Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) created the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement–usually abbreviated OSM, though sometimes abbreviated OSMRE in government publications. Operating as part of the Department of the Interior, the office has two missions. One is overseeing coal mining activity to ensure that both people and the environment are protected during mining activity and that land is restored to beneficial use when mining operations are completed. The second mission, through the Abandoned Mine Land program, is to protect public health, safety, and general welfare by correcting problems associated with past mining practices such as underground fires, acid mine drainage, subsidences, landslides, highwalls, and open shafts.

With fewer than 525 employees across the country, the office partners with 31 states and a number of Native American tribes that exercise responsibility for enforcing, permitting, and bonding. OSM assumes direct responsibility for these functions on federal lands and in states that have not established regulatory programs of their own, including Tennessee and Washington. On occasion, OSM steps in where states fail to act. This occurred in August 2003, for example, when the office took over in Missouri when the state legislature failed to adequately fund inspection, enforcement, and other aspects of Missouri's mining regulatory program. Federal funding finances about half of each state's program and in Missouri, the state failed to match the federal funds as required so federal enforcement was implemented. Alternatively, OSM could have withdrawn its approval of the Missouri program, a more drastic step, but declined to do so because the state said it would take steps to address its funding and staffing responsibilities.

OSM investigators can order a cessation of surface coal mining or reclamation operation if they determine that there is an imminent danger to the health or safety of the public; if the activity is causing or could reasonably be expected to cause significant, imminent environmental harm to land, air, or water resources; or if the operation is being undertaken without a valid permit. Depending on the type of violation and whether there has been a pattern of violations by the operator, enforcement procedures include informal or formal public hearings and an on-site compliance conference before taking a case to court if necessary. Federal authority may also be exercised when state permits are issued improvidently.

In actuality, most enforcement is done at the state level by state authorities, with policies and procedures varying slightly among the states. In instances when federal authorities assume enforcement responsibilities, such as when the OSM issues violations in Washington or Tennessee, the cases are handled by administrative law judges.

In the first 25 years after SMCRA was enacted, OSM gave more than $1 billion in grants to states and Indian tribes to fund regulation of active coal mines and more than $3 billion to clean up mine sites abandoned prior to 1977. In the Abandoned Mines Program, fees paid by active coal mining companies fund the restoration of abandoned mine lands. More than 8,109 acres of pre-1977 abandoned mine waste piles have been restored to productive use, while more than 2.8 million linear feet (or in excess of 530 miles) of clifflike highwalls left by contour mining have been eliminated. In addition, more than 25,307 dangerous portals and hazardous vertical openings have been sealed. Yet, as recently as June 2003, there were an estimated 6,000 abandoned coal mines in this country, 1,700 of which were in the state of Pennsylvania alone, with 3.5 million people living within a mile of a hazardous abandoned mine. Fires in slag heaps and in underground mines were common in coalfields before SMCRA took effect, and though less common today, they still pose threats. One of the largest and longest out-of-control mine fires has been burning since 1962 under the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania; it is estimated to have enough fuel to burn for more than two more centuries. Because cost estimates to extinguish the blaze exceed $600 million, authorities in Washington, D.C., have opted to evacuate people from Centralia permanently, compensating them for their homes and businesses.

...