17.24.801    ALLUVIAL VALLEY FLOORS: PRESERVATION OF ESSENTIAL HYDROLOGIC FUNCTIONS AND PROTECTION OF FARMING

(1) Strip or underground coal mining operations must be conducted to preserve, throughout the mining and reclamation process, the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial valley floors not within a permit area.  These functions must be preserved by maintaining those geologic, hydrologic and biologic characteristics that support those functions.

(2) Strip or underground coal mining and reclamation operations must be conducted to reestablish, throughout the mining and reclamation process, the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial valley floors within an area of land affected.   These functions must be reestablished by reconstructing those geologic, hydrologic and biologic characteristics that support those functions.

(3) Strip or underground coal mining operations must be conducted to ensure that the agricultural utility and the level of productivity of alluvial valley floors in affected areas are reestablished to premining levels.

History: 82-4-205, MCA; IMP, 82-4-227, 82-4-231, MCA; NEW, 1980 MAR p. 725, Eff. 4/1/80; AMD, 1989 MAR p. 30, Eff. 1/13/89; TRANS, from DSL, 1996 MAR p. 2852; AMD, 2024 MAR p. 258, Eff. 2/10/24.