2013 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 350 - SURFACE COAL MINING 350.062 Data included in permit application -- Contemporaneous reclamation -- Subsoil augmentation -- Cabinet to compile hydrologic data -- Abandoned land projects classified as government financed construction.
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350.062 Data included in permit application -- Contemporaneous reclamation
-- Subsoil augmentation -- Cabinet to compile hydrologic data -Abandoned land projects classified as government financed
construction.
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Applicants for permits may submit such hydrologic information on the general
area prior to mining as may be made available by the cabinet pursuant to
subsection (7) of this section and employ the information in any reasonable
mathematical water modeling formulation, logical extrapolation from existing
data on the same or similar watershed, or other reasonable predictive
techniques which regionalize and synthetize historical, geologic, and hydrologic
parameters on the general area to determine surface ground water conditions,
together with site specific data in determining the probable hydrologic
consequences of the proposed mining.
Climatological data, average seasonable precipitation, average direction and
velocity of prevailing winds, or seasonable temperature ranges shall be
submitted by the applicant only when requested by the cabinet on a site-by-site
basis.
A statement of the result of test borings or core samplings from the permit
area, including logs of the drill holes; the thickness of the coal seam found; an
analysis of the chemical properties of the coal; the sulfur content of any coal
seam to be disturbed; chemical analysis of potentially acid or toxic forming
sections of the overburden; or chemical analysis of the stratum lying
immediately underneath the coal seam to be mined, may be waived by the
cabinet with respect to the specific application by a written determination that
the requirements are unnecessary.
Applicants may submit fish and wildlife information within the proposed mine
plan area and adjacent areas in the form of published data or data otherwise
available from state and federal fish and wildlife management, conservation, or
regulatory agencies and site-specific information unless the cabinet requires
the information based on reasonable grounds to believe that the available data
are inaccurate.
The cabinet shall provide in its regulations that notwithstanding a permittee's
detailed estimated timetable for the reclamation plan in the application, as long
as the permittee or operator is in compliance with the contemporaneous
reclamation requirements of its regulations, a failure to adhere to the timetable
shall not be an independent basis for a violation.
The cabinet shall provide in its regulations establishing environmental
protection performance standards that a permittee may augment subsoil strata
with chemical or organic soil supplement materials produced on site or
elsewhere for the purpose of complying with the topsoiling requirements of this
chapter if topsoil is of insufficient quality or of poor quality for sustaining
vegetation.
The cabinet shall compile by September 1, 1980, available background
hydrologic information concerning the general areas in which surface coal
mining has or may be conducted in the Commonwealth as may be available in
standard published form, research reports, studies or data compiled by other
state or federal agencies including state-supported colleges and universities,
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the cabinet's own files, including, at a minimum, quality and quantity of water in
surface and ground water systems; minimum, maximum, and average
discharge quantities at peak and critical low flow and seasonal variations;
dissolved and suspended solids, acidity, pH, iron, and manganese under
seasonal flow conditions; and any other background hydrologic information
required by the cabinet concerning the hydrologic regime of a general area
prior to mining for purposes of making a determination of the probable
consequences of the mining; and shall make available to an operator the data
and information concerning general areas within ten (10) days of a request in
writing.
The cabinet shall classify all abandoned mine land program reclamation
projects as government financed construction and not surface coal mining
operations and the extraction of coal as an incidental part of the projects shall
be exempt from the requirements of this chapter and regulations promulgated
pursuant thereto.
The cabinet shall not arbitrarily deny or unreasonably delay any permit
application based upon the information required in this section if the registered
professional engineer or geologist or other qualified person has utilized or
developed a procedure or analytical method that differs from departmental
technical guidelines; provided, that the registered professional engineer or
geologist or other qualified person shall design a sampling and testing program
based on all available information and on a site-specific basis. The reasons for
denial shall be given in writing and shall be reasonably specific. The
requirements contained in subsection (3) of this section may be waived for
locations where the cabinet determines that adequate information is already
available to the cabinet.
Effective:July 14, 1992
History: Amended 1992 Ky. Acts ch. 429, sec. 6. effective July 14, 1992. -Amended 1982 Ky. Acts ch. 283, sec. 4, effective April 2, 1992. -- Created 1980
Ky. Acts ch. 209, sec. 2.
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