Bill Text: PA HB136 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Further providing for mining permit; providing for bioenergy crop bonding; and making editorial changes.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 36-12)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-04-01 - Re-committed to APPROPRIATIONS [HB136 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2009-HB136-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 132
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 136 Session of2009
INTRODUCED BY BROOKS, STERN, BELFANTI, BOBACK, CALTAGIRONE, CLYMER, CONKLIN, CUTLER, DALEY, ELLIS, J. EVANS, FAIRCHILD, FLECK, GEIST, GIBBONS, GILLESPIE, GODSHALL, GOODMAN, HESS, HORNAMAN, HUTCHINSON, M. KELLER, KILLION, KORTZ, KOTIK, LONGIETTI, MAHER, MAJOR, MILLARD, MILLER, MURT, O'NEILL, PEIFER, PETRI, PICKETT, PYLE, RAPP, REICHLEY, ROAE, ROCK, ROHRER, SAYLOR, SCAVELLO, SIPTROTH, K. SMITH, SWANGER, VULAKOVICH AND WATSON, JANUARY 30, 2009
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND ENERGY, JANUARY 30, 2009
AN ACT
Amending the act of May 31, 1945 (P.L.1198, No.418), entitled,
as amended, "An act providing for the conservation and
improvement of land affected in connection with surface
mining; regulating such mining; providing for the
establishment of an Emergency Bond Fund for anthracite deep
mine operators; and providing penalties," further providing
for mining permit; providing for bioenergy crop bonding; and
making editorial changes.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. The definitions of "department" and "secretary"
in section 3 of the act of May 31, 1945 (P.L.1198, No.418),
known as the Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act,
are amended to read:
Section 3. Definitions.--The following words and phrases,
unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context,
shall have the following meanings:
* * *
"Department" shall mean the Department of Environmental
[Resources] Protection of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
* * *
"Secretary" shall mean the Secretary of the Department of
Environmental [Resources] Protection of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania.
* * *
Section 2. Section 4(a)(2)C of the act, amended December 18,
1992 (P.L.1384, No.173), is amended to read:
Section 4. Mining Permit; Reclamation Plan; Bond.--(a)
Before any person shall hereafter proceed to mine coal by the
surface mining method, he shall apply to the department, on a
form prepared and furnished by the department, for a permit for
each separate operation. The department is authorized to charge
and collect from persons a reasonable filing fee. Such fee shall
not exceed the cost of reviewing, administering and enforcing
such permit. As a part of each application for a permit, the
operator shall, unless modified or waived by the department for
cause, furnish the following:
* * *
(2) Reclamation Plan. A complete and detailed plan for the
reclamation of the land affected. Except as otherwise herein
provided, or unless a variance for cause is specially allowed by
the department as herein provided, each such plan shall include
the following:
* * *
C. A description of the manner in which the operation will
segregate and conserve topsoil and if necessary suitable subsoil
to establish on the areas proposed to be affected a diverse,
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effective, and permanent vegetative cover of the same seasonal
variety native to the area of land to be affected and capable of
self-regeneration and plant succession at least equal in extent
of cover to the natural vegetation of the area: Provided,
however, That introduced species may be used in the revegetation
process where desirable and necessary to achieve the approved
post-mining land use plan: And provided further, That when the
department issues a written finding approving a long-term,
intensive, agricultural post-mining land use as part of the
permit application, the department may grant an exception to the
requirements of this clause. For areas previously disturbed by
surface mining activities that were not reclaimed to the
standards of this act, and are proposed for remining, the
department may approve a vegetative cover which, at a minimum,
shall not be less than the ground cover existing before
redisturbance and shall be adequate to control erosion and
achieve an approved post-mining land use. To the extent
consistent with this act, the department shall encourage and
promote the use of switchgrass and other bioenergy crops for the
revegetation of lands affected by surface mining activities and
the land so used shall be considered to be cropland for post-
mining land use purposes.
* * *
Section 3. The act is amended by adding a section to read:
Section 4.14. Bioenergy Crop Bonding.--To the extent funds
are available from the appropriation to the department under
section 213 of the act of June 22, 2001 (P.L.979, No.6A), known
as the "General Appropriation Act of 2001," for the conservation
purpose of providing sum-certain financial guarantees needed to
facilitate the implementation of full-cost bonding for a fee
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and, in the event of forfeiture, to finance reclamation of the
forfeited surface mining site in an amount not to exceed the
sum-certain guarantee, or to the extent funds are otherwise
appropriated, the department shall make available at no cost to
the surface mine permittee of a remining site that has
revegetated the remining site with switchgrass or other
bioenergy crops sum-certain guarantees to cover Stage III
reclamation liability for the remining site under the
permittee's reclamation bond and, in the event of forfeiture, to
finance reclamation of the forfeited surface mining site in an
amount not to exceed the sum-certain guarantee.
Section 4. Section 18(a.1) of the act, amended May 22, 1996
(P.L.232, No.43), is amended to read:
Section 18. Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation
Fund; Remining Environmental Enhancement Fund; Remining
Financial Assurance Fund; Department Authority for Awarding of
Grants.--
* * *
(a.1) (1) There is hereby created a special fund in the
State Treasury to be known as the "Remining Environmental
Enhancement Fund." The [Secretary of Environmental Resources]
secretary is authorized to transfer at the commencement of each
fiscal year a total of one million dollars ($1,000,000) into the
Remining Environmental Enhancement Fund aggregated from the
following sources:
(i) License and permit fees except reclamation fees paid to
the department under this act pursuant to the department's
alternate bonding program.
(ii) Fines and penalties collected under this act.
(iii) Fees, fines and penalties collected pursuant to
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section 315 of "The Clean Streams Law," including fines and
penalties from mining operations collected under section 605 or
other provisions of that act.
(iv) Fees, fines and penalties collected pursuant to the act
of September 24, 1968 (P.L.1040, No.318), known as the "Coal
Refuse Disposal Control Act."
(v) Fees, fines and penalties collected pursuant to the act
of April 27, 1966 (1st Sp.Sess., P.L.31, No.1), known as "The
Bituminous Mine Subsidence and Land Conservation Act," not
including funds received pursuant to section 6(a) of that act.
(2) All moneys placed in the Remining Environmental
Enhancement Fund and the interest it accrues are hereby
appropriated upon authorization by the Governor to the
department for the costs of operating a remining and reclamation
incentive program, including designating areas suitable for
reclamation by remining and establishing and operating a
remining operator's assistance program, but not including a bond
credit or financial guarantees program.
* * *
Section 5. Section 19 of the act, amended October 10, 1980
(P.L.835, No.155), is amended to read:
Section 19. Repealer.--All acts or provisions thereof
inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed: Provided, however,
That the act of Assembly, approved the eighteenth day of June,
Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred forty-one (Pamphlet Laws,
one hundred thirty-three), entitled "An act relating to coal
stripping operations; providing for the health and safety of
persons employed therein and for the inspection and regulation
of such operations by the Department of Mines; requiring certain
information and reports, and prescribing penalties," and the act
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of Assembly, approved on the twenty-fifth day of June, Anno
Domini one thousand nine hundred thirty-seven (Pamphlet Laws,
two thousand two hundred seventy-five), entitled "An act to
promote safety for the traveling public on State highways; to
extend the responsibility for subsidence of such highways by the
failure of vertical and lateral support, and declaring said
subsidence a public nuisance; to provide for inspection of mine
maps by the Department of Highways, and the furnishing to said
department of copies of such mine maps in certain cases; to
authorize entry by the Department of Highways into mines in
certain cases; and to provide for notices to the Department of
Highways of certain mining operations under or adjacent to
highways; and providing penalties," and all other acts and
provisions thereof, which regulate the mining of bituminous coal
shall not be repealed or nullified by this act, but shall remain
in full force and effect. Nothing is this act shall be construed
to abrogate or modify the power and jurisdiction of the
[Department of Environmental Resources] department to make rules
and regulations, and to administer the laws of the Commonwealth
applicable to open pit mining.
Section 6. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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