Court Opinion

ID: 9579157
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:52:02.983462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:34:29.973134
License: Public Domain

Judge LEWIS
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
I agree with the majority that the standard of review is a whole record test. I believe the trial court judge made a proper consideration of relevant factors when he determined that the Mining Commission’s final decision was not supported by substantial evidence and was arbitrary and capricious.
The issue is whether or not the removal of the stockpile of sand constituted breaking the surface and therefore was “mining” under the statute. The evidence showed that the densities of vegetation were some scrub pines on the extreme southern and western sides of the sand piles. I do not believe this constitutes a new “surface soil” as contemplated by the statute. It is impossible to tell from the photographs in the record whether the trees were existing prior to 1960 or after. The definition given in the record of scrub pines as being some ten feet tall would seem to exclude those trees existing which appear to be very much taller. Few, undefined number of scrub pines does not, to me, make a new *440surface. The stockpile of sand was most assuredly not in its original location.
I believe that until the legislature makes a different determination, once a mineral has been removed from its original sub-surface location and stockpiled, it can never become a new surface nor be subject to mining regulations under the existing statutes. “Surface” to one can certainly mean one thing and something quite different to another. As former Chief Justice Branch is credited with saying, “to clean out a chicken house means one thing to a farmer but something quite different to a chicken thief.” “Surface” may well be determined on a case by case basis according to the length of time the sand, gravel and other minerals are stockpiled. However, I believe under our current statutes and these circumstances, once extracted, the thing ceases to be subject to mining. For these reasons, I would affirm the trial court and thus respectfully dissent.