§ 30:910 — Permit approval or denial

Louisiana § 30:910

• Jurisdiction: Louisiana
• Title 30: Mortgages and Privileges

Text

§910. Permit approval or denial
A. Upon the basis of a complete mining application and reclamation
plan or a revision or renewal thereof, as required by this Chapter, including
public notification and an opportunity for a public hearing as required by R.S.
30:913, the commissioner shall grant, require modification of, or deny the
application for a permit in a reasonable time set by the commissioner, and
notify the applicant in writing. The applicant for a permit, or revision of a
permit, shall have the burden of establishing that his application is in
compliance with all the requirements of this Chapter and the regulations issued
pursuant to this Chapter. Within ten days after the granting of a permit, the
commissioner shall notify the police jury in the parishes, and the local
governmental officials in any other local 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.
B. The permit or revision application shall be approved when, but only
when, the application affirmatively demonstrates and the commissioner finds
in writing on the basis of the information set forth in the application or from
information otherwise available which will be documented in the approval, and
made available to the applicant, that
(1) The permit application is accurate and complete and that all the
requirements of this Chapter and the regulations issued pursuant to this
Chapter have been complied with.
(2) The applicant has demonstrated that reclamation as required by this
Chapter and the regulations issued pursuant to this Chapter can be
accomplished under the reclamation plan contained in the permit application.
(3) The assessment of the probable cumulative impact of all anticipated
mining in the area on the hydrologic balance specified in R.S. 30:907(B) has
been made by the commissioner and the proposed operation thereof has been
designed to prevent material damage to the hydrologic balance outside the
permit area.
(4) The area proposed to be mined is not included within an area
designated unsuitable for surface coal mining pursuant to R.S. 30:922 of this
Chapter or is not within an area under study for such designation in an
administrative proceeding commenced pursuant to R.S. 30:922(A)(4)(c) or
(B), unless in such an area as to which an administrative proceeding has
commenced pursuant to R.S. 30:922(A)(4)(c), the operator making the permit
application demonstrates that, prior to January 1, 1977, he has made substantial
legal and financial commitments in relation to the operation for which he is
applying for a permit.
(5) In cases where the private mineral estate has been severed from the
private surface estate, as to tracts within the permit area on which the applicant
has the legal right to enter and commence surface mining operations, the
applicant has submitted to the commissioner
(a) The written consent of the surface owner to the extraction of coal
by surface mining methods; or
(b) A conveyance that expressly grants or reserves the right to extract
the coal by surface mining methods; or
(c) If the conveyance does not expressly grant the right to extract coal
by surface mining methods, the surface-subsurface legal relationship shall be
determined in accordance with State law: Provided, that nothing in this
Chapter shall be construed to authorize the commissioner to adjudicate
property rights disputes.
C. The applicant shall file with his permit application a schedule listing
any and all notices of violations of this Chapter and any applicable law, rule,
or regulation of the state or the United States, or of any department or agency
of the state or the United States, pertaining to air or water environmental
protection incurred by the applicant in connection with any surface coal
mining operation during the three-year period prior to the date of application.
The schedule shall also indicate the final resolution of any such notice of
violation. Where the schedule or other information available to the
commissioner indicates that any surface coal mining operation owned or
controlled by the applicant is currently in violation of this Chapter or such
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,
department, or agency which has jurisdiction over such violation, and no
permit shall be issued to an applicant after a finding by the commissioner, after
opportunity for 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 or such other laws referred to in
this Subsection of such nature and duration with such resulting irreparable
damage to the environment as to indicate an intent not to comply with the
provisions of this Chapter.
D. In addition to finding the application in compliance with Subsection
B of this Section, if the area proposed to be mined contains prime farmland
pursuant to R.S. 30:907(B)(16), the commissioner shall, after consultation with
the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, pursuant to the regulations
issued pursuant to this Chapter, grant a permit to mine on prime farmland if the
commissioner 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 non-mined prime farmland in the surrounding area under
equivalent levels of management and can meet the soil reconstruction
standards in R.S. 30:915(B)(7).
E. Approval of a permit or revision to a permit may not be denied for
the reason that the applicant does not, at the time of filing of the application
for a permit, have the legal right to enter and commence surface mining
operations on all tracts of land within the permit area: Provided, that the
applicant has demonstrated that the permit area can be mined in accordance
with this Chapter and the regulations issued pursuant to this Chapter without
mining of the tracts on which the applicant does not have the legal right to
enter and commence surface mining operations: Provided further, that the
permittee shall notify the commissioner when the permittee has obtained the
legal right to enter and commence surface mining operations on such tracts.
F. A permit may contain only such conditions as are expressly provided
for in regulations issued pursuant to this Chapter.

Legislative History

Acts 1978, No. 406, §1.