207.9 - PERMIT APPROVAL OR DENIAL.
207.9 PERMIT APPROVAL OR DENIAL.
1. Upon the basis of a complete mining application and
reclamation plan or a revision or renewal, the division shall grant,
require modification of, or deny the application for a permit in a
reasonable time set by the division and notify the applicant in
writing. The applicant shall have the burden of establishing that
the application is in compliance with all the requirements of this
chapter. Within ten days after granting of a permit, the division
shall notify the political subdivision in which the area of land to
be affected is located that a permit has been issued and shall
describe the location of the land.
2. A permit or revision application shall not be approved unless
the application affirmatively demonstrates and the division finds in
writing on the basis of the application or other information
documented in the approval, and made available to the applicant, the
following:
a. The permit application is accurate, complete and in
compliance with all the requirements of this chapter.
b. The applicant has demonstrated that reclamation as
required by this chapter and the state program can be accomplished
under the reclamation plan contained in the permit application.
c. The division has assessed the probable cumulative impact
of all anticipated mining in the area on the hydrologic balance and
the proposed operation has been designed to prevent material damage
to hydrologic balance outside permit area.
d. The area proposed to be mined is not included within an
area designated unsuitable for coal mining or is not within an area
proposed for such designation.
e. If the private mineral estate has been severed from the
private surface estate, the applicant has submitted any of the
following:
(1) The written consent of the surface owner to the extraction of
coal.
(2) A conveyance that expressly grants or reserves the right to
extract the coal by surface mining.
(3) If the conveyance does not expressly grant the right to
extract coal by surface mining methods, the surface-subsurface legal
relationship as determined in accordance with state law. This
chapter does not authorize the division to adjudicate property rights
disputes.
3. The applicant shall file with the permit application a
schedule listing any and all notices of violations of this chapter
and any law or rule of the federal or a state government pertaining
to air or water environmental protection incurred by the applicant in
connection with a coal mining operation during the three previous
years. The schedule shall also indicate the final resolution of the
notice of violation. If any information available to the division
indicates that a coal mining operation owned or controlled by the
applicant is currently in violation of this chapter or the other laws
referred to in this subsection, the permit shall not be issued until
the applicant submits proof that such violation has been corrected or
is in the process of being corrected to the satisfaction of the
regulatory authority which has jurisdiction over the violation and
the permit shall not be issued to an applicant after a finding by the
division after an opportunity for a hearing that the applicant, or
the operator specified in the application, controls or has controlled
mining operations with a demonstrated pattern of willful violations
of this chapter.
4. If the area proposed to be mined contains prime farmland, the
division shall, after consultation with the United States secretary
of agriculture, and pursuant to regulations issued by the secretary
with the concurrence of the secretary of agriculture, grant a permit
to mine on prime farmland if the division finds in writing that the
operator has the technological capability to restore such mined area,
within a reasonable time, to equivalent or higher levels of yield as
nonmined prime farmland in the surrounding area under equivalent
levels of management and can meet the soil reconstruction standards
established by section 207.7. Any operator who mines coal on
agricultural land shall restore such mined area, within a reasonable
time, to equivalent or higher levels of yield as nonmined
agricultural land of similar quality in the surrounding area under
equivalent levels of management.
5. Within sixty days a person having an interest which is or may
be adversely affected may appeal to the committee the decision of the
division granting or denying a permit as a contested case under
chapter 17A. Section History: Early Form
[C81, § 83.9] Section History: Recent Form
C93, § 207.9