30 U.S.C. § 1272 — Designating areas unsuitable for surface coal mining

(a) State planning process. (1) To qualify for primary regulatory authority under section 1253, a State must establish a process for objective decisions, based on competent and scientifically sound information, about land unsuitable for all or certain surface coal mining. The designation does not prevent mineral exploration under this chapter. (2) After a subsection (c) petition, the State regulatory authority must designate an area unsuitable if it determines that reclamation under this chapter is not technologically and economically feasible. (3) After such a petition, an area may be designated unsuitable for certain operations if they would (A) conflict with State or local land-use plans; (B) damage important historic, cultural, scientific, aesthetic, or natural-system values on fragile or historic lands; (C) substantially reduce long-term water-supply or food-or-fiber productivity on renewable-resource lands, including aquifers and recharge areas; or (D) substantially endanger life or property on natural-hazard lands, including frequently flooded or geologically unstable areas. (4) The State process must include (A) a responsible State agency; (B) a database and inventory to evaluate land’s capacity to support and be reclaimed after mining; (C) methods for carrying out land-use decisions; and (D) notice and public participation, including a public hearing before designation or redesignation. (5) These decisions must be integrated as closely as possible with Federal, State, and local land-use planning and regulation. (6) This section does not apply to operations existing on August 3, 1977, operations under a chapter permit, or operations with substantial legal and financial commitments existing before January 4, 1977.nn(b) Federal lands. The Secretary must review Federal lands under subsection (a)(2) and (3), but may allow mining before the review ends. If an area is unsuitable, the Secretary must withdraw it or condition mineral leasing or entries to limit mining. Where a Federal program operates under section 1254, the Secretary must create a process for non-Federal lands using this section’s standards and procedures. Before designating Federal land, the Secretary must consult appropriate State and local agencies.nn(c) Petition and decision. A person whose interest is or may be adversely affected may petition the regulatory authority to designate an area unsuitable for surface coal mining operations or end such a designation. The petition must allege facts with supporting evidence. Within 10 months after receiving the petition, the authority must hold a public hearing in the locality of the affected area after appropriate notice and publication of the hearing’s date, time, and location. Before the hearing, anyone may intervene by filing supported factual allegations. Within 60 days after the hearing, the authority must give the petitioner and every other hearing party a written decision on the petition and the reasons for it. If all petitioners agree before the requested hearing and withdraw their request, the hearing need not occur.nn(d) Statement. Before a designation, the authority must prepare a detailed statement on (i) potential coal resources, (ii) demand for coal resources, and (iii) the designation’s effects on the environment, economy, and coal supply.nn(e) Prohibited operations. After August 3, 1977, subject to valid existing rights, no surface coal mining operation other than one existing on that date may be permitted (1) in a unit of the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, National System of Trails, National Wilderness Preservation System, or Wild and Scenic Rivers System, including section 1276(a) study rivers and congressionally designated National Recreation Areas; (2) on Federal land within a national forest, unless the Secretary finds that no significant recreational, timber, economic, or other values would be incompatible with the surface mining and either (A) the surface operations and impacts are incidental to an underground coal mine, or (B) for land without significant forest cover in a national forest west of the 100th meridian, the Secretary of Agriculture determines that surface mining complies with the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1975, the National Forest Management Act of 1976, and this chapter. No surface coal mining operation may be permitted within the boundaries of the Custer National Forest. (3) if it would adversely affect a publicly owned park or a place included in the National Register of Historic Sites, unless the regulatory authority and the Federal, State, or local agency with jurisdiction jointly approve it; (4) within 100 feet of the outside right-of-way line of a public road, except where a mine-access road or haulage road joins that line. The regulatory authority may permit such a road to be relocated, or may permit the affected area to lie within 100 feet of the road, if, after public notice and an opportunity for a public hearing in the locality, it makes a written finding that the interests of the public and the affected landowners will be protected; or (5) within 300 feet of an occupied dwelling unless its owner waives the limit, or within 300 feet of a public building, school, church, community or institutional building, or public park, or within 100 feet of a cemetery. This section does not define “valid existing rights,” “right-of-way,” or “waiver.”