444.620. Time limits on reclamation practices. - Missouri Statutes

Time limits on reclamation practices.

444.620. In addition to completion of grading, grading shallbe current and shall meet the following additional time limits:

(1) Grading shall be completed not more than one hundredeighty days after the final placing of the spoil ridges. Whenmore than one seam is to be mined, this information shall beincluded in the application, and the commission may deferreclamation until all seams have been mined, if such additionaltime does not defeat the purposes of sections 444.500 to 444.755and there is no danger from acid mine drainage. Grading of aspoil ridge that will have an adjacent spoil ridge placed againstit shall be completed one hundred eighty days after the placingof such adjacent spoil ridge. When heavy rains or otherconditions make grading impracticable, the one hundred eighty dayperiod shall be extended by the length of time such grading isimpracticable.

(2) With the approval of the commission, the operator maysubstitute for all or any part of the affected land to bereclaimed, an equal number of acres of land previously mined andnot reclaimed. If any area is so substituted the operator shallsubmit a map of the substituted area, and this map shall conformto all requirements with respect to other maps required bysection 444.550. The operator shall be relieved of allobligations under sections 444.500 to 444.755 with respect to theland for which substitution has been permitted. However, beforethe commission allows such substitution, the county commission inthe county affected shall determine if the substitution is in thebest interest of land usage and public interest.

(L. 1971 S.B. 1 § 15)