BUREAU OF GEOLOGY


areas, as well as the overall policy development and coordination area,
the central coordinating role should be played by the Assistant Secretary
for Natural Resources with such supporting service from the divisions as
is deemed appropriate.
16. Recommended Approach to Resolve Issues of Wet Reclamation
 and Perpetual Pumping
 "DNRCD, through the peat working group, with appropriate outside
advice and expertise, should scope the issues which should be
addressed in any permit applications for a peat mine which involve either
wet reclamation or perpetual pumping. These are very important emerg-
ing issues which need to be addressed now, so that appropriate research
and policy development can take place prior to review of individual per-
mit applications. The list of issues, or questions, thus produced would
have to be addressed in the permit applications. Site-specific solutions to
these problems would then be addressed in the individual permit applica-
tions and reviews.
 "Wet reclamation" includes all forms of reclamation which perma-
nently or periodically put the reclaimed area under either fresh or saltwa-
ter. Such uses as paddy culture, reversion to swamp forest or pocosin,
reservoirs, aquaculture of fish or shell fish, artificially created nursery
areas, waterfowl impoundments, marinas, and recreational lakes would
fall in this category. None of these has yet appeared on a mining permit
application, but they may do so as soon as 1983.
 "Perpetual pumping" applies to any reclamation schemes which will
require constant pumping to maintain land dry enough for productive
use. Intensive agriculture is apparently the only reclamation use which
can financially justify the cost of pumping. In addition to hydrological
questions, perpetual pumping raises many legal and institutional ques-
tions which must be resolved before a permit should be issued which
involves perpetual pumping.
 "The approach suggested in this recommendation is fully consistent
with the general permit package processing procedure recommended
above. The only difference comes from having advance scoping done
prior to permit applications.