[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 31 (Friday, February 14, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 8494-8495]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02885]



[[Page 8494]]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

30 CFR Part 938

[SATS No. PA-171-FOR; Docket ID: OSM-2019-0009; S1D1S SS08011000 
SX064A000 201S180110; S2D2S SS08011000 SX064A000 20XS501520]


Pennsylvania Regulatory Program

AGENCY: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule; public comment period and opportunity for public 
hearing on proposed amendment.

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SUMMARY: We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement 
(OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the 
Pennsylvania regulatory program (hereinafter, the Pennsylvania program) 
under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or 
the Act). The proposed amendment would make changes to Pennsylvania's 
Coal Refuse Disposal Control Act. Those changes would include 
establishing the terms and conditions under which a system that 
prevents precipitation from contacting coal refuse must be installed, 
requiring that the regulations regarding temporary cessation at coal 
refuse disposal areas conform with Federal SMCRA regulations, and 
providing for future regulations addressing the connection with source 
mines that are in temporary cessation in determining temporary 
cessation for the coal refuse disposal permit.
    This document provides the times and locations that the 
Pennsylvania program and this proposed amendment to that program are 
available for your inspection, the comment period during which you may 
submit written comments on the amendment, and the procedures that we 
will follow for the public hearing, if one is requested.

DATES: We will accept written comments on this amendment until 4:00 
p.m., Eastern Standard Time (e.s.t.), March 16, 2020. If requested, we 
may hold a public hearing or meeting on the amendment on March 10, 
2020. We will accept requests to speak at a hearing until 4:00 p.m., 
e.s.t. on March 2, 2020.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by SATS No. PA-171-FOR, 
by any of the following methods:
     Mail/Hand Delivery: Ben Owens, Field Office Director, 
Pittsburgh Field Office, 3 Parkway Center South, 2nd Floor, Pittsburgh, 
PA 15220.
     Fax: (412) 937-2177.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: The amendment has been 
assigned Docket ID: OSM-2019-0009. If you would like to submit comments 
go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and docket number for this rulemaking. For detailed instructions on 
submitting comments and additional information on the rulemaking 
process, see the ``Public Comment Procedures'' heading of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
    Docket: For access to the docket to review copies of the 
Pennsylvania program, this amendment, a listing of any scheduled public 
hearings or meetings, and all written comments received in response to 
this document, you must go to the address listed below during normal 
business hours, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. You may 
receive one free copy of the amendment by contacting OSMRE's Pittsburgh 
Field Office or the full text of the program amendment is available for 
you to read at www.regulations.gov.

Ben Owens, Pittsburgh Field Office Director, Office of Surface Mining 
Reclamation and Enforcement, 3 Parkway Center Drive South, 2nd Floor, 
Pittsburgh, PA 15220, Telephone: (412) 937-2827, Email: 
[email protected].

    In addition, you may review a copy of the amendment during regular 
business hours at the following location:

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Mining 
Programs, Rachel Carson State Office Building, P.O. Box 8461, 
Harrisburg, PA 17105-8461.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ben Owens, Pittsburgh Field Office 
Director Telephone: (412) 937-2827. Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background on the Pennsylvania Program
II. Description of the Proposed Amendment
III. Public Comment Procedures
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

I. Background on the Pennsylvania Program

    Section 503(a) of the Act permits a State to assume primacy for the 
regulation of surface coal mining and reclamation operations on non-
Federal and non-Indian lands within its borders by demonstrating that 
its approved, State program includes, among other things, State laws 
and regulations that govern surface coal mining and reclamation 
operations in accordance with the Act and consistent with the Federal 
regulations. See 30 U.S.C. 1253(a)(1) and (7). On the basis of these 
criteria, the Secretary of the Interior conditionally approved the 
Pennsylvania program on July 30, 1982. You can find background 
information on the Pennsylvania program, including the Secretary's 
findings, the disposition of comments, and conditions of approval of 
the Pennsylvania program in the July 30, 1982, Federal Register (47 FR 
33050). You can also find later actions concerning the Pennsylvania 
program and program amendments at 30 CFR 938.11, 938.12, 938.13, 
938.15, and 938.16.

II. Description of the Proposed Amendment

    By letter dated October 16, 2019, (Administrative Record No. PA 
905.00), Pennsylvania sent us an amendment to its program under SMCRA 
(30 U.S.C. 1201 et seq.).
    The proposed amendment would make changes to section 6.1 of 
Pennsylvania's Coal Refuse Disposal Control Act (52 P.S. Sec.  30.56a). 
Subsection (i) of that section requires that for all new coal refuse 
disposal areas, operators must include a system to prevent adverse 
impacts to surface and ground water, to prevent precipitation from 
contacting coal refuse, and to allow for revegetation and prevention of 
erosion. Subsection (i) also requires that operators must install this 
system when the operator temporarily ceases operation of the coal 
refuse disposal area for 90 days or more, unless the Department 
approves a longer period of one year or less because of a labor strike 
or business necessity. The proposed amendment would remove the specific 
requirements for a labor strike or business necessity, and allow the 
Department to approve a period of temporary cessation for coal refuse 
disposal areas of more than 90 days without installation of the 
protective system at the operator's request. The proposed amendment 
would also remove the one year limit on temporary cessations without 
installing the protective system.
    The proposed amendment would also add subsection (j) to section 6.1 
of the Pennsylvania Coal Refuse Disposal Control Act. Subsection (j) 
would allow the Department to promulgate new regulations that connect 
the time limits on temporary cessation of a coal refuse disposal area 
without installation of a protective system to cessations occurring at 
the underground mine or coal preparation plant that produces the source 
coal refuse or related material. Subsection (j) also requires any such 
regulations, and any related policies, rules, and standards, to conform 
to

[[Page 8495]]

SMCRA and its implementing regulations.
    Pennsylvania proposed this amendment to address situations where 
the underground mines or coal preparation plants that produce coal 
refuse cease operations for longer than a year. In such situations, the 
sources of the coal refuse has no time limit on the cessation of 
operations, but the coal refuse disposal area has a time limit of one 
year or less. This has created operational problems for the coal refuse 
disposal sites.
    The full text of the program amendment is available for you to read 
at the locations listed above under ADDRESSES or at 
www.regulations.gov.

III. Public Comment Procedures

    Under the provisions of 30 CFR 732.17(h), we are seeking your 
comments on whether the amendment satisfies the applicable program 
approval criteria of 30 CFR 732.15. If we approve the amendment, it 
will become part of the State program.

Electronic or Written Comments

    If you submit written or electronic comments on the proposed rule 
during the 30-day comment period, they should be specific, confined to 
issues pertinent to the proposed regulations, and explain the reason 
for any recommended change(s). We appreciate any and all comments, but 
those most useful and likely to influence decisions on the final 
regulations will be those that either involve personal experience or 
include citations to and analyses of SMCRA, its legislative history, 
its implementing regulations, case law, other pertinent State or 
Federal laws or regulations, technical literature, or other relevant 
publications.
    We cannot ensure that comments received after the close of the 
comment period (see DATES) or sent to an address other than those 
listed (see ADDRESSES) will be included in the docket for this 
rulemaking and considered.

Public Availability of Comments

    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be 
aware that your entire comment- including your personal identifying 
information- may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

Public Hearing

    If you wish to speak at the public hearing, contact the person 
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT by 4:00 p.m., e.s.t. on 
March 2, 2020. If you are disabled and need reasonable accommodations 
to attend a public hearing, contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT. We will arrange the location and time of the 
hearing with those persons requesting the hearing. If no one requests 
an opportunity to speak, we will not hold a hearing.
    To assist the transcriber and ensure an accurate record, we 
request, if possible, that each person who speaks at the public hearing 
provide us with a written copy of his or her comments. The public 
hearing will continue on the specified date until everyone scheduled to 
speak has been given an opportunity to be heard. If you are in the 
audience and have not been scheduled to speak and wish to do so, you 
will be allowed to speak after those who have been scheduled. We will 
end the hearing after everyone scheduled to speak and others present in 
the audience who wish to speak, have been heard.

Public Meeting

    If only one person requests an opportunity to speak, we may hold a 
public meeting rather than a public hearing. If you wish to meet with 
us to discuss the amendment, please request a meeting by contacting the 
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. All such meetings 
are open to the public and, if possible, we will post notices of 
meetings at the locations listed under ADDRESSES. We will make a 
written summary of each meeting a part of the administrative record.

IV. Statutory and Executive Oder Reviews

Executive Order 12866--Regulatory Planning and Review and Executive 
Order 13563--Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review

    Executive Order 12866 provides that the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will 
review all significant rules. Pursuant to OMB guidance, dated October 
12, 1993, the approval of State program amendments is exempted from OMB 
review under Executive Order 12866. Executive Order 13563, which 
reaffirms and supplements Executive Order 12866, retains this 
exemption.

Other Laws and Executive Orders Affecting Rulemaking

    When a State submits a program amendment to OSMRE for review, our 
regulations at 30 CFR 732.17(h) require us to publish a notice in the 
Federal Register indicating receipt of the proposed amendment, its text 
or a summary of its terms, and an opportunity for public comment. We 
conclude our review of the proposed amendment after the close of the 
public comment period and determine whether the amendment should be 
approved, approved in part, or not approved. At that time, we will also 
make the determinations and certifications required by the various laws 
and executive orders governing the rulemaking process and include them 
in the final rule.

List of Subjects in 30 CFR Part 938

    Intergovernmental relations, Surface mining, Underground mining.

    Dated: November 13, 2019.
Thomas D. Shope,
Regional Director, North Atlantic--Appalachian Region.
[FR Doc. 2020-02885 Filed 2-13-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4310-05-P