A. Pursuant to the state reclamation plan, expenditures from the fund shall be used by the director on eligible lands and water and shall reflect the priorities and objectives in the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, as amended.

B. The legislature declares that voids and open and abandoned tunnels, shafts and entryways resulting from any previous mining operation constitute a hazard to the public health or safety and that surface impacts of any underground or surface mining operations may degrade the environment. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A of this section, the director, with the prior approval of the governor and the United States secretary of the interior, may use expenditures from the fund to fill the voids, seal the abandoned tunnels, shafts and entryways and reclaim surface impacts of underground or surface mines that could endanger life and property, constitute a hazard to the public health and safety or degrade the environment. In those instances where mine waste piles are being reworked for conservation purposes, expenditures from the fund may be used to pay the incremental costs of disposing of the wastes from those operations by filling voids and sealing tunnels if the disposal of these wastes meets the purposes of this subsection.

History: Laws 1980, ch. 87, § 6; 1992, ch. 18, § 5; 2011, ch. 65, § 2.

The 2011 amendment, effective June 17, 2011, clarified the priorities and objectives of expenditures from the fund by adopting the priorities and objectives of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and eliminating the authority to spend funds to construct public facilities in communities impacted by mining; and eliminated the three year time limit for the expenditure of federal funds.

The 1992 amendment, effective May 20, 1992, substituted "mining development" for "coal development" in the introductory paragraph of Subsection C, deleted "coal" preceding "mining practices" throughout the section, and made minor stylistic changes throughout the section.