Texas Regulatory Program

OSM is approving a proposed amendment to the Texas regulatory program (hereinafter referred to as the ``Texas program'') under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). Texas proposed revisions to and additions of rules pertaining to authority, responsibility and applicability; definitions; restrictions of financial interests of State employees; exemption for coal extraction incident to government-financed construction; exemption for coal extraction incidental to the extraction of other minerals; lands unsuitable for mining; coal exploration; geologic and hydrologic permit information; blasting plans; maps and plans; protection of the hydrologic balance; ponds, impoundments, banks, dams, and embankments; prime farmland; alluvial valley floors; public availability of permit information; approval and conditions of permits; transfer, assignment or sale of permit rights; bonding requirements; liability insurance; bond release; signs and markers; water quality standards; diversions; siltation structures; permanent and temporary impoundments; surface and ground water monitoring; stream buffer zones; use of explosives; coal mine waste; protection of fish and wildlife and related environmental values; backfilling and grading; revegetation; water discharge into underground mines; enforcement; suspension and revocation of permits; assessment of civil penalties; individual civil penalties; and blaster certification and training. Texas also proposed minor changes in wording, numbering, and punctuation of its rules. The amendment is intended to revise the Texas program to be consistent with the corresponding Federal regulations and SMCRA and to incorporate the additional flexibility afforded by the revised Federal regulations.