Surface mining operations.

(1) Existing law, the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975, prohibits, with certain exceptions, a person from conducting a surface mining operation unless, among other things, a reclamation plan has been submitted to and approved by the lead agency, as defined, for the operation. For purposes of compliance with specified provisions of the Public Contract Code, the act requires the Department of Conservation to, at a minimum, quarterly publish in the California Regulatory Notice Register, or otherwise make available, upon request, to the Department of General Services or any other state or local agency, a list identifying certain surface mining operations. Existing law also prohibits a state agency from acquiring or utilizing mined material, or from contracting with a person utilizing these materials, as specified, unless the material is produced from a mining operation on that list that meets certain requirements. This bill, in regard to mined materials a state agency may acquire or utilize, would remove the condition that the surface mining operation meet certain requirements, and instead require that the mined material be produced from a surface mining operation on the above-described list. The bill, until January 1, 2019, as specified, would also require this list to identify surface mining operations whose reclamation plan has been approved and is in compliance with the act, whose mining operation is in compliance with the approved reclamation plan or an order to comply, as specified, and whose mining operation has an approved financial assurance, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Conservation to submit a specified report to the Legislature between July 1, 2017, and January 1, 2018. (2) Existing law requires that the lead agency have primary responsibility in enforcing the act. The act permits, in cases where the State Mining and Geology Board is not the lead agency, the Director of Conservation to initiate enforcement actions if the lead agency has been notified by the director, for at least 15 days, of a violation and has not taken appropriate enforcement action, or the director determines there is a violation that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or safety, or the environment. This bill would require that the lead agency be notified of a violation for at least 30 days before the director could initiate enforcement actions, and would provide that a lead agency's failure to issue an order to comply within a reasonable time after issuing a notice of violation may be a failure to take appropriate enforcement action that permits the initiation of an enforcement action by the director.