Statement of Jeffrey D. Jarrett

Nominee for the position of Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Department of Interior

Before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

United States Senate

December 5, 2001

I started my career almost 27 years ago as an environmental manager with the coal industry in the state of Ohio. I was fortunate to work back in the mid-1970's in a state that had relatively comprehensive reclamation requirements - not too different from the reclamation requirements of all coal producing states today. When the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act passed in 1977, when many in industry claimed that they could not comply with the new environmental requirements, I knew otherwise because my company had already learned how to take care of the land and the water. We had already learned that reclamation was not something to be done after the coal was mined, but rather reclamation and environmental protection permeated every aspect of our operations from land acquisition and planning through coal removal and final land restoration. To us, Federal SMCRA meant the elimination of the competitive disadvantage from operators in states with lesser environmental requirements.

During my 13-year tenure with the industry, as an environmental manager, a general manager and as an executive, I was involved in almost every aspect of the coal mining business. I learned what it takes to manage a large organization. I learned about the pressures of being an employer, of securing coal reserves and contracts, and then meeting those contracts while at the same time taking care of the environment. I learned how to adapt to change, but more importantly I learned that it is often not the environmental regulatory requirements that industry has difficulty with, but the uncertainty that those requirements will be durable.

It was my in-depth understanding of the industry and my desire to bring about certainty and stability rather than ambiguity and indecision that I carried with me to my next career as an environmental regulator of the mining industry. For seven years I was the Deputy Assistant Director of Program Operations with the Office of Surface Mining, primarily responsible for conducting oversight of the eastern states in implementing the mandates of Federal SMCRA. For the past six years I have been responsible for managing the environmental regulatory program over the mining industry in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, first as a bureau director, and now as the Deputy Secretary for Mineral Resources Management with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, I bring a unique perspective earned and learned over a career of involvement with mining and environmental issues, as an operator, as a federal overseer of state regulatory programs, and as a primary regulator of the mining industry in Pennsylvania. But I also bring a more important perspective, one learned because I have been involved in the mining and reclamation business since the beginning of comprehensive regulation of the mining industry. As much as I have always tried to bring certainty to the programs I managed, things do change. The nature of the industry has changed, the technology has changed, the science that we all rely upon has gotten better, and most important, the concerns of the citizens we all have a duty to protect have changed, and will continue to change. In a world of change and shifting viewpoints, the person who is fortunate enough to lead the Office of Surface Mining must be a good listener - someone who listens to concerns and viewpoints of all stakeholders. I am a good listener, and I understand the challenge of finding common ground and common interests upon which to build solutions to often very difficult problems. Communication is the key to understanding, and the cornerstone of stability and certainty.

Mr. Chairman, permit me to talk for a few moments about some of my accomplishments in Pennsylvania over the past six years of which I am very proud. One of my first endeavors in Pennsylvania was a project known as the "Customer Needs Survey." That project is just what it sounds like - we wanted to take the pulse of citizens, the regulated community, the utility industry, the surety industry, our own staff - all of the stakeholders. We wanted to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. We wanted to know what their interests were, what their concerns were, and what their ideas were. We held a series of public meetings across the state; we empowered the staff, from the ranks of the inspectors through the upper levels of management to go to the field to knock on doors, to meet with people individually and collectively and to report back what they learned. What we learned became the cornerstone of our program planning with one simple goal in mind, "We wanted the right people in the right places doing the right things." And we have stuck with it. This program was praised by Governor Ridge, and was later improved upon and expanded to become the standard model for Department-wide program planning.

Here are just a few examples of where this program led us. Our stakeholders reinforced their concerns regarding the 240,000 acres of unreclaimed abandoned mine lands and the 2700 miles of streams impacted by acid mine drainage emanating from those abandoned mines. More importantly, we learned that citizens and industry wanted to be our partners and play a more active role in the restoration of watersheds. Working with these stakeholders we developed numerous programs that encouraged the restoration of abandoned mine lands through remining. These programs have resulted in as much as $33 million worth of free reclamation each year, and have earned Pennsylvania the reputation of being the national leader in achieving restoration through remining.

In addition, three years ago, Governor Ridge and the state legislature enacted Pennsylvania's "Growing Greener" program - a five-year, $650 million program that provides grants to local organizations for environmental remediation projects. Forty-one percent of those funds have been dedicated for abandoned mine land and acid mine drainage remediation projects, and local organizations have contributed an additional 83 percent in matching funds and work-in-kind.

Through all of its programs, in the past six years Pennsylvania and its partners have reclaimed an incredible 29,500 acres of abandoned mine lands, improved 528 miles of acid mine drainage impacted streams, and eliminated 150 miles of dangerous abandoned highwalls.

Citizens also expressed serious concerns about the adequacy of Pennsylvania's bonding program for active coal mining operations - concerns that were subsequently reinforced with the filing of a lawsuit in Federal court. Today, Pennsylvania is implementing two new bonding programs that are more equitable, and that provide the highest level of assurance that adequate funds will be available to complete reclamation plans on any future forfeiture site. The new bonding system nearly doubles the amount of bond required for land reclamation, and establishes the first comprehensive program in the nation to provide the financial resources for the perpetual treatment of acid mine drainage on sites where operators default on their obligations to treat water. Once implementation is complete, the financial guarantee program for acid mine drainage will provide income producing investments with a present value of nearly $400 million.

The important point that I want to make about Pennsylvania's new bonding program is that even though it is costly, it was developed and implemented with the unanimous endorsement of Pennsylvania's Mine Reclamation Advisory Board - a statutorily created board with voting members representing the Citizens Advisory Council, Conservation Districts, the mining industry, and members of the state legislature. That unanimous support was the direct result of our willingness to involve the stakeholders in the development of the program, and to address their legitimate concerns.

Finally, as part of the Customer Needs project, our own staff told us that we were not doing a very good job of assigning mine inspector priorities. We responded by reallocating our monitoring and compliance staff to put our inspectors where the critical needs existed, to identify and resolve problems before they became violations. As a result industry compliance rose from 83 percent in 1995 to rates that have been consistently in the mid-90's in recent years.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, Secretary Norton has a vision for citizen-centered governance with a commitment to cooperation, consultation, and communication in the service of conservation. I fully embrace that vision because I have seen how that philosophy has allowed us to accomplish so much in Pennsylvania in recent years. If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the Director of the Office of Surface Mining, you have my promise that I will work in a bipartisan way with both houses of Congress, and you have my promise that I will work with all stakeholders to make Secretary Norton's vision a reality.

Thank you for the opportunity to make this statement.