Texas Administrative Code › Title 16 - ECONOMIC REGULATION › Part 1 - RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS › Chapter 12 - COAL MINING REGULATIONS › Subchapter G - SURFACE COAL MINING AND RECLAMATION OPERATIONS, PERMITS, AND COAL EXPLORATION PROCEDURES SYSTEMS › Division 10 - REQUIREMENTS FOR PERMITS FOR SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF MINING › Section 12.201 - Prime Farmland

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) Scope. 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. Areas where mining is authorized under permits issued or mining plans
					 approved prior to August 3, 1977, are exempt from the prime farmland
					 reconstruction standards.
(b)
					 Application contents for prime farmland. If land within the proposed permit
					 area is identified as prime farmland under §§
											RSA
					 12.138 or
					 RSA
					 12.184 of this title (relating to Prime
					 Farmland Investigation), the applicant shall submit a plan for the mining and
					 restoration of the land. Each plan shall contain, at 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, 1975) as amended on March 22, 1982 and October 5,
					 1982, and Handbook 18 (Soil Survey Manual, 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 (Soil Taxonomy) and 18 (Soil Survey
					 Manual) are on file and available for inspection at the Surface Mining and
					 Reclamation Division, Railroad Commission of Texas, 1701 N. Congress Avenue,
					 Austin, Texas.
(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 unless other
					 representative soil-profile descriptions from the locality, prepared according
					 to the standards of the National Cooperative Soil Survey, are available and
					 their use is approved by the principal officer in Texas of the U.S. Natural
					 Resources Conservation Service, and by the Commission. The Commission may
					 require the operator to provide information on other physical and chemical soil
					 properties as needed to make a determination that the operator has the
					 technological capability to restore the prime farmland within the permit area
					 to the soil-reconstruction standards of §§12.620-12.622, 12.624, and
					 12.625 of this title (relating to Special Permanent Program Performance
					 Standards--Operations on Prime Farmland);