Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 43 - NATURAL RESOURCES › Part XV - Office of Conservation-Surface Mining › Subpart 5 - Permanent Program Performance Standards › Chapter 55 - Special Permanent Program Performance Standards: Operations on Prime Farmland › Section XV-5509 - Prime Farmland: Revegetation

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. Each person who conducts surface coal
				  mining and reclamation operations on prime farmland shall meet the following
				  revegetation requirements during reclamation.
1. Prime farmland soil productivity shall be
				  restored in accordance with the following provisions.
a. Measurement of soil productivity shall be
				  initiated within 10 years after completion of soil replacement.
b. Soil productivity shall be measured on a
				  representative sample or on all of the mined and reclaimed prime farmland area
				  using the reference crop determined under §5509. A.1.f. A statistically
				  valid sampling technique at a 90-percent or greater statistical confidence
				  level shall be used as approved by the office in consultation with the U.S.
				  Soil Conservation Service.
c. The
				  measurement period for determining average annual crop production (yield) shall
				  be a minimum of three crop years prior to release of the operator's performance
				  bond.
d. The level of management
				  applied during the measurement period shall be the same as the level of
				  management used on nonmined prime farmland in the surrounding area.
e. Restoration of soil productivity shall be
				  considered achieved when the average yield during the measurement period equals
				  or exceeds the average yield of the reference crop established for the same
				  period for nonmined soils of the same or similar texture or slope phase of the
				  soil series in the surrounding area under equivalent management
				  practices.
f. The reference crop on
				  which restoration of soil productivity is proven shall be selected from the
				  crops most commonly produced on the surrounding prime farmland. Where row crops
				  are the dominant crops grown on prime farmland in the area, the row crop
				  requiring the greatest rooting depth shall be chosen as one of the reference
				  crops.
g. Reference crop yields for
				  a given crop season are to be determined from:
i. the current yield records of
				  representative local farms in the surrounding area, with concurrence by the
				  U.S. Soil Conservation Service; or
ii. the average parish yields recognized by
				  the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which have been adjusted by the U.S. Soil
				  Conservation Service for local yield variation within the parish that is
				  associated with differences between nonmined prime farmland soil and all other
				  soils that produce the reference crop.
h. Under either procedure in §5509.
				  A.1 g, the average reference crop yield may be adjusted, with the concurrence
				  of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, for:
i. disease, pest and weather-induced seasonal
				  variations; or
ii. differences in
				  specific management practices where the overall management practices of the
				  crops being compared are equivalent; or
iii. differences in annual
				  precipitation.