H. B. 4438
(By Delegates Caputo, Butcher, Kuhn,
Manchin, Mahan, Tucker and Perdue)
[Introduced
February 12, 2004
; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §22-3-15 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to inspections of surface-mining
operations by the director or the division of environmental
protection or his or her designee and requiring that an
authorized representative of the miners at the mine be allowed
to accompany the person performing the inspection.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22-3-15 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.
§22-3-15. Inspections; monitoring; right of entry; inspection of
records; identification signs; progress maps.
(a) The director shall cause to be made inspections of
surface-mining operations as are necessary to effectively enforce
the requirements of this article and for such purposes the director or his or her authorized representative shall without advance
notice and upon presentation of appropriate credentials: (A) Have
the right of entry to, upon or through surface-mining operations or
any premises in which any records required to be maintained under
subdivision (1), subsection (b) of this section are located; and
(B) at reasonable times and without delay, have access to and copy
any records and inspect any monitoring equipment or method of
operation required under this article. At the commencement of any
inspection of a surface-mining operation by an authorized
representative of the director, the authorized representative of
the miners at the mine at the time of the inspection shall be given
an opportunity to accompany the authorized representative of the
director on the inspection.
(b) For the purpose of enforcement under this article, in the
administration and enforcement of any permit under this article, or
for determining whether any person is in violation of any
requirement of this article:
(1) The director shall, at a minimum, require any operator to:
(A) Establish and maintain appropriate records; (B) make monthly
reports to the division; (C) install, use and maintain any
necessary monitoring equipment or methods consistent with
subdivision (11), subsection (a), section nine of this article; (D)
evaluate results in accordance with such methods, at such
locations, intervals and in such manner as the director prescribes; and (E) provide any other information relative to surface-mining
operations as the director finds reasonable and necessary; and
(2) For those surface-mining operations which remove or
disturb strata that serve as aquifers which significantly ensure
the hydrologic balance of water use either on or off the mining
site, the director shall require that: (A) Monitoring sites be
established to record the quantity and quality of surface drainage
above and below the mine site as well as in the potential zone of
influence; (B) monitoring sites be established to record level,
amount and samples of groundwater and aquifers potentially affected
by the surface-mining and also below the lowermost mineral seam to
be mined; (C) records or well logs and borehole data be maintained;
and (D) monitoring sites be established to record precipitation.
The monitoring, data collection and analysis required by this
section shall be conducted according to standards and procedures
set forth by the director in order to assure their reliability and
validity.
(c) All surface-mining operations shall be inspected at least
once every thirty days. The inspections shall be made on an
irregular basis without prior notice to the operator or the
operator's agents or employees, except for necessary on-site
meetings with the operator. The inspections shall include the
filing of inspection reports adequate to enforce the requirements,
terms and purposes of this article.
(d) Each permittee shall maintain at the entrances to the
surface-mining operations a clearly visible monument which sets
forth the name, business address and telephone number of the
permittee and the permit number of the surface-mining operations.
(e) Copies of any records, reports, inspection materials or
information obtained under this article by the director shall be
made immediately available to the public at central and sufficient
locations in the county, multicounty or state area of mining so
that they are conveniently available to residents in the areas of
mining unless specifically exempted by this article.
(f) Within thirty days after service of a copy of an order of
the director upon an operator by registered or certified mail, the
operator shall furnish to the director five copies of a progress
map prepared by or under the supervision of a person approved by
the director showing the disturbed area to the date of such map.
Such progress map shall contain information identical to that
required for both the proposed and final maps required by this
article, and shall show in detail completed reclamation work as
required by the director. Such progress map shall include a
geologic survey sketch showing the location of the operation, shall
be properly referenced to a permanent landmark, and shall be within
such reasonable degree of accuracy as may be prescribed by the
director. If no land has been disturbed by operations during the
preceding year, the operator shall notify the director of that fact.
(g) Whenever on the basis of available information, including
reliable information from any person, the director has cause to
believe that any person is in violation of this article, any permit
condition or any rule promulgated under this article, the director
shall immediately order state inspection of the surface-mining
operation at which the alleged violation is occurring unless the
information is available as a result of a prior state inspection.
The director shall notify any person who supplied such reliable
information when the state inspection will be carried out. Such
person may accompany the inspector during the inspection.
(h) When requested by the permittee, the director may provide
for a compliance conference with his or her authorized
representative to review the compliance status of any coal
exploration or surface-coal mining and reclamation operation. Any
such conference may not constitute an inspection as defined in this
section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that an
authorized representative of the miners at the mine be allowed to
accompany the Director of the Division of Environmental Protection
or his or her designee when an inspection of a surface-mining
operation by the Division of Environmental Protection is
undertaken.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.