Section 5-3 - Alluvial Valley Floors (a) Surface coal mining operations shall be conducted to preserve and reestablish throughout the mining and reclamation process those geologic, hydrologic and biologic characteristics that support the essential hydrologic functions, as identified during premining investigations or monitoring conducted during the surface coal mining and reclamation operation.
(b) Environmental monitoring: - (i) If environmental monitoring shows that a surface coal mining operation is interrupting, discontinuing, or precluding farming on alluvial valley floors or is causing material damage to water supplying alluvial valley floors not subject to the statutory exclusions of W.S. § 35-11-406(n)(v), the operation shall immediately take remedial measures and report this condition to the Administrator within 24 hours.
- (ii) An environmental monitoring system shall be installed, maintained and operated by the operator on all alluvial valley floors during surface coal mining and reclamation operations and continued until all bonds are released. The monitoring system shall provide sufficient information to show that the essential hydrologic functions of the alluvial valley floor are being preserved or reestablished.
- (iii) All monitoring data collected and analyses thereof shall be provided in the annual report.
(c) For all operations, the operator shall: - (i) Restore the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial valley floors located on affected lands; and
- (ii) Preserve the essential hydrologic functions of alluvial valley floors located outside the affected lands.