California Mining Update AB 1142 and SB 209: What operators need to know about SMARA modernization Changes will be effective January 1, 2017 by Kerry Shapiro This article was first published in The Conveyor magazine, a publication of CalCIMA. On April 18, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law two…
California Mining Update AB 1142 and SB 209: What lead agencies need to know about SMARA Modernization Changes will be effective January 1, 2017 by Kerry Shapiro On April 18, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law two bills that together provide the most significant update to the California…
On September 25, 2014, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 52 (“AB 52”), which modifies the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) to add new protections for Native American cultural resources and enhances the role of Native American tribes in the environmental review process. AB 52 is a significant amendment to CEQA…
by Kerry Shapiro This article was first published in The Conveyor, a publication of the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association. Mining companies are subject to myriad requirements under the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) and implementing regulations that can trip up even the most diligent of operators from…
by Kerry Shapiro, Esq. The recent submittal of significant proposed revisions to California’s mining law, the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (“SMARA”), signals potentially broad-reaching changes to the statute. On February 21, 2014, Senator Fran Pavely (D) introduced SB 1270, a bill proposing to overhaul various sections of SMARA. SB…
by Kerry Shapiro As reported earlier this week, the recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Center for Biological Diversity v. Salazar allowed a uranium mine on federal lands in Arizona to re-open after being idled for seventeen years absent any new federal approval or supplemental environmental review. This…
Kerry Shapiro This three-part blog series on California SB 108, a bill which changes provisions in the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) pertaining to “idle” mines, is based on a paper I first presented at the CalCIMA Conference in October 2011. If you have not yet read…
Kerry Shapiro This three-part blog series on California SB 108, a bill which changes provisions in the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) pertaining to “idle” mines, is based on a paper I first presented at the CalCIMA Conference in October 2011. If you have not yet read…
Kerry Shapiro This three-part blog series on California SB 108, a bill which changes provisions in the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) pertaining to “idle” mines, is based on a paper I first presented at the CalCIMA Conference in October 2011. Background: What is the Interim Management…
On November 14, 2008, federal court Judge A. Howard Matz of the United States District Court, Central District of California, awarded JMBM’s client, CEMEX, the full amount of attorneys’ fees requested for its defense of a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit. The attorneys’ fees were incurred in the last…