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the owner or operator of any strip mine located on such

land.

(b) The Secretary shall have the authority at any time 4 after the close of July 1, 1974, to restore any land located 5 in the United States upon which any strip mining operation 6 has been or is being carried out and for which a plan for 7 restoration has been approved by him under section 2 in 8 accordance with the provisions of such plan and to assess the 9 owner of such strip mine or such land the fair market value 10 of the cost of such restoration.

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SEC. 4. Any land acquired by the Secretary pursuant to 12 the provisions of section 3 (a) shall be used for wildlife or 13 recreation purposes in accordance with general plans ap14 proved jointly by the Secretary and the head of any State 15 agency exercising the administration of the wildlife or re16 creation resources of the particular State wherein such land 17 lies. The Secretary may make any such land available to the 18 States if such land is used for wildlife or recreation purposes. SEC. 5. The Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as

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20 he considers necessary or appropriate to effectuate the pro21 visions of this Act.

93D CONGRESS 18T SESSION

H. R. 726

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 3, 1973

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

A BILL

To provide for the regulation of surface coal mining for the conservation, acquisition, and reclamation of surface areas affected by coal mining activities, 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,

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SHORT TITLE

SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "Coal Mine

5 Surface Area Protection Act of 1973".

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FINDINGS AND PURPOSE

SEC. 2. (a) The Congress finds and declares

(1) that there are coal mining operations on public

and private lands in the Nation which adversely affect

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the environmental and natural and manmade resources;

and

(2) that efficient and well conducted coal mining operations are essential activities affecting interstate

commerce which contribute to the economic well-being, security, and general welfare of the Nation.

(b) It is the purpose of this Act to encourage a nation8 wide effort to regulate coal mining surface operations to pre

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vent their adverse environmental effects; to return lands 10 already damaged by coal mining surface operations to pro11 ductive and useful purposes; to abate the adverse effects from

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previously coal mined lands; to prevent further detriment 13 to the Nation from coal mining surface operations through 14 the establishment of criteria and standards for coal mined 15 lands; and to encourage the States to carry out programs for 16 these purposes.

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(c) It is the further purpose of this Act to encourage a

18 nationwide effort to abate the adverse surface environmental 19 effects resulting from surface operations of underground coal

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SEC. 3. For the purposes of this Act

(a) The term "surface coal mining" means (1) all or

24 any part of the process followed in the production of coal

25 from a natural coal deposit whereby the coal may be extracted

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after removing the overburden therefrom or mining by the

auger method or any similar method which penetrates a coal

seam and removes coal therefrom directly through a series

of openings made by a machine which enters the coal seam from a surface excavation or the removing of overburden for the purpose of determining the location, quality, or quan

tity of natural coal deposit; (2) any area of land from 8 which coal is extracted by a surface coal mining process, in

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cluding private ways and roads pertinent to such area; and

(3) land, facilities, or processes resulting from or used in 11 extracting coal from natural deposits.

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(b) The term "overburden" means all of the earth and

other materials removed or excavated for the purpose of ex14 posing a coal seam as may be necessary in order to surface 15 mine, and also means such earth and other materials after

removal from their natural state in the process of surface

17 mining.

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(c) The term "spoil bank" means a deposit of removed 19 overburden, waste, dump, or culm banks from either surface

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or underground coal mining operations or other similar

21 material.

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(d) The term "area of land affected" means the land 23 from which coal is removed by surface mining, any land in 24 which the natural land surface has been disturbed as a 25 result of, or incident to, surface mining activities, and any

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1 land on which are conducted the surface activities of deep 2 mining, including but not limited to private ways and roads

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appurtenant to any such land excavations, workings, refuse 4 banks, spoilage banks, culm banks, tailings, repair areas,

5 storage areas, processing areas, shipping areas, and areas

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on which structures, facilities, equipment, machines, tools,

or other materials or property which result or are used in, 8 coal mining operations are situated.

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(e) The term "operation" means the surface activities relating to the extraction of coal on a single tract of land or on contiguous tracts of land.

(f) The term "operator" means any person, partnership, or corporation engaged in coal mining who removes

or intends to remove more than 250 tons of coal from the 15 earth by coal mining within twelve consecutive calendar 16 months in any one location, or who removes more than 250 17 tons of overburden for the purpose of determining the loca18 tion, quality, or quantity of a natural coal deposit.

19 (g) The term "person" includes corporations, com20 panies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, joint stock 21 companies, and individuals.

22 (h) The term "reclamation" or "reclaim" means the 23 process of restoring an area of land affected by coal mining 24 to a condition that it may be used for the purpose for which 25 it was used prior to coal mining or other useful purposes.