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TITLE 16ECONOMIC REGULATION
PART 1RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS
CHAPTER 12COAL MINING REGULATIONS
SUBCHAPTER GSURFACE COAL MINING AND RECLAMATION OPERATIONS, PERMITS, AND COAL EXPLORATION PROCEDURES SYSTEMS
DIVISION 8UNDERGROUND MINING PERMIT APPLICATIONS--MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR INFORMATION ON ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES
RULE §12.183Cross Sections, Maps, and Plans

(a) The application shall include cross sections, maps, and plans showing:

  (1) elevations and locations of test borings and core samplings;

  (2) elevations and locations of monitoring stations used to gather data on water quality and quantity, fish and wildlife, and air quality, if required, in preparation of the application;

  (3) nature, depth, and thickness of the coal seams to be mined, any coal or rider seams above the seam to be mined, each stratum of the overburden, and the stratum immediately below the lowest coal seam to be mined;

  (4) all coal crop lines and the strike and dip of the coal to be mined within the proposed permit area;

  (5) location and extent of known workings of active, inactive, or abandoned underground mines, including mine openings to the surface within the proposed permit and adjacent areas;

  (6) location and extent of subsurface water, if encountered, within the proposed permit or adjacent areas, including, but not limited to areal and vertical distribution of aquifers, and portrayal of seasonal differences of head in different aquifers on cross sections and contour maps;

  (7) location of surface-water bodies such as streams, lakes, ponds, springs, constructed or natural drains, and irrigation ditches within the proposed permit and adjacent areas;

  (8) location and extent of existing or previously surface-mined areas within the proposed permit area;

  (9) location and dimensions of existing areas of spoil, waste, coal development waste, and noncoal waste disposal, dams, embankments, other impoundments, and water treatment and air pollution control facilities within the proposed permit area;

  (10) location, and depth if available, of gas and oil wells within the proposed permit area and water wells in the permit area and adjacent areas; and

  (11) sufficient slope measurements to adequately represent the existing land-surface configuration of the area affected by surface operations and facilities, measured and recorded according to the following:

    (A) each measurement shall consist of an angle of inclination along the prevailing slope extending 100 linear feet above and below or beyond the coal outcrop or the area to be disturbed or, where this is impractical, at locations specified by the Commission;

    (B) where the area has been previously mined, the measurements shall extend at least 100 feet beyond the limits of mining disturbances, or any other distance determined by the Commission to be representative of the premining configuration of the land; and

    (C) slope measurements shall take into account natural variations in slope, to provide accurate representation of the range of natural slopes and reflect geomorphic differences of the area to be disturbed.

(b) Maps, plans and cross sections included in a permit application and required by this shall be prepared by, or under the direction of and certified by a qualified professional engineer or qualified professional geoscientist, with assistance from experts in related fields such as land surveying and landscape architecture and shall be updated as required by the Commission.


Source Note: The provisions of this §12.183 adopted to be effective April 7, 1997, 22 TexReg 3093; amended to be effective November 4, 1997, 22 TexReg 10640; amended to be effective December 28, 2020, 45 TexReg 9503

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