The Interior Department is establishing new federal interim procedures for reviewing permits for surface coal mining.
The practice establishes a better relationship with the Federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Those three agencies will work with coal mining states to ensure that mining activities near streams will not violate state or federal water quality standards.
Developing a new rule is expected to take at least a year.
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