N.D. Admin Code 69-05.2-26-06 - Performance standards - Prime farmland - Exemptions

This chapter does not apply to:

1. Lands on which surface coal mining and reclamation operations are conducted under any permit issued before July 1, 1979.

2. Lands on which surface coal mining and reclamation operations are conducted under any renewal or revision of a permit issued before July 1, 1979.

3. Lands included in any existing surface coal mining operations for which a permit was issued for all or any part before July 1, 1979; provided that:

a. The lands are part of a single continuous mining operation begun under a permit issued before July 1, 1979.

b. The permittee had a legal right to mine the lands before July 1, 1979, through ownership, contract, or lease but not including an option to buy, lease, or contract.

c. The lands contain part of a continuous recoverable coal or commercial leonardite seam that was being mined in a single continuous mining operation begun under a permit issued prior to July 1, 1979.

4. For the purposes of this section, a surface coal mining operation is presumed to consist only of a single continuous mining pit under permit before July 1, 1979, but may include noncontiguous parcels if the operator can prove by clear and convincing evidence that, before July 1, 1979, the parcels were part of a single permitted operation. Clear and convincing evidence includes contracts, leases, deeds, or other legal documents, excluding options, that specifically treat physically separate parcels as one surface coal mining operation.

Notes

N.D. Admin Code 69-05.2-26-06

Effective June 1, 1983; amended effective May 1, 1990. Amended by Administrative Rules Supplement 2016-362, October 2016, effective 10/1/2016.

General Authority: NDCC 38-14.1-03

Law Implemented: NDCC 38-14.1-24