Pennsylvania Statutes Title 52 P.S. Mines and Mining § 681.14. Planting surface of spoil banks and backfills

In all cases in which the Secretary of Mines and Mineral Industries  1 shall find as a fact that the planting of such areas is reasonable, practicable and likely to succeed, the peaks and ridges of such spoil banks shall be leveled and rounded off to such an extent as will permit the planting or trees, grasses, or grasses and trees or grasses and shrubs. Within one (1) year after the strip mining operation on the premises is terminated, the operator shall plant trees, grasses, or grasses and trees or grasses and shrubs, upon the surface of the spoil banks and the surface of backfills. Any operator, however, may at his option pay to the Department of Mines and Mineral Industries the sum of one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per acre for each acre of such surface of spoil banks and backfillings, and thereby shall be released from any duty to plant as herein provided. The moneys so paid from time to time shall be placed in a special fund in the hands of the Treasury Department of the Commonwealth and shall be used by the Department of Mines and Mineral Industries to pay the cost of planting such trees, grasses or grasses and trees or grasses and shrubs, and the supervision of such work and all other expenses necessary for or connected with such planting, and are hereby appropriated to the Department of Mines and Mineral Industries for such purposes. Any moneys remaining unused after such planting may be used for planting any other lands affected by strip mining of anthracite coal. All planting, required by this act to be done by the operator, shall be done subject to the supervision and approval of the Secretary of Mines and Mineral Industries. If, upon inspection, the Secretary of Mines and Mineral Industries does not approve the planting, he shall notify the operator in writing setting forth the objections  2 and after a hearing shall order the planting to be completed in accordance with his final decision.