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III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII <br />999 <br />~Congre~l~ of tfje ~>i><iteb ~tate~ <br />gouge of ~tepre~entatibeg <br />i'-Ulasljittgtott, ~9.QL. 20515 <br />October 5, 1994 <br />The Honorable Bruce Babbitt <br />Secretary <br />Department of the Interior <br />18th & C Streets, NW <br />Washington, D.C. 20240 <br />Dear Mr. Secretary: <br />We write today concerning an issue involving the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation <br />& Enforcement and the Kerr Coal Company's reclamation responsibilities near Walden, <br />Colorado. Though we do not represent individual or corporate citizens in this geographic <br />area, as Ranking Members of the authorizing full committee and subcommittee with <br />jurisdiction over this agency, we are always interested in the manner in which the Surface <br />Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 is administered. Our understanding is <br />Members of the Colorado delegation, Governor Romer and others have also written you <br />about this matter. We support their view that you take jurisdiction over this dispute. <br />Moreover, many persons who seek to overhaul the system by which hardrock mining on <br />the public lands is governed hold up SMCRA as a shining example of regulating an <br />extraction industry. However, given the Kerr case, and other examples of which we are <br />familiar, where a state regulatory agency is "second-guessed" by OSM officials, especially <br />when there is often no impending environmental or health and safety impact, we <br />continue to wonder whether the primacy provisions of SMCRA have any meaning at all. <br />We believe that cases such as this (where we are told the State of Colorado has <br />approved release of the reclamation bond and the Director of OSM had personally given <br />the company a reclamation award, yet OSM now insists there is a continuing violation) <br />have contributed to the strongly held views of the western governors regarding federal <br />versus state regulatory roles in the recently deceased conference on mining law reform. <br />As we work together to achieve consensus on a reasonable bill in the next Congress <br />please consider the obvious problems in the SMCRA program before recommending <br />parallel provisions for hardrock mining regulation. <br />Sincere <br />DON YOU <br />Ranking Member <br />Committee on Natural Resources <br />~'i <br />BARBARA F. VUCANOVICH <br />Ranking Member <br />Subcommittee on Energy & <br />Mineral Resources <br />