Abandoned Mine Reclamation

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reported on the Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's (OSMRE) process for allowing states to spend federal surface coal mine reclamation funds to address noncoal reclamation problems, focusing on whether OSMRE ensured that states met the certification requirements.

GAO found that: (1) the OSMRE certification review process did not ensure that states addressed all sites adversely affected by past coal mining practices prior to OSMRE approval of state requests to use federal funds for noncoal reclamation; (2) OSMRE funded reclamation projects in accordance with Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) priorities related to public health, safety, and general welfare, restoration of land and water resources and the environment, research and development, and public facilities and land; (3) to receive discretionary funds, states needed to show that they had reclamation needs as reflected in a national inventory of abandoned coal mine land problem areas; (4) coal-related reclamation projects competed with noncoal reclamation sites for funds that were limited to state share monies; (5) when approving a certification request, OSMRE did not independently verify whether a state had addressed all priority-3 through -6 coal projects, relying on the governor's certification statement that all coal problems had been addressed; (6) the lack of OSMRE policy and guidance to address SMCRA certification requirements contributed to the confusion over certification; and (7) OSMRE did not effectively communicate that states would lose further access to discretionary funds once the certification had been approved.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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