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

Heading: Replacement of Damaged Water Supplies by Operators of Underground Mines.

Text: 317 The Act requires that, under certain circumstances, mine operators replace any water supplies that they damage. 318 The operator of a surface coal mine shall replace the water supply of an owner of interest in real property who obtains all or part of his supply of water for domestic, agricultural, industrial, or other legitimate use from an underground or surface source where such supply has been affected by contamination, diminution, or interruption proximately resulting from such surface coal mine operation. 319 SMCRA Sec. 717(b). In 1979 Secretary Andrus promulgated regulations requiring operators of all mines, surface and underground, to replace damaged water supplies. 44 FED.REG. 15430 (1979). On review of a challenge by Industry, the district court struck down those regulations as exceeding statutory authority, because Sec. 717(b) only mentions operators of surface coal mines, and no other provisions of the Act authorized the Secretary to compel replacement of water damaged by underground operators. PSMRL I (Round II), 19 E.R.C. at 1495. In 1983 Secretary Watt promulgated new regulations that did not require underground mine operators to replace damaged water supplies. NWF challenged these regulations, arguing both that the terms of Sec. 717(b) require underground operators to replace damaged water supplies, and that a similar replacement requirement can be inferred from the permitting requirements of Sec. 508(a)(13) of the Act. 93 The district court upheld the 1983 regulation, reaffirming its earlier pronouncement that sec. 717(b) does not apply to underground mines and consistent with that interpretation, refusing to read any water replacement requirement for underground mines into the permitting requirements of Sec. 508(a)(13). PSMRL II (Round III), 620 F.Supp. at 1533. 320
321 The issue of whether underground mine operators are covered by the water damage provision arises because of the confusing terminology used by the drafters of the SMCRA. In some places in the statute, the phrase surface coal mining operation is used, e.g., Secs. 502(a)-(c), (e), (f), which the Act defines as: 322 (A) activities conducted on the surface of lands in connection with a surface coal mine or subject to the requirements of section 516 surface operations and surface impacts incident to an underground coal mine.... 323 SMCRA Sec. 701(28) (emphasis added). In other portions of the Act, reference is made to operators of surface coal mines, Sec. 502(d); Sec. 717(b), or to a surface coal mine operation, Sec. 717(b). These terms are not specifically defined. NWF suggests that the various terms are used more or less interchangeably. Industry and the Secretary, on the other hand, assert that the different phrases consciously distinguish between provisions applicable to both surface mines and underground mines with surface effects (surface coal mining operations), and those applicable only to surface mines (surface coal mine operation or operators of surface coal mines). 324 The Act clearly contemplates, at least for some purposes, that surface coal mines will be treated differently from underground coal mines, even though the latter have some surface effects. See e.g., SMCRA Sec. 516(d) (accommodating distinct differences between surface and underground coal mining). The most natural reading of the statute as a whole, and the definition in Sec. 701(28) in particular, then suggests that surface coal mining operations encompasses both surface coal mines and the surface effects of underground coal mines; but that the term surface coal mines, by contrast, does not include underground operations or their surface effects. 94 325 The history of the SMCRA confirms that Congress consciously distinguished between requirements applicable to surface mines and underground mines, and that water replacement was not specifically required by statute for operators of underground mines. Senate bill S.7 included a water replacement requirement in Sec. 415(b)(10)(E), a provision detailing the performance standards applicable to surface mines. The parallel provision for underground mines, Sec. 416(b)(9), omitted the water replacement requirement. See S.REP. NO. 128 at 25, 29. The Senate report demonstrates that Sec. 416 represented the Senate committee's judgment of which Sec. 415 surface mining requirements should also apply to underground mines. 326 Certain of the environmental protection standards for surface mining operations also apply to underground mines. In this section , the Secretary is required to incorporate in his regulations the following key provisions concerning the control of surface effects from underground mining. 327 S.REP. NO. 128 and 84 (emphasis added). 95 House bill H.R. 2 served as the main basis for the Conference Committee's final draft of the SMCRA. That bill contained the water replacement requirement in Sec. 717(b) in the form it exists today. The Conference Committee adopted the House language asserting there were no significant differences between the House and Senate versions with respect to Sec. 717. H.R.CONF.REP. NO. 493, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 115 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.CODE CONG. & ADMIN.NEWS 593, 746. 328 We conclude from the text as well as the legislative history of the water replacement provision, and from other provisions distinguishing between surface and underground mining, that Congress explicitly recognized the difference between surface and underground mines; that it deliberately chose to apply some environmental safeguards to one and not the other; and that water replacement is a provision it explicitly required only of surface mine operators. The Secretary's implementing regulations were reasonable and consistent with that legislative intent. 329
Permitting Requirements 330 NWF raised another challenge to the Secretary's new regulation, arguing that Sec. 508(a)(13) independently requires underground mine operators to replace damaged water supplies. That section, describing the information that must be included in the reclamation plan accompanying a permit application, requires, in the degree of detail necessary to demonstrate that reclamation required by the State or Federal program can be accomplished: 331 a detailed description of the measures to be taken during the mining and reclamation process to assure the protection of:(A) the quality of surface and ground water systems, both on- and off-site, from adverse effects of the mining and reclamation process; 332 (B) the rights of present users to such water; and 333 (C) the quantity of surface and ground water systems, both on- and off-site, from adverse effects of the mining and reclamation process or to provide alternative sources of water where such protection of quantity cannot be assured. 334 SMCRA Sec. 508(a)(13). NWF argued, and the district court agreed, that the permit information requirements of Sec. 508 apply to underground mines. The court rejected NWF's further argument, however, that Sec. 508(a)(13)(C) should be read to require underground mine operators to replace damaged water supplies. Admitting that the language of that section could pose a puzzling contradiction to Sec. 717(b)'s provisions requiring only surface mine operators to replace damaged water, the court read Sec. 508 merely to require a description of steps to be taken to implement actual performance standards in the Act. PSMRL II (Round III), 620 F.Supp. at 1533. We affirm. 335 Section 508 is essentially an information-gathering provision. It seeks to ensure that regulatory authorities have sufficient information on hand when they evaluate permit applications. Although the House report described the reclamation plan required by Sec. 508 as a blueprint for action, H.R.REP. NO. 218, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 91 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.CODE CONG. & ADMIN.NEWS 593, 628, it never suggested that Sec. 508 independently imposed substantive performance standards. Rather, the House report identified the lack of sufficient data during the review process as the evil that Sec. 508 was designed to address: 336 Experience has shown that without a thorough and comprehensive data base presented with the permit application, and absent analysis and review both by the agency and other interested parties based upon adequate data.... environmental factors tend to receive short shrift. To meet this problem the bill delineates in detail the type of information required in permit applications in section 507 and 508 and the criteria for assessing the merits of the application in section 510. 337 Id. (emphasis added). The Conference Committee report similarly referred to the final version of Sec. 508 as specif[ying] that a wide range of information and analysis be included in the reclamation plan. H.R.CONF.REP. NO. 493, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 103 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.CODE CONG. & ADMIN.NEWS 593, 734-35. We can find no support for the claim that an independent performance requirement was implied by Sec. 508. 338 A more credible claim could be made that Sec. 508(a)(13)(C), by requiring both surface and underground mine operators to provide a description of their plans to provide alternate sources of water where protection of the water supply cannot be assured, authorizes the Secretary to do something with that information, i.e., to require underground mine operators to replace damaged water supplies, or to allow state regulatory authorities to require from underground mine operators, as a permit condition, commitments to replace damaged water supplies. But even under that interpretation, the Secretary would not be compelled to impose a water replacement requirement on underground mine operators, since SMCRA clearly affords the Secretary wide discretion in the application of permit requirements to underground mines. Section 516(d) directs the Secretary to accommodate the distinct difference between surface and underground coal mining, through modifications to permit and bond requirements otherwise applicable to both types of mines. In fact, Secretary Watt relied on that discretion to exempt underground mine operators from the information requirements of Sec. 508(a)(13)(C). 96 339