Agency Overview
The Council is a citizen council with seven members who have varied schedules and workloads. There are two staff members to assist the council. The Council is entirely funded by the State general fund. The functions of the Council include contested case hearings; rulemaking hearings to enact regulations for air, land, water and waste programs; and designating special areas of the state as rare or uncommon or unsuitable for coal mining.  The Council receives training and informational materials on a continual basis. All contested cases and most rulemaking hearings are a result of the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) work. Therefore, the Council does not have control of the content of the docket. The Council’s schedule is a function of case complexity, member’s schedules and statutory deadlines.