HB0257 • 2023

Mine permit and reclamation plan changes-landowner approval.

AN ACT relating to environmental quality; requiring landowner approval before the department of environmental quality or the environmental quality council approves any mine permit or reclamation plan revisions as specified; specifying applicability; and providing for an effective date.

Children Land

Inactive

Wyoming marks this bill as inactive, which usually means it is no longer moving in the current session.

Sponsor: Representative Hornok
Last action: 2023-02-07
Official status: inactive
Effective date: 3/1/2023

Plain English Breakdown

The bill's effective date is specified as July 1, 2023, but the candidate explanation incorrectly stated March 1, 2023. The official source does not provide information on what happens if a landowner refuses to give consent for permit revisions or reclamation plan alterations.

Landowner Approval for Mine Permits

The bill requires landowners to give their written consent before the Department of Environmental Quality or the Environmental Quality Council can approve changes to mine permits and reclamation plans if they own surface land different from the operator or mineral owner.

What This Bill Does

Requires landowners' written consent before any revisions are made to mine permits or reclamation plans if they own surface land different from the operator or mineral owner.
Specifies that this requirement applies only when there are significant alterations in the reclamation plan, not minor boundary changes.

Who It Names or Affects

Landowners who own surface land different from the operator or mineral owner of a mine.
The Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Quality Council in Wyoming.

Terms To Know

Reclamation Plan: A plan that outlines how to restore land after mining activities are completed.
Surface Owner: The person who owns the surface rights of a piece of land, which may be different from the owner of mineral rights under the same land.

Limits and Unknowns

This bill is marked as inactive and will not move forward in its current session.
It does not specify what happens if a landowner refuses to give consent for permit revisions or reclamation plan alterations.

Bill History

2023-02-07 House
H:Died in Committee Returned Bill Pursuant to HR 5-4
2023-02-07 House
H No report prior to CoW Cutoff
2023-01-27 House
H Introduced and Referred to H09 - Minerals
2023-01-25 House
H Received for Introduction
2023-01-25 LSO
Bill Number Assigned

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

23LSO-0656
2023
STATE OF WYOMING
23LSO-0656
Numbered
2.0

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0257

Mine permit and reclamation plan changes-landowner approval.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Hornok, Allemand, Davis, Neiman and Winter and Senator(s) Hutchings

A BILL

for

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1
.

W.S. 35-11-402(a)(x) and 35
‑
11
‑
416 by creating a new subsection (c) are amended to read:

35-11-402.

Establishment of standards.

(a)

The council shall, upon recommendation by the advisory board through the administrator and the director, establish rules and regulations pursuant to the following reclamation standards for the affected areas, including but not limited to:

(x)

Rules and regulations for the criteria for review and information and public notice requirements for permit revisions.
Subject to this paragraph, a
permit may be revised without public notice or hearing for revisions, including incidental boundary revisions to the area covered by the permit, if these do not propose significant alterations in the reclamation plan. Subject to applicable standards, any permit, except for surface coal mining permits, may be revised, in the permitted area, by identifying proposed alterations to the mining or reclamation plan in the annual report or addendum thereto, or by obtaining prior approval from the director, at the operator's discretion
. If the surface landowner is different from the operator or the mineral owner, no permit or reclamation plan shall be revised or altered in any way under this paragraph without first receiving the surface owner's consent in writing
;

35
‑
11
‑
416.

Protection of the surface owner.

(c)

If the surface landowner is different from the operator or the mineral owner, no permit or reclamation plan required by this article shall be revised or altered in any way under this article without first receiving the surface owner's consent in writing.

Section 2.

This act shall apply to all applications for mining permit revisions or reclamation plan alterations submitted to the department of environmental quality on and after the effective date of this act.

Section 3
.

This act is effective July 1, 2023
.

(END)

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HB0257