A proposal to consolidate some duties of a federal mining regulatory agency into the Bureau of Land Management was panned during a hearing in Billings.

Many opponents said the plan would be a conflict of interest for the BLM, because it leases federal coal for development and would be taking on the reclamation and enforcement duties of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

Some also questioned whether merging OSM into BLM was legal under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which created OSM and its role as a separate regulatory and enforcement agency.

BLM and OSM officials heard from 14 people during a hearing at the BLM’s state office. About 45 people attended the morning hearing. Most of those commenting represented environmental organizations.

The consolidation is being reviewed by both agencies at the direction of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who signed an order October 26 to consolidate, then extended the time to gather more information. The Billings meeting is one of 10 meetings being held across the country to gather comments.

Al Klein, OSM’s western regional director said his agency’s resources continue to shrink. OSM oversees state surface coal mining regulatory programs and has 525 employees.

BLM Deputy Director Mr Mike Pool said the BLM is a multiple-use agency, managing more than 245 million acres primarily in the West and administering 700 million acres of subsurface minerals along with other programs.

He said that the agencies are reviewing consolidations in four areas to become more efficient and to save money. The areas are administrative support; environmental restoration of abandoned mine lands; fee collections and regulation; and inspection and enforcement and state program oversight.

(Sourced from The Billings Gazette)