(Chapter 8)SURFACE ACCESS TO SEVERED FEDERAL MINERALS

摘要

The legacy of manifest destiny is still present in the land ownership patterns of the American West. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers 58 million acres of federally owned minerals that underlie non-federally owned surface parcels, many of which were granted pursuant to the Stock-Raising Homestead Act (SRHA). This division created an inherent discord between the interests of mineral and surface owners that has defined present-day struggles over land use and ownership. In the absence of an express agreement between the surface and mineral owner, courts have generally permitted the mineral owner to use as much of the surface as is reasonably necessary to development of the minerals. This implied easement, however, has been strictly limited to the surface directly overlying the severed minerals; use of the surface for the sole benefit and purpose of developing adjoining parcels, without advantage to the subjacent minerals, has been prohibited. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently revisited this issue in the context of a federal exploratory unit in Entek GRB, LLC v. Stull Ranches, LLC. Relying on Congress's express reservations in the SRHA, the court held that unitization of federal minerals pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (MLA).