SECTION 460:20-17-3. Permit revisions

(a)   General. During the term of a permit, the permittee may submit an application to the Department for a revision of the permit. Any revision application to the approved mining or reclamation plan will be subject to review and approval by the Department. During the revision review, the revision will be classified as either:

(1)   Major or Significant; or

(2)   Minor.

(b)   Application requirements and procedures. A permittee is required to submit any permit revision applications to the Chief of Technical Services for review. The Technical Service review shall determine:

(1)   Whether the permittee has provided all technical and public notice requirement information the Department deems necessary to adequately evaluate and find that the revision meets the requirements of the statutes and of this Chapter; and

(2)   Whether the revision application contains any deficiencies. The Department is required to send written notification to the permittee of any deficiencies along with a response date deadline for answering the deficiencies noted. Any deadline extension requests shall be in writing and are subject to the approval of the Chief of Technical Services. Failure of the permittee to file written responses within the required time frames, will result in the denial of the revision application.

(c)   Significant revisions. A significant revision to the mining or reclamation plan will be subject to the permit application information requirements and procedures of this Subchapter, including notice, public participation, and notice of decision requirements of Sections 460:20-15-5, 460:20-15-8(b)(1) and (3), and 460:20-23-9 prior to approval by the Department and implementation by the permittee.

(d)   Departmental consideration. The Department will consider any proposed revision to be significant if its implementation could reasonably be expected, in the opinion of the Director, to result in any adverse impact to persons, property, or the environment outside the permit area. Revisions with impacts confined to the permit area will be evaluated on a case by case basis to determine if significant. While consideration will be given to the size, location, type and extent of impact in classifying a revision, the following will typically be considered significant:

(1)   Incidental boundary changes;

(2)   Hydrology plan changes which could have adverse impacts outside the permit acres, such as:

(A)   The addition or relocation of permanent impoundments;

(B)   The addition, deletion, or relocation of stream diversions; and

(C)   The addition or deletion of acid mine drainage treatment facilities;

(3)   The addition of a coal wash plant;

(4)   The addition of or changes to a non coal waste storage plan;

(5)   Construction or relocation of county roads;

(6)   Addition of blasting plans;

(7)   Postmining land use changes to residential, industrial or commercial (except for changes involving oil and gas wells and private roads), recreation, or developed water resources as discussed 460:20-27-14(a)(2).

(8)   Changes impacting historical or cultural areas, high value wildlife habitat, and parks and public places;

(9)   Permanent changes which could have a limiting or adverse effect on the long term future of the land; and

(10)   Other changes deemed significant by the Director which affect the landowner and or the public.

(e)   Minor revisions. The following revisions are typically considered minor revisions:

(1)   Changes to pond designs;

(2)   Addition or deletion of dewatering pipes on ponds;

(3)   Addition, deletion or changes to office facilities, explosive storage areas, temporary haul roads, and coal pads;

(4)   Changes to surface and groundwater monitoring plans;

(5)   Vegetation changes;

(6)   Change of operator without a change of permittee; and

(7)   Conversion to incremental bonding or change to bond increments, pursuant to the requirements of Subchapter 37 of this Chapter.

(f)   Criteria for approval. No application for a permit revision shall be approved unless the application demonstrates and the Department finds that reclamation as required by the Act and the regulatory program can be accomplished, applicable requirements under Section 460:20-15-6 (c) which are pertinent to the revision are met, and the Application for a revision complies with all requirements of the Act and the regulatory program.

(g)   Requests to change permit boundary. Any extensions to the area covered by the permit, except incidental boundary revision, shall be made by application for a new permit.

(h)   Application decisions. The Department will make a decision of approval or denial of a revision application within six months of receipt of the application unless the application, or some aspect of the application, is under technical, administrative or judicial review.

[Source: Amended at 12 Ok Reg 3592, eff 10-12-95; Amended at 17 Ok Reg 3172, eff 7-28-00]