Administrative Rules of Montana
Department 17 - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Chapter 17.24 - RECLAMATION
Subchapter 17.24.8 - Strip and Underground Reclamation Act: Alluvial Valley Floors, Prime Farmlands, Alternate Reclamation, and Auger Mining
Rule 17.24.801 - ALLUVIAL VALLEY FLOORS: PRESERVATION OF ESSENTIAL HYDROLOGIC FUNCTIONS AND PROTECTION OF FARMING

(1) Strip or underground coal mining operations must be conducted to preserve, throughout the mining and reclamation process, the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial valley floors not within a permit area. These functions must be preserved by maintaining those geologic, hydrologic and biologic characteristics that support those functions.

(2) Strip or underground coal mining and reclamation operations must be conducted to reestablish, throughout the mining and reclamation process, the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial valley floors within an area of land affected. These functions must be reestablished by reconstructing those geologic, hydrologic and biologic characteristics that support those functions.

(3) Strip or underground coal mining operations must be conducted to ensure that the agricultural utility and the level of productivity of alluvial valley floors in affected areas are reestablished to premining levels.