Opinion ID: 613914
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mineral Rights in the Allegheny National Forest

Text: Coal mining was common in the Allegheny Plateau and oil had been discovered in the area in 1859. To acquire as much land as possible with limited funds, the Secretary of Agriculture purchased large tracts of surface estate in the ANF while leaving valuable mineral rights in private hands. As a result, over 93% of the mineral estates in the ANF are privately owned. The mineral rights in the ANF are of two kinds: reserved rights and outstanding rights. Reserved rights are those reserved by the fee owner in the deed conveying surface ownership to the United States. The Weeks Act authorized the Secretary to acquire surface estates with a reservation of rights to the grantor and provided that the exercise of reserved rights would be subject to the rules and regulations promulgated by the Secretary and included in the instrument of conveyance. 16 U.S.C. § 518. Reserved rights are usually referred to by the year of promulgation of the regulations in effect at the time of federal acquisition, i.e., 1911, 1937, 1947, or 1963 reserved rights. About 48% of the mineral rights in the ANF are reserved rights and the vast majority of these are 1911 rights. (J.A. 157, 254-55.) The 1911 regulations were quite minimal, and generally required mineral rights owners to use no more of the surface than reasonably necessary, pay for any timber cut down when clearing space for wells, take appropriate measures to prevent fire, and remove all facilities or refuse when drilling operations cease. [1] The 1911 regulations did not require mineral rights owners to obtain a permit from the Service in order to exercise their mineral rights. Outstanding rights are those that were severed from the surface estate prior to its conveyance to the United States. The Weeks Act was amended in 1913 to permit acquisition of severed surface estates with outstanding mineral rights, provided that the National Forest Reservation Commission concluded that these rights would not hinder administration of the forest reservation. 37 Stat. 828, 855 (1913). Until recently, the Service maintained that its regulations did not apply to outstanding mineral rights. [2] Rather, because outstanding mineral rights were reserved prior to conveyance to the United States, these rights are governed by the terms of the earlier conveyance severing the mineral rights and Pennsylvania property law. See United States v. Minard Run Oil Co., No. 90-12, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9570, at -15 (W.D.Pa. Dec. 16, 1980) ( Minard Run I ). Under Pennsylvania law, the mineral estate is the dominant estate and entails the right to use of as much surface land as reasonably necessary to extract minerals. Belden & Blake Corp. v. DCNR, 600 Pa. 559, 969 A.2d 528, 532 (2009). Although the mineral owner must show due regard to the rights of the surface owner, the mineral owner need not obtain consent or approval before entering land to mine for minerals. Id. at 533; see also Minard Run I, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9570, at  (mineral rights owner has an unquestioned right to enter the property, subject to minor restrictions which... should not seriously hamper the extraction of oil and gas). Minard Run I concluded that due regard to the Service as surface owner required owners of outstanding mineral rights to provide information regarding drilling plans to the Service no less than 60 days in advance of commencing drilling operations. Id. at . The Service's 1984 ANF Handbook incorporated the Minard Run I framework into its standard operating procedures for outstanding mineral rights in the ANF. Congress codified the notice provisions of Minard Run I in the Energy Policy Act of 1992, Pub.L. No. 102-486 § 2508, 106 Stat. 2776, 3108, codified at 30 U.S.C. § 226(o). Until the change in policy that is the subject of this litigation, the Service and mineral rights owners in the ANF had relied on the Minard Run I framework and taken a cooperative approach to oil and gas drilling in the ANF. Under this framework, mineral rights owners who planned to conduct drilling operations would provide the Service with the required notice and the two parties would then negotiate the details of drilling operations, such as the location of wells or access roads, so as to prevent any unnecessary surface use. At the end of this process, the Service would issue a Notice to Proceed (NTP) to the mineral rights owner, which acknowledged receipt of notice from the mineral rights owner and memorialized any agreements between the parties regarding drilling operations. [3]