Reclamation Committee Meeting
November 16, 1999
Denver, CO

Summary:

The Committee met with the Office of Surface Mining to: (1) examine the impact of litigation in West Virginia on the adequacy of western states’ permit findings (western states are in good shape vis-a-vis the West Virginia litigation and this will not become an issue in OSM oversight of western state programs); (2) discuss OSM’s proposed one-day workshop on permit findings; (3) request information from OSM related to the abandoned mine land proposal of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association; (3) discuss OSM’s review of citizen complaints involving blasting; and (4) visit with OSM on several other agency policies impacting the West (e.g., finalization of a directive on enforcement, a new policy called “contemporaneous inspections,” promotion of biodiversity, the OSM Director’s survey of high priority issues). The meeting helped to establish precedent that these types of meetings are a more effective way of initially addressing issues arising outside the region (e.g., the West Virginia litigation) than the previous method of automatically making such issues state oversight topics.