## Facts

- The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) requires surface coal operators to reclaim mined lands and post performance bonds to secure reclamation.
- SMCRA provides for staged bond release, with final release after successful reclamation and completion of a statutory revegetation responsibility period (generally 5 years in eastern states and 10 years in western states).
- The Department of the Interior, through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, issued regulations allowing a regulatory authority to terminate SMCRA jurisdiction over a mine site once all requirements for full bond release are satisfied.
- The regulations also limited post-termination “reassertion” of jurisdiction to narrow circumstances, including fraud or material misrepresentation in the bond-release process.
- National Wildlife Federation challenged the regulations, arguing they improperly prevented enforcement for later-discovered (“latent”) violations that might emerge after jurisdiction is terminated.
- The district court invalidated the termination and reassertion provisions as an unreasonable interpretation of SMCRA.
- The Secretary of the Interior appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether SMCRA authorizes regulations permitting termination of regulatory jurisdiction over a reclaimed surface-mining site upon satisfaction of full bond-release requirements.
2. Whether tying termination to final bond release, with only limited reassertion of jurisdiction, is a reasonable construction of SMCRA under Chevron.

## Decision

- The D.C. Circuit reversed the district court in relevant part and upheld the challenged regulations.
- The court held SMCRA does not unambiguously require perpetual regulatory jurisdiction over reclaimed mine sites.
- The court concluded the statute leaves a gap concerning the temporal endpoint of jurisdiction that the Secretary may fill by regulation.
- The court found it reasonable to treat full bond release—after completion of reclamation obligations—as the point at which jurisdiction may end.
- The court accepted the limited reassertion mechanism (e.g., for fraud or material misrepresentation) as consistent with the agency’s permissible policy choice between finality and ongoing oversight.

## Legal Principles

- When a statute is silent on a specific administrative detail, courts apply Chevron and defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation within delegated authority.
- Under SMCRA, performance bonding and final bond release are central enforcement mechanisms; an agency may reasonably align the endpoint of regulatory jurisdiction with completion of bond-release criteria.
- Courts will not replace an agency’s policy judgment with their own where Congress has not clearly resolved the question and the agency’s rule does not conflict with statutory text or basic statutory aims.

## Conclusion

The D.C. Circuit held that SMCRA does not clearly bar termination of regulatory jurisdiction at final bond release and that Interior’s regulations implementing termination and limited reassertion of jurisdiction were a permissible, reasonable interpretation entitled to Chevron deference.


Nat'l Wildlife Fed'n v. Lujan, 950 F.2d 765 (D.C. Cir. 1991)