Opinion ID: 501787
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mine Waste

Text: 213 In 1983, the Secretary revised the regulations governing disposal of coal mine waste by substituting performance standards--rules describing minimum satisfactory end results--for how to rules (design standards). Compare 30 C.F.R. Secs. 816.81 et seq. (1982) with 30 C.F.R. Secs. 816.81 et seq. (1986). 52 NWF successfully argued before the district court that the Act, specifically, Sec. 515(f), demands how to rules; in addition, NWF maintained that the Secretary's revisions were inadequately explained. See PSMRL II (Round III), 620 F.Supp. at 1534-37. 53 On appeal, the Secretary seeks to salvage two of the provisions invalidated by the district court, 30 C.F.R. Sec. 816.81 and Sec. 816.83. 214 The aim of the regulatory scheme regarding mine waste is to check, contain, or control hazards that such waste presents to the environment and to human safety. Two of the primary threats posed, identified in Secs. 515(b)(11) and 516(b)(4) of the Act, are unplanned shifting and spontaneous ignition of the waste. The regulations under review seek to promote waste stability and incombustibility. 215 Prior to 1983, design standards mandated by the Secretary for the construction of refuse piles, aimed at achieving stability and incombustibility, included this instruction: The coal processing waste shall be--(1) Spread in layers no more than 24 inches in thickness [i.e., two foot lifts]; and (2) Compacted to attain 90 percent of the maximum dry density. 30 C.F.R. Sec. 816.85(c)(1), (2) ((1982). 54 The pre-1983 rules also included performance standards. Relevant here, the Secretary ordered operators to construct refuse piles in a manner that would avoid combustion and he required operators to attain a static safety factor, or stability rating, of 1.5. 30 C.F.R. Secs. 816.81(a)(2), 816.85(b) (1982). The 1983 revisions entirely eliminated the density standard for compaction and authorized variances from the two foot lift requirement so long as the 1.5 stability rating is achieved. See 30 C.F.R. Sec. 816.81(a)(5), (c)(2) and Sec. 816.83 (1986). See also 30 C.F.R. Sec. 77.215(h) (1986) (incorporated by 30 C.F.R. Sec. 816.83 (1986)). These two revisions--elimination of the degree of compactness design standard and allowance of variances from the two foot lift rule--were overturned by the district court and are now before us on review. 216 The district court remanded revised Secs. 816.81 and 816.83 insofar as they fail to provide absolute requirements for lift thickness and post-compaction density, or other satisfactory how to rules. PSMRL II (Round III), 620 F.Supp. at 1535-36. In thus remanding, the district court misconstrued the Act; as NWF no longer contests, the district judge incorrectly read Sec. 515(f) to mandate design standards for the mine waste at issue, i.e., non-impounding coal mine waste refuse piles. We find that the Secretary did not contravene Sec. 515(f), and that he adequately explained his departures from the earlier regulations; we therefore reverse the district court on this matter. 217 Section 515(f) of the Act applies to waste piles referred to in section 515(b)(13) and section 516(b)(5), and only to such piles. SMCRA Sec. 515(f). Both Sec. 515(b)(13) and Sec. 516(b)(5), we note, refer exclusively to waste piles used either temporarily or permanently as dams or embankments. Because waste piles of the kind at issue here are not used as dams or embankments, Sec. 515(f) is inapposite. 218 The Secretary accounted reasonably for his 1983 deletion of the compaction density standard. See State Farm, 463 U.S. at 43, 103 S.Ct. at 2866-67. He anticipated that, by allowing operators to design waste sites to account for the requirements and topography of specific sites, the revised scheme would foster the design of more efficient and cost-effective coal refuse disposal sites. 47 FED.REG. 26599 (1982) (preamble to proposed revisions). Further impetus for the change came from the Secretary's revision regarding the type of waste placed in coal mine waste refuse piles. Prior to 1983, Secs. 816.81 et seq. of the regulations governed only waste created during the processing of coal. After 1983, Secs. 816.81 et seq. also controlled disposal of waste excavated from the development of underground mines. Compare 30 C.F.R. Secs. 816.81 et seq. (1982) (governing coal processing waste disposal) with 30 C.F.R. Secs. 816.81 et seq. (1986) (governing coal mine waste disposal, with coal mine waste defined in 30 C.F.R. Sec. 701.5 (1986) to include coal processing waste and underground development waste). 55 The Secretary explained:The 90 percent compaction requirement ... was difficult, but possible when coal processing waste was the only material involved. Now, however, with the inclusion of underground development waste ... with its variable characteristics, the test would be even more difficult and probably would not accomplish its goal. 219 47 FED.REG. 26603 (1982); see also 48 FED.REG. 44018 (1983) ([h]eterogeneity of coal mine waste material resulting from variations in coal mining techniques ... renders meaningless the application of standard compaction measures). 220 Not only did the Secretary relate how changes in the definition of waste rendered the 1979 rule obsolete; he also addressed the critical concerns motivating adoption of the ninety percent compaction rule in 1979: stability and incombustibility. 56 Stability, the Secretary observed, has always been, and continues to be, assured by the generous 1.5 long-term safety rating. The compaction density standard, he intimated, was a superfluous requirement that unnecessarily burdened mine operators. 48 FED.REG. 44016 (1983); see also 47 FED.REG. 26603 (1982) (citing 1979 Mine Safety and Health Administration report, not identified by the Secretary in 1979, noting allowance of substantial margin of error in 1.5 rating). Incombustibility is advanced under the revised regulation, the Secretary stated, through the requirement that mine operators [p]revent combustion. 30 C.F.R. Sec. 816.81(a)(5) (1986). The Secretary recognized that compaction reduces the chance of combustion, but noted that uncompacted waste does not invariably present burning problems. 48 FED.REG. 44016 (1983) (referring to 1975 United States Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration report). He concluded, we think reasonably, that [t]he specific numerical requirement for compaction [density] is ... more appropriately determined based upon the particular design, site conditions and waste characteristics. Id. 221 Given the propriety of eliminating the ninety percent compaction standard, we need not tarry over the Secretary's allowance for variances from the two foot lift rule. Mine operators must obtain mine regulator approval before constructing a waste disposal site. 30 C.F.R. Sec. 816.81(a) (1986). Lift thickness has regulatory significance only as a means of assuring adequate compaction. See supra note 54. It can be expected, therefore, that mine operators will succeed in obtaining a variance from the two foot lift requirement only when compaction adequate to assure stability and incombustibility remains feasible. 57 222 To recapitulate: the Secretary, contrary to the district court's central but erroneous assumption, transgressed no provision of the Act, and acted reasonably in adopting the mine waste regulatory revisions we have just reviewed. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's ruling on this joint of the case.