U.S. OSMRE Principal Deputy Director Tours Wyoming Mining Sites
Standing left to right at Wyoming Antelope Mine: DEQ Director Todd Parfitt, OSMRE Jeff Fleischman, OSMRE Principal Deputy Director Sharon Buccino, OSMRE Neal Ruebush, DEQ/AML Administrator Don Newton, DEQ/LQD Robin Jones, DEQ/LQD Administrator Kyle Wendtland
By Kimberly Mazza
U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) Principal Deputy Director Sharon Buccino traveled with Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) staff to view the high-quality reclamation being completed at Title V active coal mine and Title IV Abandoned Mine Land (AML) sites in Wyoming.
The DEQ Director and Administrators of the AML and the Land Quality (LQD) Divisions of DEQ, invited Ms. Buccino to tour AML reclamation work at the Day Loma (Gas Hills) and Shirley Basin sites and the contemporaneous reclamation at the active Title V Antelope Coal Mine.
Also on the tour was Jeff Fleischman, Chief, Denver Field Division at OSMRE/Casper. OSMRE’s Denver Field Division oversees over half of the Nation's coal production in 13 States and Tribes. He manages and conducts oversight of Abandoned Mine Land reclamation programs in the Western and Northwestern United States.
Ms. Buccino is familiar with Wyoming. She has lived in Wyoming for several years and was an adjunct at the University of Wyoming’s College of Law and served on the City of Laramie’s Planning Commission before taking the lead position at OSMRE in Washington D.C. in January of this year. She was in Wyoming this time in a different capacity - to tour Wyoming’s mining sites.
As the Principal Deputy Director, Buccino leads the OSMRE in carrying out its mission to ensure the timely permitting of Title V mine operations and the ongoing clean-up of lands mined prior to the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA).
“We need to find solutions that work for today and tomorrow,” stated the Principal Deputy Director. “There is no substitute for walking the land with the people mining and reclaiming it if you want to make smart decisions about what happens to it.”
“Visiting Wyoming abandoned mine lands and active coal mine sites in person gives Principal Deputy Director Buccino a broader perspective of the excellent work being done here in the west. We are appreciative of the Principal Deputy Director taking the time to be here and see firsthand the great work and successes of the DEQ and the mining industry. With this new-found perspective we hope that OSMRE will see the wisdom in taking quick action to approve long delayed program amendments and other delayed approvals impacting the mining industry,” said DEQ Director Todd Parfitt.
This email was sent to [email protected] using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality · 200 West 17th St.· Cheyenne, WY 82002
