West Virginia
Mining permits and mine reclamation
West Virginia mining permits and mine reclamation
Three offices of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) deal with mined land. The Division of Mining and Reclamation runs the mine permitting program, and gives its mission as assuring compliance with the West Virginia Surface Mining and Reclamation Act. The Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation deals with the dangers left by mining before 1977. The Office of Special Reclamation reclaims mine sites whose permits were revoked and whose bonds were forfeited. The last two are in the Division of Land Restoration.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name state mining records among its standard record sources. In West Virginia they bear on physical hazards and on water. Which office to ask turns on the mine's date and status.
- A mine with a permit. The Division of Mining and Reclamation's search tools cover coal and quarry permitting actions, for mining permits and for mining NPDES permits, issued and pending. The division also oversees all mining injection permits.
- A mine abandoned before the 1977 law. WVDEP says the Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation was created in 1981 to manage the reclamation of lands and waters affected by mining before the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act passed in 1977. The problems it names are mine fires and subsidence, hazardous highwalls, mining-impacted water supplies, and open shafts and portals. WVDEP's eligibility page lists its tests under the words "Noncoal lands and water are eligible if". Among them are that the land or water was left unreclaimed or inadequately reclaimed before August 3, 1977, and that there is no continuing responsibility for reclamation by the operator or permittee, or by the State as a result of bond forfeiture. The page adds that bond forfeiture makes land or water ineligible only if the amount forfeited is sufficient to pay the total cost of the necessary reclamation.
- A mine whose bond was forfeited. WVDEP says the Office of Special Reclamation is mandated to reclaim, and treat water on, all bond forfeited coal mining permits since August 1977. It reclaims the land according to the operator's approved reclamation plan, and treats polluted mine drainage from those sites. It also keeps an inventory of quarry operations whose permits were revoked and bonds forfeited.
- Mine drainage is a water question. WVDEP describes polluted mine drainage as either acidic, with high metal content that is primarily iron, aluminum and manganese, or alkaline with high metal content, usually iron. Where a stream or seep on a property is discolored, ask the Office of Special Reclamation whether it treats drainage upstream.
- Abandoned mine emergencies are reported to the abandoned mine lands office. WVDEP's examples are open subsidence, portals or shafts; subsidence that has damaged occupied structures; coal waste fires or underground mine fires near houses or roads; and landslides blocking roads or streams or damaging structures.
Where to look a site up
- The division's Permit Search page, which carries four searches: issued mining permits, issued mining NPDES permits, pending mining applications and pending mining NPDES applications. WVDEP also points to its ESS Permit Search for questions about an issued coal mining permit.
- The Mining Data Explorer, which WVDEP's Data Center lists among its featured maps as the agency's mining mapping applications.
- The Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation's page posts a table it calls the 2025 Planning List, of proposed reclamation projects with the county and region of each. The office can be reached at 304-926-0499.
- The Division of Mining and Reclamation has its headquarters in Charleston and regional offices in Philippi, Fayetteville and Logan, each covering a set of counties listed on its About DMR page. Its line for mining complaints is 304-926-0499.
Getting the file
The Division of Mining and Reclamation says a request under the Freedom of Information Act can be made with the agency's electronic form or by email to depfoia@wv.gov. The form is on WVDEP's Request Information page, which the pages of the two reclamation offices link as well. Give the permit number where there is one. See the Application Enhancer page.
Sources
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown: