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and reclaimed, must comply with specifications for soil removal, storage, replacement, <br />and reconstruction to be established by the Secretary of the United States Department of <br />Agriculture, and the operator shall be required, as a minimum to: <br />(1)Segregate the A horizon of the natural soil, except where it can be shown that other <br />available soil materials will create a final soil having a greater productive capacity, and, <br />if not utilized immediately, stockpile within the permit area this material separately from <br />other soil materials and spoil and provide needed protection from wind and water <br />erosion or contamination by other acid or toxic material in accordance with 4.06.3. <br />(2) Segregate the B horizon of the natural soil, or underlying C horizons or other strata, <br />or a combination of such or other strata that are shown to be texturally and chemically <br />suitable for plant growth and that can be shown to be equally or more favorable for plant <br />growth than the B horizon, in sufficient quantities to create in the regraded soil a root <br />zone of comparable depth and quality to that which existed in the natural soil, and, if not <br />utilized immediately, stockpile within the permit area this material separately from <br />other removed soil materials and spoil and provided needed protection from wind and <br />water erosion or contamination by acid or toxic material in accordance with 4.06.3. <br />For prime farmland reclamation, the practice of mixing the A and B horizons (as opposed <br />to segregating these two horizons) is not in accord with these regulatory requirements, <br />unless: 1) Other soil materials are available for use in creating a reclaimed soil that has . <br />greater productive capacity, or 2) It has been demonstrated that salvaging both the A and <br />B horizons in a combined lift will not be detrimental to the yield potential of the reclaimed <br />prime farmland. Based on OSM's review of the permit, no other such soil materials have <br />been identified and /or demonstrated to have a greater productive capacity as a segregated <br />layer of topsoil than the A horizon present on the Morgan property prior to mining <br />disturbance. It has not been determined that the practice of extensively mixing the A and <br />B horizons as opposed to segregating and redistributing the A and B horizons in separate <br />lifts, will not degrade the productive capacity of the growth medium when compared to <br />handling these horizons individually. Therefore, the current approved permit is not in <br />compliance with the requirements of the cited state regulation (4.25:3.1). <br />As indicated above, in Zones 1, 2, and 3, the state has approved a practice that allows,a volume <br />in excess of 141,598 cubic yards (average depth exceeding 1.7 feet) of B horizon materials, <br />deemed as being suitable for prime farmland reclamation in the Order I Soil Survey, to not be <br />salvaged for later use in the reclamation of the Morgan property. Instead, for Zones 1 and 2, the <br />currently approved permit authorizes the use of Bench 1 overburden as a reclamation subsoil <br />substitute for the B horizon materials not salvaged during the mining of the Morgan property <br />prior to February 2008. According to the permit, the determination for approving this <br />substitution appears to be based on a 2008 report attached to the permit titled `Walsh Report on <br />Subsoil Suitability' [permit attachment 2.05.4(2)(d) -1]. OSM's review finds this report to <br />conclude that, based on fourteen samples taken on the Morgan Property, the Bench 1 overburden <br />could be used as a suitable plant growth material. It should be noted that, of the fourteen Bench <br />9 <br />