No permit or revision application shall be approved unless the application affirmatively demonstrates and the Department finds in writing, on the basis of the information set forth in the application or from information otherwise available, which will be documented in the approval and made available to the applicant, that:

1. The permit application is accurate and complete and that all the requirements of this act have been complied with;

2. The applicant has demonstrated that reclamation as required by this act can be accomplished under the reclamation plan contained in the permit application;

3. The assessment of the probable cumulative impact of all anticipated mining in the area on the hydrologic balance has been made by the Department and the proposed operation has been designed to prevent material damage to hydrologic balance outside the permit area;

4. The area proposed to be mined is not included within an area designated unsuitable for surface coal mining, or is not within an area under study for such designation unless the operator demonstrates he has made substantial legal and financial commitments to the operation prior to January 1, 1977; and

5. In cases when the private coal or other mineral estate has been severed from the private surface estate, the applicant has submitted to the Department:

a. the written consent of the surface owner to the extraction of coal by surface mining methods, or

b. a conveyance that expressly grants or reserves the right to extract the coal by surface mining methods.

If the conveyance does not expressly grant the right to extract coal by surface mining methods, the surface-subsurface legal relationship shall be determined in accordance with state law. Nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the Department to adjudicate property rights disputes.

Laws 1979, c. 249, § 11, emerg. eff. June 1, 1979.