September 18, 2009
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Attention: Sam Fowler sam_fowler@energy.senate.gov
Chairman, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Senator Evan Bayh
Attention: Chris Murray chris_murray@bayh.senate.gov
Member, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Dear Senators Bingaman and Bayh,
I am writing to recommend that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ask the Obama Administration to withdraw the nomination of Joseph Pizarchik for Director of Office of Surface Mining (OSM) and nominate someone else who is better qualified to serve the essential oversight responsibilities that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement has for State coal mine regulatory programs.
I have been involved as an environmental scientist in environmental and regulatory issues related to coal mining since 1973. In 1974 I wrote the Environmental Who's Who for Northern Great Plains Energy Development. From 1977 to 1978 I was a member of the Mining Task Force of the National Coal Policy Project (NCPP) which brought together representatives from the environmental movement and coal industry in a non-adversarial setting to find common ground for recommendations on coal policy. I was the principle author of Volume II of the NCPP Project Report published in 1979 titled Where We Agree: Report of the Mining Task Force, which contained more than 120 recommendations where common ground was found. I was involved in the initial rulemaking process for regulations implementing the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and subsequent formative litigation for the Office of Surface Mining's permanent regulatory program. In 1980 McGraw Hill published my book Coal Mine Permitting: Meeting the Mandate of the Federal Surface Mining Regulations. I have served as a consultant to the National Academy of Science's Committee on Soil as a Resource in Relation to Surface Mining for Coal, and to the Council of Energy Resource Tribes for their study on the control and reclamation of coal mining on Indian Lands. I have worked with citizen's and environmental groups in all the major coal fields. I also served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Regulatory Analysis reviewing the economic and regulatory impact of OSM's regulatory program, and have served as a member of an OSM Peer Review Panel reviewing study proposals from State Mining and Mineral Resource Research Institutes. In the early 1990's I prepared a critique of the Indiana Division of Reclamation's proposed regulations for disposal of coal combustion waste in coal mines for the Hoosier Environmental Council. To my knowledge this analysis presented the first systematic review of the well-documented literature on ground-water pollution problems created by improper disposal of coal combustion waste (CCW) at power plants and in active coal mines. I am the author of the 1994 EPA Handbook Ground Water and Wellhead Protection (EPA/625/R-94/001).
I would
like to offer my perspective on Mr. Pizarchik's
qualifications to serve as Director of the Office of Surface
Mining. The White House Press release dated July 6,
2009 offers some of Mr. Pizarchik's qualifications:
Joe has been
the Director of the Bureau of Mining and Reclamation,
Department of Environmental Protection since 2002. Before becoming Director, he served as Assistant Director, Bureau of Regulatory
Counsel where he counseled the
However, a closer look reveals that no information is offered about the nuts and bolts of the most important aspect of directing a state coal mine regulatory agency, which is ensuring that environmental regulations are promulgated and enforced for active coal mining operations to protect the environment and citizens in the coal fields from the adverse impacts of mining.
I find it
telling that 125
Mr. Pizarchik's policies that have been hostile to citizen input, have buried streams in valley fills of coal refuse, have promoted destructive long wall mining and coal mines being used as dumps for toxic coal combustion wastes (August 6 Press Release, Environmental Integrity Project).
The Director of the Office of Surface must have a good grasp of scientific and technical issues involved in mining process and their environmental impacts. While primary training as a lawyer does not preclude the ability to understand such issues, Mr. Pizarchik's record as Director of the PA Bureau of Mining Reclamation does not indicate a good grasp of these issues. Information I have seen from the Environmental Integrity Project, a source which I respect, indicates that 16 fluidized bed power plants operating today do so without the normal safeguards that landfills meet for liners, adequate monitoring, corrective action and financial assurance. Allowing routine disposal of coal combustion waste in active coal mines is an invitation to ongoing contamination of ground water with toxic elements in the vicinity of the mines. I simply cannot find credible Mr. Pizarchik's claim during the confirmation hearing that
we have found no evidence of pollution from ash. ... We looked at every claim made. ... We found no evidence of any harm.
Based on my
own review of the published literature and unpublished data from
Indiana mines where coal combustion wastes has been placed in mines
without any special regulatory controls, it does not surprise me that the Environmental
Integrity Project reports that independent groundwater scientists have
examined the PA Bureau of Mining Reclamation's own monitoring data and
documented substantial evidence that filling mines with CCW is
contaminating water. I have found the same in
There is a broader policy questions as to whether it is appropriate to nominate any official from a state coal mine regulatory program for Director of the Office of Surface Mining. I would like to suggest that there is an inherent conflict of interest in a person assuming Federal oversight responsibilities for a State program that they have directed.
In conclusion, it seems to me that the common good would be best served by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recommend that the Obama Administration withdraw their nomination of Mr. Pizarchik for Director of the Office of Surface Mining. Request that someone be nominated who has the technical and administrative qualifications to provide meaningful oversight of State coal mine regulatory programs to ensure that environmental regulations are promulgated and enforced at active coal mining operations to protect the environment and citizens in the coal fields from the adverse impacts of mining.
Respectfully yours,
Russell Boulding