Opinion ID: 501787
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Construction of Water Impoundments on Prime Farmland

Text: 161 Section 823.11(b) of the regulations condones reclaiming land that had been prime farmland prior to mining by constructing a permanent water impoundment, if the mine operator satisfies the general conditions for altering the use of affected land and if the water body is designed to minimize the loss of prime farmland. The Secretary had proffered a construction of the water impoundment exception that would limit the allowance to those found beneficial or necessary to agricultural activity, i.e., water bodies necessary for irrigation of prime farmland would be allowed. But the district court, in agreement with Industry, found no such limitation in the provision; purposes for impoundments allowed by the regulation, the court enumerated, include[d] recreational, municipal water supply, replacement of wetlands, livestock consumption, and esthetic improvement. PSMRL II (Round II), 21 E.R.C. at 1734. The court concluded that, desirable as such uses may be, the Actspecifically, Sec. 510(d)(1)--does not countenance them. Accordingly, the court struck down the provision because it sanctioned a broad and impermissible variance from the post-mining use of prime farmland. Id. 30 162 Industry locates in Sec. 515(b)(8) of the Act unequivocal[ ] authorization for the creation ... of permanent impoundments when reclaiming mined land, and maintains that the statute at no point commands that all prime farmland be reclaimed to crop farming. Brief for Appellants NCA at 54-55. 31 We find Industry's argument unpersuasive and hold that the Act and its legislative history impel the district court's ruling. 163 Taking one step back from the subsection Industry advances, we come upon the instruction, in Sec. 515(b)(7), that for all prime farm lands ... to be mined and reclaimed ... operator[s] shall follow specified soil removal, storage, and replacement procedures deemed necessary by Congress to restore the productivity of mined prime farmland. See also H.R.REP. NO. 218, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 67 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.CODE CONG. & ADMIN.NEWS 593, 605 (standards designed to assure full reclamation). 32 We emphasize the words all and shall in the Sec. 515(b)(7) prescription. Beyond question, Congress did not intend to allow any mined prime farmland to be left altogether unreclaimed, and the subsection appears to instruct, inclusively, that all prime farmland reclamation shall, as a minimum, be conducted pursuant to the statutorily enumerated requirements. The listed requirements entail precise and arduous specifications that are altogether unnecessary, indeed counterproductive, to the construction of a water impoundment. We leave open the question whether, without defying congressional intent, the Secretary might plausibly urge a narrow exception allowing water impoundments necessary or beneficial to prime farmland activity. See supra note 30. Section 515(b)(7), it suffices to point out here, plainly supports the district court's conclusion that a general exception for water impoundments authorizes impermissible post-mining uses of prime farmland. 164 Section 519(c)(2) of the Act also accords with the district court's ruling and is dissonant with Industry's position. See supra note 24. This section permits release of the bond or deposit placed by a mine operator to guarantee satisfactory reclamation only when the soil productivity of the affected prime farmland has been returned to levels of yield equivalent to those of neighboring, nonmined prime farmland. While the provision does not say in so many words that mine operators shall restore prime farmland to its pre-mined use, bond release is impermissible until such restoration is achieved. 165 We reproduce in the margin a significant excerpt from the legislative history. The item is a statement by Senator Culver, sponsor of an amendment to the Act; as proposed by Senator Culver, the amendment expressly denied a mining permit to any operator unable to demonstrate the ability fully to restore prime farmland, if the mine area at stake included more than ten percent prime farmland. 33 The Culver statement strongly maintained that alternate uses of prime farmland, even uses perceived by a regulator as higher or better, are inappropriate, and therefore must be disallowed by those who administer the Act. We find in the legislative history no reference to any objection to the amendment on the ground that alternate post-mining uses for prime farmland should be permitted; dissenters merely urged that the Act already protected prime farmland so that the amendment was superfluous. 123 CONG.REC. 15712 (1977) (statement of Senator Hansen); 123 CONG.REC. 15718 (1977) (statement of Senator Melcher). Senator Culver's amendment was incorporated into the Senate bill, and it emerged from the Conference Committee and full Congress without even the ten percent threshold limitation proposed by its sponsor. See SMCRA Sec. 510(d)(1). The subsection containing Senator Culver's amendment is the very one featured by the district court in holding that the regulation's water impoundment exception is at odds with the Act. 166 Industry's reliance on Sec. 515(b)(8)'s recognition that permanent water impoundments may be created on mined land does not aid the more focused inquiry we must make. That provision instructs that any water impoundment constructed on mined land must meet certain performance standards, but it neither requires mine operators to build impoundments, nor says they may do so regardless of the prior use of the land. The Act anticipates that mine operators will be able to comply with each of the requirements set out in section 515. SMCRA Sec. 508(a)(5) (emphasis added); see also SMCRA Sec. 515(b) (listed performance standards shall be required as a minimum). The district court thus most plausibly comprehended Congress to have ordered that permanent water impoundments unconnected to prime farmland use not be constructed on prime farmland. Compare SMCRA Sec. 515(b)(7) (obligation to follow specified restoration procedures) with SMCRA Sec. 515(b)(8) (permission to construct permanent water impoundments). We have no warrant to disturb the district court's solidly-supported disposition. 167