Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 11 - Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality › Part 8 - Geology Regulations › Chapter 2 - Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality Regulations Governing Surface Coal Mining › Subchapter 2.3 - Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Operations Permits and Coal Exploration Procedures Systems › Rule 11-8-2.3-29 - Requirements for Permits for Special Categories of Mining › Section 11-8-2.3-29-2907 - Prime Farmlands

Current through June 25, 2024
This section applies to any person who conducts or
						intends to conduct surface coal mining and reclamation operations on prime
						farmlands historically used for cropland.
(a) Application Contents for Prime Farmland.
					 If land within the proposed permit area is identified as prime farmland under
					 § 2539, the applicant shall submit a plan for the mining and restoration
					 of the land. Each plan shall contain, as a minimum:
(1) a soil survey of the permit area
					 according to the standards of the National Cooperative Soil Survey and in
					 accordance with the procedures set forth in U.S. Department of Agriculture
					 Handbook 436 "Soil Taxonomy" (U.S. Soil Conservation Service, 1975), as amended
					 on March 22, 1982, and October 5, 1982, and Handbook 18, "Soil Survey Manual"
					 (U.S. Soil Conservation Service, 1951), as amended on December 18, 1979, May 7,
					 1980, May 9, 1980, September 11, 1980, June 9, 1981, June 29, 1981, and
					 November 16, 1982. The U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service establishes
					 the standards of the National Cooperative Soil Survey and maintains a National
					 Soils Handbook which gives current acceptable procedures for conducting soil
					 surveys. This National Soils Handbook is available for review at area and state
					 NRCS offices;
(A) U.S. Department of
					 Agriculture Handbooks 436 and 18 are incorporated by reference as they exist on
					 the date of adoption of this Section. Notices of changes made to these
					 publications will be periodically published by OSM in the Federal Register. The
					 handbooks are on file and available for inspection at the OSM Central Office,
					 U.S. Department of the Interior, 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington,
					 D.C., at each OSM Regional Coordinating Center and Field Office, and at the
					 Department. Copies of these documents are also available from the
					 Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
					 20402, Stock Nos. 001-000-04612-8 and 001-000-04611-0, respectively. In
					 addition, these documents are available for inspection at the national, state
					 and area offices of the Natural Resource Conservation Service, U.S. Department
					 of Agriculture, and at the Office of the Federal Register, 800 North Capitol
					 Street, suite 700, Washington, D.C. Incorporation by reference provisions were
					 approved by the director of the Federal Register on June 29, 1981;
(B) the soil survey shall include a
					 description of soil mapping units and a representative soil profile as
					 determined by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, including, but
					 not limited to, soil-horizon depths, pH, and the range of soil densities for
					 each prime farmland soil unit within the permit area. Other representative
					 soil-profile descriptions from the locality, prepared according to the
					 standards of the National Cooperative Soil Survey, may be used if their use is
					 approved by the State Conservationist, U.S. Natural Resources Conservation
					 Service;