The State Mining and Geology Board (SMGB) continues to implement significant reform to the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) due to the enactment of Assembly Bill 1142 (Grey, 2016) and Senate Bill 209 (Pavley, 2016). Working with the Department of Conservation’s Division of Mine Reclamation (DMR,) the statutory changes have been divided into “packages” for the regulatory process, based upon subject matter, fee calculations, financial assurance cost estimates, inspections, recreation plans, financial assurance mechanisms, and vested rights determinations and mining ordinance.
The most recent posting for the formal regulatory process is the notice of availability of modifications to the text of the proposed regulations for surface mining operation inspections, which can be accessed here. The proposed amended regulation is intended to ensure inspections are conducted by qualified lead agency employees or certain California state-licensed persons, be clear that those conducting inspections seek input from a California state-licensed person or specialist when required by state law, and specify the ethical conduct of using contract employees and third-party contracts.
RCRC submitted comments on the initial formal draft primarily seeking further clarification when a state-licensed professional is necessary and that a mine inspector can accept reports from the mining operator when prepared by a state-licensed professional. While the modified text reflects some of our suggested language, RCRC believes further clarification is needed and will be submitting additional comments. RCRC is working with SMGB staff seeking to further refine the language to avoid uncertain interpretations in the future. The written comment period closes on July 26, 2017 and the hearing for adoption is scheduled for August 10, 2017.