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Noncoal Mining Permit Fee Increases Final, Made Necessary By Cuts In DEP’s General Fund Budget
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The Environmental Quality Board published notice in the May 18 PA Bulletin of a final regulation setting new Noncoal Mining Program permit review and annual administration fees made necessary by cuts in DEP’s General Fund budget. The noncoal mining fee increases would be phased in over six years both on permit reviews and an annual permit administration fee that DEP hopes will raise about $1.2 million to fully fund the program. The total annual cost of the program is about $3 million. Another change would index future annual increases to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics index. The Board specifically revised the regulation on final to ensure that the fee adjustment is not applied if doing so would result in fees that exceed the Department’s cost of reviewing, administering and enforcing noncoal mining permits. The fee schedule, phasing in the increases and the indexing were recommendations made by DEP’s Aggregate Advisory Board. The PA Aggregates and Concrete Association worked with DEP to develop the fee package, but does “understand the value of an efficient complement within the mining program to support industry’s needs to do business.” Click Here for more. DEP began working with the Aggregate Advisory Board, which includes legislative members, in May of 2015 to develop this fee package. Since then, the House and Senate have had multiple opportunities to review the regulation as members of the Environmental Quality Board (twice), through the Independent Regulatory Review Commission review process (twice) and during the public comment period advertised in the PA Bulletin and sent to members and through public meetings of the Aggregate Advisory Board. Related Story: Take Action! [Posted: May 17, 2019] |
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5/20/2019 |
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