PURPOSE: This rule sets forth the requirements for the protection of underground mining from surface coal mining activities pursuant to sections 444.810, 444.855.2(12) and 444.860, RSMo.

1. (1) Protection of Underground Mining. No surface coal mining activities shall be conducted closer than five hundred feet (500’) to any point of either an active or abandoned underground mine, except to the extent that—

   1. (A) The nature, timing and sequence of the operations are jointly approved in the permit and plan and by the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; and
   2. (B) The activities result in improved resource recovery, abatement of water pollution or elimination of hazards to the health and safety of the public.
2. (2) Surface mining activities shall be designed to protect disturbed surface areas, including spoil disposal sites, so as not to endanger any present or future operations of either surface or underground mining activities.

AUTHORITY: section 444.530, RSMo 1994.* Original rule filed Oct. 12, 1979, effective Feb. 11, 1980.

*Original authority 1971, amended 1983, 1990, 1993.