PARTNERSHIPS WITH STATES. How can an agency as small as the Office of Surface Mining (about 650 employees nationwide) succeed in such a challenging responsibility? Only by partnerships with the governments of the states where coal is mined. The Surface Mining Law gives primary responsibility for regulating surface coal mine reclamation to the states themselves, a responsibility that 24 coal states have chosen to exercise. On federal lands and Indian Reservations (Navajo, Hopi, Crow), and in the coal states that have not set up regulatory programs of their own (Tennessee and Washington), the Office of Surface Mining issues the coal mine permits, conducts the inspections, and handles the enforcement responsibilities.

The Office of Surface Mining's current annual budget is approximately $315 million. That sum enables the Office of Surface Mining to support the states' surface mining programs by matching their regulation and enforcement costs dollar for dollar. It also pays 100 percent of the costs for restoring abandoned mine lands that were left unreclaimed before Surface Mining Law was signed by the President. Funds for reclaiming abandoned mines come from tonnage-based reclamation fees paid by America's active coal mines.

Past coal mining abuses have been halted. Coal mine operators now reclaim the land as they go. Mined lands are no longer abandoned without proper reclamation. More than 13,000 acres of pre-1977 dangerous abandoned mine waste piles have been restored to productive use. Over 2.4 million linear feet of dangerous cliff-like highwalls have been eliminated. More than 23,000 dangerous abandoned portals and hazardous vertical openings have been sealed.

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