Montana regulatory program (hereinafter, the Montana program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). During the 2019 legislative session, Montana updated its Montana Strip and Underground Mine Reclamation Act and Montana Code Annotated. Accordingly, Montana submitted this proposed amendment to OSMRE on its own initiative. The proposed amendment requires a permit applicant's compliance information to be updated and approved if a bankruptcy or reorganization results in a change of ownership for the applicant. Furthermore, the proposed amendment requires permit owners to provide financial assurance for employee pensions. Lastly, Montana proposes a typographical correction. This document gives the times and locations that the Montana 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.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania regulatory program (hereinafter, the Pennsylvania program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Through this proposed amendment, Pennsylvania is requesting to adopt changes to its regulations related to the language defining ``minimal-impact post-mining discharge'' and the addition of ``minimal- impact post-mining discharge'' as a subset in the definition of post- mining pollutional discharge. This document gives the times and locations that the Pennsylvania 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.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania regulatory program (hereinafter, the Pennsylvania program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Through this submission, Pennsylvania addresses regulations regarding water replacement provisions that were disapproved by us in 2005. This document gives the times and locations that the Pennsylvania 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.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the North Dakota regulatory program (hereinafter, the North Dakota program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). North Dakota proposes changes to the North Dakota Century Code made by the 67th Legislative Assembly in response to Senate Bill 2317, introduced by the Department of Trust Lands, and the resulting rule changes to the North Dakota Administrative Code for surface coal mining and reclamation operations. The changes add a perfected lien or security interest in real property to the definition of collateral bond and add the conditions that must be met for real property pledged as collateral bond. This document gives the times and locations that the North Dakota 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.

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the North Dakota regulatory program (hereinafter, the North Dakota program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). North Dakota proposes changes to the North Dakota Century Code and North Dakota Administrative Code resulting from actions initiated during both the 2017 and 2021 Legislative Sessions. Changes include altering the time required for scheduling and applying for select permit related actions, creation of the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality and a transfer of select responsibilities from the Department of Health, establishment of the Department of Water Resources, and the powers and duties of that agency and the state engineer. This document gives the times and locations that the North Dakota 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.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are proposing to renew an information collection.