Opinion ID: 501787
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Prime Farmland Lakes

Text: 129 Under the SMCRA, prime farmland, after a mining operation, generally must be restored to crop-producing land at 100% of the land's pre-mining productivity. NWF here challenges a regulation promulgated by Secretary Watt that creates an exception to this rule; the regulation permits as an acceptable post-mining use of prime farmland last-cut lakes, which are permanent impoundments of water. 17 130 The district court, observing that NWF had named individuals alleging both aesthetic injury and economic harm, concluded that NWF had standing to challenge this regulation. See Findings on Standing, at 23-24. Industry's response is two-fold: it argues, first, that impoundments were permitted under the original regulations under some circumstances, and second, that presuming specific injury to an individual is unduly speculative. 131 We disagree with each of these contentions. First, while the original regulations may not have categorically proscribed any impoundments of water, Secretary Watt's regulation indisputably made such impoundments more likely than previously, and the permissibility of that policy change is an issue we address on the merits, not in the context of standing. We also disagree with Industry's dismissive treatment of NWF's specific allegations. Affiant Janis King, for example, lives on, rents and farms land classified as prime farmland; her property is adjacent to a strip of land mined by a nearby company. The company has left last-cut impoundments on the neighboring land and failed to return it to prime farmland. Ms. King describes at some length the interference posed by such impoundments to the operation of her seed corn business and to her aesthetic interests, which she has standing to raise under Sierra Club. See King Aff. Accordingly, we conclude on this issue that NWF has standing. 132