2016 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 350 - SURFACE COAL MINING .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, 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,
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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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