The Railroad Commission of Texas oversees surface mining for coal, uranium, and iron ore gravel; and land reclamation when mining is complete. These records document reclamation activities undertaken by the Railroad Commission on abandoned mine lands, as mandated under Title IV of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and the administrative code of Texas, 16 TAC, ʹ12.8, and ʹ11.151-154. Files consist of correspondence, memoranda, appraisals, liens, grant histories, public notices and comments, bid documents, invoices and bills, contracts, inspection reports, field reports, progress reports, compliance reports, lab analyses, photographs, maps, soil analyses, certificates of insurance, and environmental assessments and impact statements. Dates covered are 1972-1992, bulk dating 1980-1989. The files cover contracting (proposals, bids, eligibility determination, issuance of contracts), construction, right of entry, land ownership, payments, and environmental studies undertaken after the reclamation work is completed. The studies report whether the land is properly reclaimed. Mines covered in these records are the Terlingua mine, Darcos mine, Olmos mine, Study Butte mine, Parker mine, I.F. Brysche mine, and the Somerset mine. These files are microfiche, the paper copies no longer exist. The fiche have not been viewed by State Archives staff. Data about the contents was supplied by the agency on the fiche labels and by staff of the Surface Mining and Reclamation Division during the appraisal of the agency. To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types. This finding aid describes one series of the Railroad Commission of Texas records. See Railroad Commission of Texas: An Overview of Records (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20078/tsl-20078.html) for more records series.
