This is not a rule change, and the distinction is the story.
MSHA published a Paperwork Reduction Act notice on September 21 seeking comment on the information collection behind “Refuse Piles and Impoundment Structures,” OMB control number 1219-0015, at 91 FR 59801. It’s an extension without change to the collection itself. What’s new is the burden arithmetic: 939 annual respondents, 27,006 annual responses, 66,699 annual burden hours and $1,198,501 in annual recordkeeping cost.
Comments close November 20 under docket MSHA-2026-0563.
What Part 77 Actually Requires
The thresholds at 30 CFR 77.216(a) catch an impoundment if it sits five feet or more above the upstream toe with 20 acre-feet or more of storage, or 20 feet or more above the upstream toe, or if a District Manager makes a hazard finding.
Once caught, the plan goes in triplicate and has to clear the District Manager before construction begins, against eighteen enumerated plan items under 77.216-2(a). Refuse piles require written acknowledgment of location before work starts and an eight-item report within 180 days.
After that it’s a calendar. Annual status reports every twelfth month. A registered engineer’s certification within 180 days of a hazard notification and annually after that. An impoundment report at least every five years even when a PE certifies nothing has changed. Examinations and instrument monitoring at intervals not exceeding seven days, and where a longer interval is approved, an inspection after any rain event.
On a potentially hazardous condition: abate, notify the District Manager, notify and prepare to evacuate miners, and have a qualified person examine the structure at least every eight hours. A permanent identification marker at least six feet high goes up within 30 days.
Why a Burden Notice Is Worth Reading
Because the figures in it are the only public estimate of how much compliance work the standard generates, and they get refreshed roughly every three years. The previous version of this collection dates to August 2023.
The $1,198,501 is a recordkeeping cost estimate. It isn’t penalties and it isn’t capital. Across 939 respondents that works out to about $1,276 a year each, which is either reasonable or implausibly low depending on how many structures an operator carries.
The open docket is also the cheapest place for an operator to say so. Comment periods on information collections draw almost nobody, which means a handful of substantive filings from people who actually maintain these structures carry weight out of proportion to their number. Agency contact is Corliss A. Josephs-Conway, acting director of the Office of Standards, Regulations and Variances.
One Caution on the Text
The regulatory language above is the notice’s own recitation of Part 77. Anyone drafting against it should check eCFR rather than quoting the notice.
Conditions-heavy permitting is the norm across heavy industrial work now, not just mining. The Ohio Power Siting Board certificate for Bluegrass Power Generation carries 34 of them, each with its own reporting tail. The paperwork is the project.