Maryland

Mining Program

Agency Maryland Department of the Environment

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) says its Mining Program exists to protect the public and the environment from the potential impacts of active mining, and to promote the restoration and enhancement of land and water at active and abandoned mines. MDE says the program has three divisions: the Maryland Bureau of Mines, for coal; the Minerals, Oil and Gas Division, which MDE marks as non-coal; and the Abandoned Mine Lands and Acid Mine Drainage Division. It says Maryland's mining laws and regulations are in COMAR Title 26, Subtitles 19 to 21.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name mine records among its standard record sources. MDE's pages bear on three kinds of property: land in Allegany and Garrett Counties, where MDE regulates coal mining and reclaims old coal mines; former sand, gravel, stone and other mineral pits anywhere in the state; and land near oil or gas wells. That grouping is this handbook's advice for the search, not something MDE says.

Coal, in two counties. MDE says the Bureau of Mines, based in Frostburg, regulates coal mining in Allegany and Garrett Counties. It says the Bureau's Permitting Section issues or denies permits for surface and deep mines and for coal loading and processing facilities, and keeps information on active coal mining permits, permit acreage, coal production and the reclamation process.
Abandoned coal mines. MDE says the Abandoned Mine Lands and Acid Mine Drainage Division reclaims areas mined for coal before 1977 and not adequately reclaimed, and restores streams harmed by acid drainage from coal mines, in the same two counties. MDE's Abandoned Mine Lands Unit page says the Maryland Abandoned Mine Inventory reported 9,500 acres of unstable and unreclaimed abandoned mine lands, gives the inventory's year as 1979 in two places and as 1973 in two others, and says Maryland is updating it. The page shows no date, and the pages read do not link the inventory. For a property in either county, ask the Division whether it is in the inventory.
Mineral mines, statewide. MDE says the Minerals, Oil and Gas Division regulates all non-coal surface and deep mining in Maryland; the minerals its page lists from the Environment Article include clay, gravel, sand, soil and stone. MDE says the first statewide comprehensive mining law for noncoal mining took effect in 1977, and that reclamation in more urban areas may prepare a site for a set land use such as development. The non-coal forms on MDE's land permits page include a final reclamation report and an addendum to an application to use coal combustion byproducts as backfill material. Where a former pit or quarry is now a building site, ask for its reclamation record and whether any backfill was brought in.
Oil and gas. MDE's Minerals, Oil and Gas page says the descriptions and regulations for oil and gas are in Title 14 of the Environment Article. The oil and gas forms on MDE's land permits page include an application for exploration and production, a well completion report, a quarterly production report and an affidavit of plugging and filling a well. This handbook did not read the forms.

Where to look a site up

MDE's Mining Mapping page links a Deep Mine Mapping Application, which MDE describes as an online repository of historic underground coal mine maps that the public can view and download. MDE says the project is ongoing.
The same page links a natural gas well location map of production and storage wells, and Google Earth (KMZ) files of 2025 Maryland mine sites, under non-coal mining, and of 2018 coal mines. This handbook did not open the files.
MDE's Mining in Maryland page gives 301-689-1440 for the Bureau of Mines and for the Abandoned Mine Lands and Acid Mine Drainage Division, both in Frostburg, and 410-537-3557 for the Minerals, Oil and Gas Division in Baltimore.

Getting the file

The pages read do not describe a records request route for mining files, and the Permitting Section information MDE describes above is on active permits; the pages read do not say who holds the files of former permits. MDE's Public Information Act requests page covers requests for MDE records in general.

Sources

Maryland Department of the Environment pages, read October 15, 2026, no modified date shown:

Maryland Department of the Environment pages, read October 8, 2026, no modified date shown:

Application Forms and Instructions