WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on Energy then the Judiciary.
A BILL to amend and
reenact §22-3-22a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
prohibiting blasting within six hundred twenty-five feet of an occupied
dwelling.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22-3-22a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. SURFACE COAL MINING AND RECLAMATION ACT.
§22-3-22a. Blasting restrictions; site specific blasting
design requirement.
(a) For purposes of this section, the term "production
blasting"
means blasting that removes the overburden to expose underlying coal seams and
does not include construction blasting.
(b) For purposes of this
section, the term "construction
blasting"
means blasting to develop haul roads, mine access roads, coal preparation
plants, drainage structures or underground coal mine sites and does not include
production blasting.
(c) For purposes of this
section, the term "protected
structure"
means any of the following structures that are situated outside the permit
area: An occupied dwelling; a temporarily unoccupied dwelling which has been
occupied within the past ninety days; a public building; a structure for
commercial purposes; a school; a church; a community or institutional building;
and a public park or a water well.
(d) Production blasting
is prohibited within three hundred six hundred twenty-five feet
of a protected structure or within one hundred feet of a cemetery.
(e) Blasting within one
thousand feet of a protected structure shall have a site-specific blast design
approved by the Division of Mining and Reclamation. The site-specific blast design shall
limit the type of explosives and detonating equipment, the size, the timing and
frequency of blasts to do the following:
(1) Prevent injury to
persons; (2) prevent damage to public and private property outside the permit
area; (3) prevent adverse impacts on any underground mine; (4) prevent change
in the course, channel or availability of ground or surface water outside the
permit area; and (5) reduce dust outside the permit area.
In the development of a
site-specific blasting plan, consideration shall be given, but is not limited
to, the physical condition, type and quality of construction of the protected
structure, the current use of the protected structure and the concerns of the
owner or occupant living in the protected structures identified in the blasting
schedule notification area.
(f) An owner or occupant
of a protected structure may waive the blasting prohibition within three
hundred six hundred twenty-five feet. If a protected structure is
occupied by a person other than the owner, both the owner and the occupant of
the protected structure shall waive the blasting prohibition within three
hundred six hundred twenty-five feet in writing. The operator shall
send copies of all written waivers executed pursuant to this subsection to the
Division of Mining and Reclamation. Written waivers executed and filed with the Division of Mining
and Reclamation are
valid during the life of the permit or any renewals of the permit and are
enforceable against any subsequent owners or occupants of the protected
structure.
(g) The provisions of this section do
not apply to the following: (1) Underground coal mining operations; (2) the
surface operations and surface impacts incident to an underground coal mine;
and (3) the extraction of minerals by underground mining methods or the surface
impacts of the underground mining methods: Provided, That nothing
contained in this section may be construed to exempt any coal mining operation
from the general performance standards as contained in section thirteen of this
article and any rules promulgated pursuant to said section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to extend the
distance from occupied dwellings or certain other structures in which surface
mine production blasting may not occur, to be consistent with the distance a
gas well drilling pad must be from an occupied dwelling.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.