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1 sible after the date of the enactment of this Act, but in no

2 case later than the end of the eighteen-month period be

3 ginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.

5 SEC. 38. Rules and regulations applicable to open pit 6 coal mining must take into consideration the unique nature 7 of the operations. The Secretary is hereby authorized to 8 issue separate regulations relative to the problems associated 9 with open pit coal mining, which is defined as a surface 10 mining operation which, because of the thickness of the de11 posit or the nature of the ore body and the overburden, pri12 marily follows the deposit vertically at an inclination of 35 13 degrees or steeper and where the average depth of the total 14 operation exceeds 100 feet (rather than laterally across the 15 surface as in area or contour mining) and therefore may be 16 carried out at the same location over a substantial period of 17 time: Provided, That the provisions of this section shall apply 18 only to operations that are active or temporarily suspended

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on the date of this Act and involve no additional surface

20 disturbance.

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EFFECTIVE DATE

SEC. 39. This Act shall take effect six months after its

23 date of enactment.

2 SEC. 40. There are authorized to be appropriated such

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sums as may be necessary and appropriate to carry out the 4 provisions and purposes of this Act other than the appro

5 priation authority provided in section 12 of this Act.

93D CONGRESS 18T SESSION

H. R. 2861

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 24, 1973

Mr. PRICE of Illinois introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs

A BILL

To provide for cooperation between the Secretary of the Interior and the States with respect to the regulation of surface mining operations, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 That this Act may be cited as the "Strip Mine Control Act

(1) The term "operator" means any person en

gaged in strip or auger mining in connection with the

extraction of minerals.

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(2) The term "person" means any individual, partnership, firm, association, company, society, joint stock company, corporation, or other entity.

(3) The term "reclamation" or "reclaim" means

the process of restoring an area of land affected by strip mining (including auger mining) to a condition where its surface value is at least as great as it was prior to the beginning of the strip mining and where it may be used

for the same purposes for which it was used prior to the beginning of the strip mining. In

any reclamation process a prime consideration should be the maintenance of the

maximum ecological value.

(4) The term "commerce" means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, or communication between any State, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, or any territory or possession of the

United States and any place outside the respective bound

aries thereof, or wholly within the District of Columbia

or any territory or possession of the United States, or be

tween points in the same States, if passing through any

point outside the boundaries thereof.

(5) The term "surface mine" means (A) any area

of land from which minerals are extracted from their

natural deposits by strip mining, (B) private ways

and roads appurtenant to such area, and (C) lands,

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excavations, workings, culm banks, refuse banks, dumps, spoil banks, structures, facilities, equipment, machines,

tools, or other property on the surface, resulting from, or used in, extracting minerals from their natural deposits

by strip mining methods or the onsite processing of such minerals.

(6) The term "Secretary", means the Secretary of the Interior; and

(7) The term "strip mining" includes auger mining.

PERMIT FOR SURFACE MINING

SEC. 3. (a) On and after the-effective date of this Act,

12 each surface mine, the products of which enter interstate

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commerce or the operations of which affect interstate com14 merce, shall be subject to the provisions of this Act.

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(b) On and after the effective date of this Act no

person shall engage in or carry out any activity with respect to the extraction of minerals from a surface mine subject to the provisions of this Act by strip mining methods, unless 19 such person has first obtained a permit from the Secretary 20 in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

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(c) In furtherance of the policy of this Act, the Secre

tary is authorized, whenever he determines that it would

23 effectuate the purposes of this Act, to cooperate and consult 24 with appropriate Federal and State agencies.