Section 690-224 - Mapping requirements and surveying standards(a) General rule.--The operator or superintendent of each mine shall cause to be made by a registered mining engineer or registered professional surveyor an accurate, professional quality map of the mine on a scale of not less than 200 feet to the inch. At a minimum, the map shall show: (1) A complete legend identifying all features represented on the map and a title block including all changes of mine ownership and the dates of those changes.(2) An accurate delineation of the current extent of the workings of the mine and all mines or coal lands, or both, inside the permit boundary and all mines or coal lands, or both, within 1,000 feet of the outside of the permit boundary. The delineation must show all workings of all mines above and below the mine within the permit boundary and within 1,000 feet of the outside of the permit boundary.(3) Barrier pillars for all mine workings inside the permit boundary and all mine workings adjacent to the permit boundary.(4) Two permanent baseline points coordinated with the underground and surface traverse points and two permanent elevation benchmarks referencing mine elevation surveys. The baseline points and elevation benchmarks shall be prepared using the Pennsylvania State Plane Coordinate System (NAD83 Datum). In the alternative, the map shall include coordinate transformation equations converting the baseline points shown to correlate to the Pennsylvania State Plane Coordinate System.(5) All openings, excavations, shafts, slopes, drifts, tunnels, entries, crosscuts, rooms, boreholes and all other excavations, including surface pits and auger holes in each seam.(6) Areas where the pillars or longwall panels have been removed.(7) The name or number of each butt, room and section, if available.(8) Ventilation controls, air splits and the direction of air currents using arrows.(9) USGS elevation at the top and bottom of each shaft, slope, drift and borehole.(10) Bottom of coal elevations, taken at intervals not to exceed 300 feet apart, in one entry of each section and in one entry of each set of rooms off such sections.(11) Bottom of coal elevations taken in the last open crosscut of all sections and each set of rooms off such section before they are abandoned.(12) Elevation contour lines at whole number, ten-foot increments, unless the seam is steeply pitching, after which it may be 25-foot intervals.(13) The number or designation of each survey station and the date of the last survey in the entries, as they are represented on the map.(14) The location and elevation of any body of water dammed or held back in any portion of the mine, giving the volume in gallons of the body of water.(15) The location of streams, rivers, lakes, dams or any other bodies of water on the surface, with their surface elevations accurately and plainly marked.(16) The location of permanent surface features such as railroad tracks, public highways, permanent buildings and oil and gas wells.(17) All seals and bulkheads within the mine.(b) Accuracy standards.--The following accuracy standards must be met:(1) A minimum elevation closure of plus or minus one foot per 5,000 feet is required.(2) Mine traverse, advanced by closed-loop method of survey or other equally accurate method of traversing. Minimum angular and coordinate ties for raw data would be an angular tie of less than one minute and a coordinate time of greater than 1 to 10,000 for any given closed-loop survey.(c) Surveying standards.--The extent of surveying shown on the map shall be acceptable where the following minimum underground surveying standards are met: (1) Every entry must be surveyed at intervals not to exceed 300 lineal feet. Survey station spads shall be established in each entry of all mains, sections, butts, rooms and other excavations. Survey lines may extend from adjacent entries as long as the interval between survey station spads within an entry does not exceed 300 lineal feet. Continuous survey lines must be maintained in at least one entry.(2) Lateral take-ups, left and right, must be taken in every entry at all intersections and must denote the location of all intersections and define the corners and the location of the rib line within each entry. For any excavation greater than 20% from the planned excavation, additional lateral take-ups must be taken to define this area. All of the information must be accurately portrayed on the mine map.(3) All workings not surveyed and taken from a working map or other unofficial record shall be shown on the map with dashed lines. The legend shall identify that these areas have not been surveyed.(4) A survey station spad is required to be within 300 feet of the deepest penetration of the final faces of each mining section, butt or room. The number or designation of the last survey station spad and the date of such survey of the entries are to be shown on the mine map. The area from this spad to the face will be considered surveyed provided that lateral and face take-ups have been completed and recorded in the field book and shown on the mine map. Field books shall be available for inspection. If lateral and face take-ups are not completed, the area inby the last survey station spad must be identified on the map with dashed lines. The survey station spads located in each mining section, butt or room shall be tied to a check survey station.(5) Check survey stations shall be advanced to within 300 feet of the deepest penetration of all mains, submains, sections and butts. Check survey stations shall be advanced to within 600 feet of the deepest penetration of all rooms.(6) Check survey stations shall be advanced to within 100 feet of the deepest penetration of all mining sections, butts, rooms and excavations adjacent to the permit or property boundary lines.(d) Verification.--Prior to each area's being sealed, the operator or superintendent shall verify in writing that the map of the sealed area meets the requirements of this act. To the extent that any areas in the mine cannot be surveyed, these areas shall be indicated on the map.2008, July 7, P.L. 654, No. 55, §224, effective in 180 days [ 1/5/2009].