Kentucky Administrative Regulations › Title 405 - ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT CABINET - DEPARTMENT FOR NATURAL RESOURCES › Chapter 20 - Special Performance Standards › Section 405 KAR 20:050 - Mountaintop removal

Current through Register Vol. 51, No. 1, July 1, 2024
RELATES TO:
				KRS
				350.010,
				350.028,
				350.133,
				350.405,
				350.450,
				350.465
NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY: KRS Chapter 350 in
				pertinent part requires the cabinet to promulgate environmental protection
				performance standards for surface coal mining operations, including the
				mountaintop removal method. This administrative regulation sets forth special
				performance standards and variance procedures for conducting mountaintop
				removal.
Section 1. Performance
			 Standards. Surface coal mining activities may be conducted under a variance
			 from the requirement of 405 KAR Chapters 16 through 20 for restoring affected
			 areas to their approximate original contour, if:
(1) The cabinet grants the variance under a
			 permit, in accordance with
			 405 KAR
			 8:050;
(2)
			 The activities involve the mining of an entire coal seam running through the
			 upper fraction of a mountain, ridge, or hill, by removing all of the overburden
			 and creating a level plateau or gently rolling contour with no highwalls
			 remaining;
(3) An industrial,
			 commercial, agricultural, residential, or public facility (including
			 recreational facilities) use is proposed and approved for the affected
			 land;
(4) The alternative land-use
			 requirements of
			 405 KAR
			 16:210 are met;
(5) All applicable requirements of 405 KAR
			 Chapters 7 through 24, other than the requirement to restore affected areas to
			 their approximate original contour, are met;
(6) An outcrop barrier of sufficient width,
			 consisting of the toe of the lowest coal seam, and its associated overburden,
			 are retained to prevent slides and erosion, except that the cabinet may permit
			 an exemption to the retention of the coal barrier requirement if the following
			 conditions are satisfied:
(a) The proposed
			 mine site was mined prior to May 3, 1978, and the toe of the lowest seam has
			 been removed; or
(b) A coal barrier
			 adjacent to a head-of-hollow fill may be removed after the elevation of a
			 head-of-hollow fill attains the elevation of the coal barrier if the
			 head-of-hollow fill provides the stability otherwise ensured by the retention
			 of a coal barrier;
(7)
			 The final graded slopes on the mined area are less than lv:5h, so as to create
			 a level plateau or gently rolling configuration, and the outslopes of the
			 plateau do not exceed lv:2h except where engineering data substantiates, and
			 the cabinet finds, in writing, and includes in the permit under
			 405 KAR
			 8:050, that a minimum static safety factor of one and
			 five-tenths (1.5) will be attained;
(8) The resulting level or gently rolling
			 contour is graded to drain inward from the outslope, except at specified points
			 where it drains over the outslope in stable and protected channels. The
			 drainage shall not be through or over a valley or head-of-hollow
			 fill;
(9) Natural watercourses
			 below the lowest coal seam mined are not damaged;
(10) All waste and acid-forming or
			 toxic-forming materials, including the strata immediately below the coal seam,
			 are covered with nontoxic spoil to prevent pollution and achieve the approved
			 post-mining land use; and
(11)
			 Spoil is placed on the mountaintop bench as necessary to achieve the postmining
			 land use approved under subsections (3) and (4) of this section. All excess
			 spoil material not retained on the mountaintop shall be placed in accordance
			 with
			 405 KAR
			 16:130.