Holiday Office Closure

In observance of the Christmas holidays, Railroad Commission of Texas offices will be closed December 23-27. The offices will re-open at 8 a.m. on Monday, December 30 for regular business. Expedited Drilling Permits will be processed within standard processing times. If assistance is needed, please email Drillingpermits-info@rrc.texas.gov.
RRC maintains a 24-hour emergency phone line to report any leaks or spills. That number is 844-773-0305

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Texas Coal Mining Online Records

Online scanning project began 2013

The Surface Mining and Reclamation Division is currently in the process of scanning all coal/lignite mining permit records.  Due to the volume of records, mine records will become available as they are processed.

Information Regarding Texas’ Coal Mining Records

  • Texas’ coal mining records date back to the late 1970s.
  • Definitions of Texas’ coal mining records:
Application - To mine coal in Texas, a mining company files an application for a permit.  Each  application is assigned a permit number once issued (approved) by the Commission.  After 5 years, and usually every 5 years thereafter, a permit is renewed.  Sometimes a permit is renewed earlier though.  Once renewed, a sequential alpha suffix is assigned to the initial permit number.  For example: 46, 46A, 46B, etc.

Correspondence - The documentation created during the term of a permit.

Supplement - Revised portions of an application that contain only those pages/maps that were revised usually in response to staff technical comments.


Currently, we are only scanning permits that have been renewed, both the application and correspondence. Recently approved permits and their respective renewals are not being scanned at this time.

Helpful Tips for Searching Documents:

  • The mine records are divided by "Surface Coal Mining Application" or "Surface Coal Mining Correspondence".
  • Scanned applications are organized by Surface Coal Mining Regulations rule number (116-154) and then by Supplement Number.
  • Scanned Correspondence is organized by Subject file.
  • “Oversize” – This is used to describe a link to a large format map.
  • Records are scanned in date order with the most recent document on top.
  • Documents/maps with a message indicating they are too big to view, or are too dark to view, are viewable by downloading the page/map or entire record (tab).  Maps can only be downloaded one at a time.
  • Downloading the page/map, or entire record (tab), will provide the best image of the document/map.
  • The following icon notes a file that contains a document(s): pdf
  • The following icon notes a file that contains a map(s): Map Icon
  • Subtab - This is a new feature within each record that allows a record to be broken into sections, i.e. "Appendix A, Appendix B...etc".  To see if a record includes "Subtabs", click on the green + icon in the top left corner of the record, titled "Main", then click "Subtab Names".  (Please note:  Not all records include "Subtabs" at this time, we are currently working to add that feature to all the records when needed.)

View a video on how to search the online coal mining records. video link icon

For a list of mines that each contain an index of records, View Surface Coal Mine Records.  
The list includes the following:

 

To search a particular mine's online records, select one of the "Enter Online Records" links below.

For questions, please contact smrdrecords@rrc.texas.gov.


ENTER ONLINE RECORDS:

 

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