[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 212 (Friday, November 3, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 75528-75530]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-24272]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
30 CFR Part 950
[SATS WY-051-FOR; Docket ID: OSM-2023-0004; S1D1S SS08011000 SX064A000
223S180110; S2D2S SS08011000 SX064A000 22XS501520]
Wyoming 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 regulatory and statutory
amendment to the Wyoming coal program (Wyoming program) under the
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act).
On September 25, 2018 the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council
approved a number of revisions to rules governing permitting,
operation, and abandonment of Class III underground injection and
recovery wells associated with in situ mining of coal. Specifically,
the proposed revisions update regulations to be consistent with
Environmental Protection Agency Underground Injection Control
regulations for class III wells, reorganize the chapter to better
correlate with other key Land Quality Division (LQD) regulations and to
reference existing LQD regulations and definitions, update regulations
to be consistent with other Wyoming regulations pertaining to well
construction, well abandonment, and aquifer exemptions, and update
regulations to include current best management practices specific to in
situ coal mining.
This document gives the times and locations that the Wyoming
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 p.m.,
M.D.T., December 4, 2023. If requested, we may hold a public hearing or
meeting on the amendment on November 28, 2023. We will accept requests
to speak at a hearing until 4 p.m., M.D.T., on November 20, 2023.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by SATS No. WY-051-FOR,
by any of the following methods:
Mail/Hand Delivery: OSMRE, Attn: Jeffrey Fleischman, P.O.
Box 11018, 100 East B Street, Room 4100, Casper, Wyoming 82602.
Fax: (307) 261-6552.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: 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 Wyoming
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 Casper
Field Office or the full text of the program amendment is available for
you to read at www.regulations.gov.
Attn: Jeffrey Fleischman, Field Office Director, Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 100 East B Street, Casper, Wyoming
82602, Telephone: (307) 261-6550, Email: [email protected]
In addition, you may review a copy of the amendment during regular
business hours at the following location:
Attn: Kyle Wendtland, Administrator, Wyoming Department of
Environmental Quality, Land Quality Division, 200 West 17th Street,
Suite 10, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002, Telephone: (307) 777-7046, Email:
[email protected]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jeffrey Fleischman, Field Office Director, Office of Surface Mining
Reclamation and Enforcement, 100 East B Street, Casper, Wyoming 82602,
Telephone: (307) 261-6550, Email: [email protected]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Background on the Wyoming Program
II. Description of the Proposed Amendment
III. Public Comment Procedures
IV. Procedural Determinations
I. Background on the Wyoming Program
Subject to OSMRE's oversight, section 503(a) of the Act permits a
State to
[[Page 75529]]
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 Wyoming program on November 26, 1980. You
can find background information on the Wyoming program, including the
Secretary's findings, the disposition of comments, and conditions of
approval of the Wyoming program in the November 26, 1980 Federal
Register 45 FR 78637. You can also find later actions concerning the
Wyoming program and program amendments at 30 CFR 950.10.
II. Description of the Proposed Amendment
By letter dated February 14, 2023 (Document ID No. OSM-2023-0004),
Wyoming sent us an amendment to its program under SMCRA (30 U.S.C. 1201
et seq.). We found Wyoming's proposed amendment administratively
complete on March 7, 2023.
Between 1994 and 2002 Wyoming enacted several revisions to the Coal
Chapter 18 Rules. On September 25, 2018 the Wyoming Environmental
Quality Council approved a number of revisions to the rules governing
Class III well associated with in situ mining. The proposed amendment
is a state initiative intended to update Chapter 18, which was last
revised in 2002. Specifically the proposed revisions: (1) update
regulations to be consistent with Environmental Protection Agency
Underground Injection Control regulations for class III wells, (2)
reorganize the chapter to better correlate with other key LQD
regulations and to reference existing LQD regulations and definitions,
(3) update regulations to be consistent with other Wyoming regulations
pertaining to well construction, well abandonment, and aquifer
exemptions, and (4) update regulations to include current best
management practices specific to in situ coal mining.
The full text of the program and/or plan 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 p.m., M.D.T. on
November 20, 2023. 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. Procedural Determinations
Executive Order 12866--Regulatory Planning and Review, Executive Order
13563--Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, and Executive Order
14094--Modernizing Regulatory Review
Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 14094,
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 and/or AML plan amendments is exempted from OMB review
under Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Order 14094.
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.
[[Page 75530]]
List of Subjects in 30 CFR Part 950
Intergovernmental relations, Required program amendments, State
regulatory program approval, State-Federal cooperative agreement,
Surface mining, Underground mining.
David A. Berry,
Regional Director, Unified Regions 5, 7-11.
[FR Doc. 2023-24272 Filed 11-2-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-05-P