H.R. 3843 — what changed

Location fee— For each claim located after the date of enactment of this Act, a claimant shall pay the Secretary a location fee of $37 not later than 90 days after the date of location, at the time the location notice is recorded with the Bureau of Land Management.

Annual claim maintenance fee— Commencing the first calendar year after the date of enactment of this Act, a claimant shall pay the Secretary on or before September 1 of each year, a claim maintenance fee of $155 per 20.66-acre claim or fraction thereof to maintain the claim for the following assessment year beginning at noon on September 1. Payment of such claim maintenance fee shall be in lieu of the assessment work requirement contained in the general mining laws and the related filing requirements contained in subsections (a) and (c) of section 314 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1744).

In general— The claim maintenance fee required under this section shall be waived for a claimant who certifies in writing to the Secretary that on the date the payment was due—

the claimant was—

the holder of not more than 10 lode claims on Federal lands; or

an association that held less than or equal to 320 acres; and

the claimant has performed assessment work sufficient to maintain the claims held by the claimant for the assessment year ending on noon of September 1 of the calendar year in which the claim maintenance fee payment was due.

Holder— As used in paragraph (1), the term holder includes—

the claimant;

a person affiliated with the claimant, including—

a person controlled by, controlling, or under common control with the claimant; and

a subsidiary or parent company or corporation of the claimant.

Certification processing fee— The Secretary shall charge a certification processing fee of $30 for the filing of a certification under this subsection.

Cost Recovery Fees— The fees required by part 3000 of title 43, Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act, and any substantially similar fee charged for a mining claim validity exam, shall be waived for any claimant with claims in an area that was open to mineral entry and location at the time of claim location that has subsequently been segregated or withdrawn from mineral entry and location by order of the Secretary or a law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act.

In general— Timely payment of the location and claim maintenance fees under this section secures the rights of the holder of a mining claim against the Federal Government both prior to and after discovery of valuable mineral deposits, to use and occupy Federal lands under the provisions of the general mining laws for all mineral activities. This section shall not be construed to amend section 910 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 53) or in any way affect the law of possession or the doctrine of pedis possessio.

Waiver of claim maintenance fee— In the case of a claim holder who qualifies for a waiver of payment of the claim maintenance fee under subsection (c), timely payment of the location fee and compliance with the assessment work required under the general mining laws (30 U.S.C. 28–28e) secures the rights of the holder of a claim, both prior to and after discovery of valuable mineral deposits, to use and occupy Federal lands under the provisions of the general mining laws for all mineral activities.

Failure to pay— Failure to pay a claim maintenance fee or a location fee under this section for an unpatented mining claim shall subject the claim to forfeiture by the claim holder as provided in this subsection.

Notice— The Secretary of the Interior shall provide the claim holder—

notice of the failure; and

the opportunity to correct the failure within 45 days after the claim holder’s receipt of the notice.

Amount— To correct the failure the claim holder must, within such 45-day period, pay twice the amount of claim maintenance fee that would otherwise have been required to be timely paid. The Secretary shall specify the amount that must be paid in the notice under paragraph (2).

Forfeiture— Failure by the claim holder to make a timely and proper payment in the amount specified in the notice, within 45 days after the claim holder’s receipt of the notice, shall constitute a forfeiture of the mining claim by the claim holder by operation of law.

Effective period of fees— The fees imposed under this section shall apply during the period beginning September 1, 2016, and ending August 31, 2022.

the Director of the Bureau of Land Management;

the Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement; and

the Chief Forester of the Forest Service.

Funding— From amounts available for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2022 for operations to administer the mining laws, the Secretary may use not more than $1,000,000 to support the United States Mineral Deposit Database of which not more than 5 percent may be used for overhead expenses.

Establishment— There is established in the Department of the Interior a program to be known as the Abandoned Noncoal Mine Lands Program (referred to in this section as the “Program”). The Program shall be administered by the Secretary of the Interior acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management.

Description of program— Under the Program, the Secretary shall—

identify, secure, and remediate physical safety hazards and environmental hazards associated with inactive and abandoned noncoal mine lands that are located on, or affecting, Federal public lands, including such hazards on other lands that are adjacent to such Federal lands;

maintain an inventory of the sites of such inactive and abandoned noncoal mines, affected Federal public lands, and other lands that are adjacent to such Federal public lands, including such sites that have been remediated in whole or in part, and associated water resources; and

identify the persons, if any, who are responsible for paying the costs to remediate such hazards.

Priorities— In securing and remediating hazards under this title, the Secretary shall give priority (in the following order of priority) to—

the protection of public health, safety, and general welfare from the adverse effects of inactive and abandoned noncoal mine lands; and

In general— A permitting authority may issue a permit to a Good Samaritan to carry out a project in accordance with this section.

In general— A permitting authority may issue a permit under this section for a project to improve the environment (including water quality) by carrying out remediation at or related to an inactive or abandoned mine site.

Water quality— A permitting authority shall ensure that remediation carried out pursuant to a permit issued under this section—

assists in the attainment of applicable water quality standards to the extent reasonable and practicable under the circumstances; and

does not result in water quality that is worse than the baseline water condition.

Limitation on eligibility— A permitting authority may not issue a permit under this section for a project at or related to a mine site included on the National Priorities List developed by the President in accordance with section 105(a)(8)(B) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9605(a)(8)(B)) or a mine site at which the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency or another Federal, State, or tribal agency is taking an environmental enforcement or response action, unless the permitting authority determines, after consultation with any other interested agency, that—

the proposed project is not inconsistent, and will not interfere, with any other planned remediation at the mine site that is reasonably likely to occur; and

the proposed project will accelerate environmental improvements.

Contents— A permitting authority shall require an application for a permit under this section to include—

a description of the project site (including the boundaries of the project site and any degraded waters related to the project site);

an identification of—

any current owner of the property on which the project is proposed to be carried out;

any person with a legal right to exclude other persons from the project site or affect activities on the project site, with a description of those legal rights;

for project sites on Federal lands, the Federal land management agency; and

based on the conduct of an inquiry that is reasonable under the circumstances—

all persons that may be legally responsible for remediation of the project site; and

any relationship between those persons and the applicant;

a description of any contractual ties or other legal relationship between the applicant and all persons with responsibility for compliance with environmental laws at the project site;

a description of—

the historic mine residue proposed to be remediated;

the nature and scope of the proposed remediation, including—

any proposed recycling or reprocessing of the historic mine residue, how the recycling or reprocessing relates to the remediation, and where the recycling or reprocessing will occur; and

the manner in which the proposed remediation will mitigate the drainage from the inactive or abandoned mine site to improve water quality, if applicable;

the remediation alternatives, if any, considered in developing the proposed remediation plan for the project site;

a plan for any operation and maintenance related to the proposed remediation;

a proposed schedule for activities to be carried out under the project, including an expected completion date for the remediation;

a budget for the project;

evidence satisfactory to the permitting authority that the applicant has sufficient financial resources to ensure that the activities proposed to be carried out by the applicant, including any operation and maintenance activities related to the remediation, will be carried out under the permit;

an identification of any cooperating persons and a description of activities proposed to be carried out by such persons;

a description of—

any recognition for excellence in environmental compliance, reclamation, or remediation received by the applicant or any cooperating person identified under subparagraph (J); and

State, local, and tribal communities— As soon as practicable after receiving an application under this section, a permitting authority shall provide notice of the application, including a copy of the application, to—

each local government located within a radius of 20 miles of the project site;

each Federal, State, and tribal agency that the permitting authority determines may have an interest in the application; and

if the project site lies in the headwater area of a major drainage basin, local governments located outside of the 20-mile radius of the project site that are downstream of the project site and may be affected by a discharge resulting from activities carried out pursuant to the project.

Public notice— Not later than 30 days after receiving an application under this section, a permitting authority shall provide to the public notice of the application.

In general— A permitting authority may, upon request, authorize a person to carry out investigative sampling, as determined appropriate by the permitting authority, prior to submitting an application for a permit under this section.

Effect of authorization— An authorization to carry out investigative sampling under this section shall, with respect to the authorized activities, have the same effect as a permit for the purposes of subsection (g).

Hearing— Prior to issuing a permit under this section, a permitting authority shall conduct a public hearing in the vicinity of the proposed project site, and shall give public notice of the hearing not later than 30 days before the date of the hearing.

Draft permit— The permitting authority shall include a draft permit in the notice of a hearing to be conducted under this section.

Comments— The permitting authority shall provide the applicant and the public with the opportunity to—

comment on the draft permit at the public hearing; and

submit written comments to the permitting authority during the 30-day period following the hearing.

Deadline— A permitting authority shall issue a permit or deny a permit application under this section not later than—

the date that is 180 days after the date on which the permitting authority receives a complete application for the permit, as determined by the permitting authority; or

such later date as may be determined by the permitting authority, with the agreement of the applicant.

Constructive denial— If the permitting authority does not issue a permit or deny the permit application by the applicable date described in paragraph (1), the application shall be considered to be denied by the permitting authority.

Consultation— In considering whether to issue a permit for a project to be carried out on Federal lands, a permitting authority shall consult with any applicable Federal land management agency.

Objection— A permitting authority may not issue a permit under this section if—

the proposed project site is not a priority site designated under section 204; and

the permitting authority receives an objection to the proposed permit from a Federal land management agency with jurisdiction over the project site.

In general— A permitting authority shall include in a permit issued under this section—

a description of the activities authorized by the permit, including a description of any activities to be carried out by a cooperating person in accordance with paragraph (5);

a schedule for the activities to be carried out under the project, in accordance with paragraph (3), including an end date by which the permittee shall complete the permitted activities;

conditions requiring the permittee to—

secure, for all activities authorized under the permit, all authorizations, licenses, and permits required under law;

establish and maintain records, conduct monitoring (as described in paragraph (4)), and provide such other information as may be reasonably necessary to ensure the project will result in improvement to the environment; and

minimize any short-term adverse environmental impacts from the remediation, to the extent practicable;

a right of entry to the project site for the permitting authority to inspect and collect such information as is reasonably necessary to carry out this title;

if the project to be carried out under the permit will be used by the permittee to comply with an offsite mitigation requirement, a reference to the offsite mitigation requirement and any related permit; and

any other terms and conditions determined appropriate by the permitting authority.

Benchmarks— A permitting authority shall ensure that a permit issued under this section is site- and situation-specific, relying on pre-mining conditions and conditions existing as of the date of issuance of the permit to determine appropriate water quality or other environmental benchmarks to achieve in carrying out remediation under the permit.

Timing— A permitting authority shall require activities authorized by a permit issued under this section to—

commence not later than the date that is 1 year after the date on which the permit is issued; and

continue until completed, with temporary suspensions permitted during adverse weather or other circumstances, as approved by the permitting authority.

In general— A permitting authority shall require a permittee to take such actions as the permitting authority determines are necessary to ensure, where appropriate, baseline, remedial alternative, and postremediation monitoring of the environment.

Administration— In selecting the type and frequency of monitoring requirements to be included in a permit under this paragraph, the permitting authority shall—

balance the utility of information obtained through monitoring against the cost of the monitoring, based on the circumstances relating to the project; and

take into account the scope of the project.

Cooperative activities— A permitting authority may approve in a permit the conduct of project activities by cooperating persons if, as determined by the permitting authority, the cooperative arrangement will effectively accomplish the purposes of this title.

In general— A person authorized by a permit issued under this section to carry out activities—

shall be deemed to be in compliance with environmental laws with respect to such activities; and

Limitation— Paragraph (1) shall not apply if—

the person impedes or fails to facilitate a response action, remediation, or other natural resource restoration activity at the project site;

the person exacerbates the pollution from historic mine residue as a result of gross negligence or intentional misconduct, in which case the person may be liable under environmental laws for costs or damages resulting from such gross negligence or intentional misconduct; or

information supplied to the permitting authority in the permit application is subsequently determined to contain a dishonest, fraudulent, or materially misleading statement or omission, in which case the permit shall be deemed to have been invalid beginning on the date the permit was issued, and shall have no force or effect.

Authority— A permitting authority may—

Termination— Unless the permitting authority has extended the period during which a permit is valid, the authority to carry out activities under a permit issued under this section shall terminate—

if the activities do not commence by the date that is 1 year after the date on which the permit is issued;

if the activities are discontinued or not completed by the end date specified in the permit; or

on any other grounds determined appropriate by the permitting authority.

Transfer of permits— A permit may be transferred to another person only if—

the appropriate permitting authority determines that the transferee will satisfy all of the requirements of the permit;

the transferee is a Good Samaritan;

the transferee accepts all of the requirements of the permit;

the permitting authority includes in the transferred permit any additional or modified conditions determined to be appropriate by the permitting authority; and

any Federal, State, or tribal land management agency with jurisdiction over the project site is notified of the proposed transfer and does not object to the permitting authority before the date that is 30 days before the proposed transfer is to take effect.

Maintenance of records— A permitting authority shall maintain all records relating to permits and the permit process under this section.

Other activities— A permit issued under this section may not authorize any new mining activities other than those activities directly related to carrying out remediation at or related to the inactive or abandoned mine site.