84 FR 26802 - Illinois Regulatory Program

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are reopening the public comment period and providing an opportunity for a public hearing on a proposed amendment to the Illinois regulatory program (Illinois program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act) published on May 1, 2019. The public comment period is being reopened and an opportunity for a public hearing is being provided at the request of three Illinois citizen's organizations. The granting of this request affords the public additional time to provide written comment and the opportunity to request to speak at a public hearing. Illinois proposes revisions to its regulations, including allowing the extraction of coal as an incidental part of a government-financed construction project, revising its Ownership and Control rules, and clarifying land use changes requiring a significant permit revision. Illinois intends to revise its program to be as effective as the Federal regulations. This document gives the times and locations where the Illinois program documents and this proposed amendment to that program are available for your inspection, establishes the new comment period during which you may submit written comments on the amendment, and describes the procedures that we will follow for the public hearing, if one is requested.

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 111 (Monday, June 10, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 26802-26804]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2019-12084]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

30 CFR Part 913

[SATS No. IL-109-FOR; Docket ID: OSM-2019-0003 S1D1S SS08011000 
SX064A000 190S180110; S2D2S SS08011000 SX064A000 19XS501520]


Illinois Regulatory Program

AGENCY: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule; reopening of the public comment period and 
opportunity for public hearing on proposed amendment.

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SUMMARY: We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement 
(OSMRE), are reopening the public comment period and providing an 
opportunity for a public hearing on a proposed amendment to the 
Illinois regulatory program (Illinois program) under the Surface Mining 
Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act) published on May 
1, 2019. The public comment period is being reopened and an opportunity 
for a public hearing is being provided at the request of three Illinois 
citizen's organizations. The granting of this request affords the 
public additional time to provide written comment and the opportunity 
to request to speak at a public hearing.
    Illinois proposes revisions to its regulations, including allowing 
the extraction of coal as an incidental part of a government-financed 
construction project, revising its Ownership and Control rules, and 
clarifying land use changes requiring a significant permit revision. 
Illinois intends to revise its program to be as effective as the 
Federal regulations.
    This document gives the times and locations where the Illinois 
program documents and this proposed amendment to that program are 
available for your inspection, establishes the new comment period 
during which you may submit written comments on the amendment, and 
describes the procedures that we will follow for the public hearing, if 
one is requested.

DATES: We will accept written comments on this amendment until 4:00 
p.m., CDT, June 24, 2019. We will hold a public hearing on the 
amendment at 5:30 p.m. on June 18, 2019 at our office location listed 
in ADDRESSES. We will accept requests to speak at a hearing until 4:00 
p.m., CDT on June 13, 2019.

[[Page 26803]]


ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by SATS No. IL-109-FOR, 
by any of the following methods:
     Mail/Hand Delivery: Joy Schieferstein, Acting Chief, Alton 
Field Division, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 
501 Belle Street, Suite 216, Alton, Illinois 62002-6169.
     Fax: (618) 463-6470.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: The amendment has been 
assigned Docket ID OSM-2019-0003. If you would like to submit comments 
go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and docket number for this rulemaking. For detailed instructions on 
submitting comments and additional information on the rulemaking 
process, see the ``Public Comment Procedures'' heading of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of the proposed rule published on May 
1, 2019 (84 FR 18428).
    Docket: For access to the docket to review copies of the Illinois 
program, this amendment, a listing of any scheduled public hearings, 
and all written comments received in response to this document, you 
must go to the address listed below during normal business hours, 
Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. You may receive one free 
copy of the amendment by contacting OSMRE's Alton Field Division, or 
the full text of the program amendment is available for you to review 
at www.regulations.gov. Joy Schieferstein, Acting Chief, Alton Field 
Division, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 501 
Belle Street, Suite 216, Alton, Illinois 62002-6169, Telephone: (618) 
463-6460, Email: [email protected].
    In addition, you may review a copy of the amendment during regular 
business hours at the following location: Office of Mines and Minerals, 
Illinois Department of Natural Resources, One Natural Resources Way, 
Springfield, IL 62702-1271, Telephone: (618) 439-9111.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joy Schieferstein, Acting Chief, Alton 
Field Division. Telephone: (618) 463-6460, Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On May 1, 2019 (84 FR 18428), we published a 
proposed rule that would revise the Illinois program. By letter dated 
December 5, 2018 (Administrative Record No. IL-5100), Illinois sent us 
an amendment to its program under SMCRA (30 U.S.C. 1201 et seq.) at its 
own initiative. By email dated December 11, 2018, Illinois requested 
that OSMRE's review be put on hold until they could resubmit the 
proposed amendment due to editorial changes requested by the Illinois 
Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Illinois resubmitted the 
proposed amendment to OSMRE on February 20, 2019. OSMRE will use this 
date for its review. Below is a summary of the changes proposed by 
Illinois. The full text of the program amendment is available for you 
to read at the locations listed above under ADDRESSES.
    Illinois proposes to revise the Illinois Surface Coal Mining Land 
Conservation and Reclamation Act (225 ILCS 720), Section 1.06, ``Scope 
of the Act,'' by adding language allowing coal extraction as an 
incidental part of a government-financed project. The language added is 
nearly identical to that found in Section 528 of SMCRA (30 U.S.C. 
1278).
    Illinois also proposes to revise the following Parts of Title 62 of 
the Illinois Administrative Code:

Section 1701 Appendix A. Definitions

    Illinois proposes to revise its regulation at section 1701 Appendix 
A, amending a number of its definitions, including those for 
``ownership,'' ``control,'' and ``violations,'' to conform with the 
Federal definitions at 30 CFR 701.5 and 707.5.

Section 1703 Exemption for Coal Extraction Incident to Government-
Financed Highway or Other Construction

    Illinois proposes adding a new section 1703 to allow the extraction 
of coal as an incidental part of a government-financed construction 
project, which incorporates language identical to the Federal 
regulations at 30 CFR part 707.

Section 1773 Requirements for Permits and Permit Processing

    Illinois proposes to amend section 1773.15, ``Review of Permit 
Applications'' to comport with changes made to the Federal regulations 
at 30 CFR 773.12. These changes preclude the Department from 
considering violations upstream of the permit applicant by removing 
``person who owns or controls the applicant'' from this section.
    Illinois also proposes to amend section 1773.25, ``Standards for 
Challenging Ownership or Control Links and the Status Violations,'' to 
update a subsection reference.

Section 1774 Permit Revisions

    Illinois proposes to amend section 1774.13, ``Permit Revisions,'' 
to provide further clarification as to which reclamation plan land use 
changes require a significant revision for a permit application. 
Illinois proposes to remove the requirement for a significant revision 
for land use changes involving greater than five percent of the total 
permit acreage after finding the five percent limitation to be unduly 
restrictive and burdensome. Instead, the Department will consider 
changes in the reclamation plan for post-mining land use in determining 
whether a significant revision to the permit must be obtained. These 
changes are proposed in order to make the Illinois rules as effective 
as the Federal regulations at 30 CFR 774.13.

Section 1778 Permit Applications--Minimum Requirements for Legal, 
Financial, Compliance, and Related Information

    Illinois proposes adding a new section 1778.9, ``Certifying and 
Updating Existing Permit Application Information,'' which incorporates 
language identical to the Federal regulations at 30 CFR 778.9.
    Illinois proposes to amend section 1778.13, ``Identification of 
Interests,'' to comport with changes made to the Federal regulations at 
30 CFR 778.11 and 778.12.
    Illinois proposes to amend section 1778.14, ``Violation 
Information,'' to comport with changes made to the Federal regulations 
at 30 CFR 778.14.
    Illinois proposes to amend section 1778.15, ``Right of Entry 
Information,'' to add language found in the Federal regulations at 30 
CFR 778.13 related to property interest information to the existing 
right of entry language in this section, which corresponds to 30 CFR 
778.15, so that all property related rules are located in one section.
    During the initial comment period, we received requests from three 
citizen's organizations (Administrative Record No. IL-5104, IL-5106 and 
IL-5108) to extend the public comment period and the date to request to 
testify at a public hearing. Based on that request, we have extended 
both time periods as described in DATES in this notice.

Public Hearing

    The hearing will be open to anyone who would like to attend and/or 
testify. The primary purpose of the public hearing is to obtain your 
comments on the proposed rule so that we can prepare a complete and 
objective analysis of the proposal. The purpose of the hearing officer 
is to conduct the hearing and receive the comments submitted. Comments 
submitted during the hearing will be responded to in the preamble to 
the final rule, not at the hearing. If you wish to speak at the public 
hearing, contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

[[Page 26804]]

CONTACT by 4:00 p.m., CDT on June 13, 2019. If you are disabled and 
need reasonable accommodations to attend a public hearing, contact the 
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. The location of 
the hearing is our office, listed under ADDRESSES above. Those persons 
requesting to speak will need to register at our office between 5:00 
and 5:30 p.m., CDT.
    At the hearing, a court report will record and make a written 
record of the statements presented. This written record will be made 
part of the administrative record for the rule. To assist the 
transcriber and ensure an accurate record, we request, if possible, 
that each person who speaks at the public hearing provide us with a 
written copy of his or her comments. The public hearing will continue 
until everyone scheduled to speak has been given an opportunity to be 
heard. If you are in the audience and have not been scheduled to speak 
and wish to do so, you will be allowed to speak after those who have 
been scheduled. We will end the hearing after everyone scheduled to 
speak and others present in the audience who wish to speak, have been 
heard. We appreciate all comments but those most useful and likely to 
influence decisions on the final rule will be those that either involve 
personal experience or include citations to, and analyses of SMCRA, its 
legislative history, its implementing regulations, case law, other 
State or Federal laws and regulations, data, technical literature, or 
relevant publications.

List of Subjects in 30 CFR Part 913

    Intergovernmental relations, Surface mining, Underground mining.

    Dated: May 21, 2019.
Alfred L. Clayborne,
Regional Director, Mid-Continent Region.
[FR Doc. 2019-12084 Filed 6-7-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-05-P