Proposed Rule2022-00324
Montana Regulatory Program
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 11, 2022
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentSurface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Office
Abstract
We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Montana regulatory program (hereinafter, the Montana program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Montana proposes an addition to the Montana Code Annotated which requires changes and the addition of regulations in the Administrative Rules of Montana pertaining to ownership and control. These changes were required by an October 2, 2009, letter from OSMRE to Montana (hereinafter, 732 letter), and were necessitated by a Senate bill approved by the 2013 Montana Legislature. Montana also proposes other revisions to the Administrative Rules of Montana unrelated to ownership and control. This document gives the times and locations that the Montana 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.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 7 (Tuesday, January 11, 2022)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 11, 2022)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 1372-1374]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-00324]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
30 CFR Part 926
[SATS No. MT-037-FOR; Docket ID: OSM-2021-0006; S1D1S SS08011000
SX064A000 222S180110; S2D2S SS08011000 SX064A000 22XS501520]
Montana 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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
(OSMRE), are announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Montana
regulatory program (hereinafter, the Montana program) under the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Montana
proposes an addition to the Montana Code Annotated which requires
changes and the addition of regulations in the Administrative Rules of
Montana pertaining to ownership and control. These changes were
required by an October 2, 2009, letter from OSMRE to Montana
(hereinafter, 732 letter), and were necessitated by a Senate bill
approved by the 2013 Montana Legislature. Montana also proposes other
revisions to the Administrative Rules of Montana unrelated to ownership
and control. This document gives the times and locations that the
Montana 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., Mountain Standard Time (MST), February 10, 2022. If requested, we
may hold a public hearing or meeting on the amendment on February 7,
2022. We will accept requests to speak at a hearing until 4:00 p.m.,
MST on January 26, 2022.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by SATS No. MT-037-FOR,
by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Mail/Hand Delivery: 100 East B Street, Room 4100, Casper,
WY 82601.
<bullet> Fax: (307) 421-6552.
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: The amendment has been
assigned Docket ID: OSM-2021-0006. If you would like to submit comments
go to <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>. 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 Montana
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 Denver
Field Division or the full text of the program amendment is available
for you to read at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>.
Jeffrey Fleischman, Chief, Denver Field Division, Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Dick Cheney Federal Building, POB
11018, 100 East B Street, Casper, Wyoming 82601, Telephone: (307) 261-
6550, Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#d4beb2b8b1bda7b7bcb9b5ba94bba7b9a6b1fab3bba2"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="98f2fef4fdf1ebfbf0f5f9f6d8f7ebf5eafdb6fff7ee">[email protected]</span></a>.
In addition, you may review a copy of the amendment during regular
business hours at the following location:
[[Page 1373]]
Dan Walsh, Chief, Coal and Opencut Mining Bureau, Montana Department of
Environmental Quality, P.O. Box 200901, Helena, Montana, 59620-0901,
Telephone: (406) 444-6791, Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#167261777a657e567b6238717960"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6f0b180e031c072f021b41080019">[email protected]</span></a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Howard Strand, Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, One Denver Federal Center, Building
41, Lakewood, CO 80225-0065, Telephone: (303) 236-2931, Email:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#0c647f787e6d62684c637f617e69226b637a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="8fe7fcfbfdeee1ebcfe0fce2fdeaa1e8e0f9">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background on the Montana Program
II. Description of the Proposed Amendment
III. Public Comment Procedures
IV. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews
I. Background on the Montana 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
Montana program on April 1, 1980. You can find background information
on the Montana program, including the Secretary's findings, the
disposition of comments, and conditions of approval of the Montana
program in the April 1, 1980, Federal Register (45 FR 21560). You can
also find later actions concerning the Montana program and program
amendments at 30 CFR 926.15, 926.16, and 926.30.
II. Description of the Proposed Amendment
On October 28, 1994, December 19, 2000, and December 3, 2007, the
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE)
promulgated final rules that adopted or revised certain regulatory
definitions and provisions pertaining to review of applications, permit
eligibility, application information, applicant, operator, and
permittee information, automated information entry and maintenance,
permit suspension and rescission, ownership and control findings and
challenge procedures, transfer, assignment, or sale of permit rights,
and alternative enforcement. Pursuant to 30 CFR 732.17(d), OSMRE
notified Montana on October 2, 2009, requiring Montana to modify its
regulatory program to remain consistent with revised Federal
requirements. The 2013 Montana Legislature approved Senate Bill 92,
which added language addressing the required changes. Specifically,
Senate Bill 92 added language in Section 82-4-227, Montana Code
Annotated (MCA), that provided appeal rights pertaining to ownership or
control listings in the applicant violator system.
By letter dated July 28, 2021 (FDMS Document ID No. OSM-2021-0006-
0001), Montana sent us an amendment to its program under SMCRA (30
U.S.C. 1201 et seq.) that proposed revisions to existing Administrative
Rules of Montana (ARM) that would satisfy the statutory changes in the
MCA, including revisions to 17.24.301, 17.24.302, 17.24.303, 17.24.416,
17.24.418. New provisions in the ARM proposed by Montana that would
satisfy the statutory changes in the MCA include 17.24.1229,
17.24.1264, 17.24.1265, 17.24.1266, and 17.24.1267. Montana is also
proposing minor revisions to existing ARM that are unrelated to Senate
Bill 92, at 17.24.304 (Baseline Information: Environmental Resources),
17.24.308 (Operations Plan), 17.24.313 (Reclamation Plan), 17.24.314
(Plan for Protection of the Hydrologic Balance), 17.24.401 (Filing of
Application and Notice), 17.24.403 (Informal Conference), 17.24.425
(Administrative Review), and 17.24.1201 (Frequency and Methods of
Inspections) that are unrelated to ownership and control. 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 <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>.
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., MST on
January 26, 2022. 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.
[[Page 1374]]
IV. Statutory and Executive Order 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 and/or AML plan 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 926
Intergovernmental relations, Surface mining, Underground mining.
David Berry,
Regional Director, Western Region.
[FR Doc. 2022-00324 Filed 1-10-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-05-P
</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on January 11, 2022.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.