The number of positions for strip-mining regulators at the WVDEP has dropped by nearly 6 percent over the last decade. The chart is based on U.S. OSMRE figures, and shows total number of positions, including vacancies.

I admit it. I’m a sucker for West Virginia’s Blue‘s periodic questions about West Virginia’s coal industry. I can’t help but jump in and try to answer them.

Take yesterday’s question, for example:

How many unfilled positions are there at the W.Va. DEP? What is the history of unfilled positions in the department?

I’m not going to take on the whole of WVDEP here. This is Coal Tattoo after all … But I’ll take a shot at answers this as it applies to the WVDEP Division of Mining and Reclamation, which is charged with policing the environmental impacts of our state’s coal-mining industry.

The short answer? The DEP and its predecessor agencies have never had as many inspectors, permit reviewed and other mining staff as  federal regulators suggested.

Today, the DEP mining division lists 13 vacancies. But that number is misleading, because the agency over the last year or so has eliminated at least 9 long-vacant positions.  WVDEP lists 270 positions, but has the equivalent of 257 full-time employees in its mining office.

The history is the problem gets some attention every once in a while. Federal officials threaten to take over mining regulation from WVDEP if something doesn’t change. Somebody (often Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.) comes up with some money. More inspectors are hired. The problem goes away — only to pop back up again later, when it becomes clear that vacancies weren’t filled, qualified staff leaves for better money in the industry they used to regulate, etc.

A lack of staffing — and a long list of unfilled positions — is an almost yearly complaint to WVDEP from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, which is charged with making sure WVDEP does a good job.

I’ve written about this before. And my friend Paul Nyden was writing about it back in the mid- and late-1980s.  With a quick check of the Gazette archives, I found one mention in an April 1988 story Paul wrote:

The DOE has just 49 inspectors, although its  OSM contract to enforce federal stripping laws requires it to have 88.

I last really dug into this problem back around 2000, when cuts by the Underwood administration pushed OSMRE to threaten to take over the state’s mining program if something wasn’t done. In a Feb. 20, 2000, story, I wrote:

In March 1992, the state Division of Environmental Protection employed 195 mine inspectors and mining permit reviewers. Federal regulators said that wasn’t enough. If the state didn’t hire more staff, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining said it might take over the state program.

To fend off OSM, then-DEP Director David C. Callaghan promised to hire 173 more staff over an 18-month period. By August 1993, the DEP Office of Mining and Reclamation would have 368 inspectors, permit reviewers and support staff, Callaghan promised.

For about a year, things got a little better. Between June 1992 and June 1993, Callaghan hired more than 100 new employees. Total mining office staff increased to about 300.

Since then, it’s been all downhill.

Between 1994 and 1999, staffing at the DEP mining office dropped every year. Staffing declined under the leadership of former Gov. Gaston Caperton, a Democrat, and current Gov. Cecil Underwood, a Republican.

For a long while there, OSMRE did little to object. Federal officials mentioned the staffing issue in 1992 — but then let it go until issuing a new warning to WVDEP in August 2000 that OSMRE saw:

… A lack of consistency caused in some measure by inadequate staff to implement quality control, develop policies and guidance, and complete associated training

WVDEP employees are overwhelmed with daily regulatory duties and do not have sufficient time for activities to prevent or minimize problems. We also observe that OSM techincal assistance on certain issues or complaints is requested not necessarily because the state cannot reach a sound technical decision, but more because there are insufficient state employees to properly address complex issues.

Later that year, Byrd helped OSMRE obtain more federal money to help deal with the state mining office’s staffing problems. And things got a little better. By 2003, WVDEP had 273 filled spots in its mining office — but it still listed two dozen vacancies.  As I noted in an August 2002 article:

The Wise administration still needs to hire 33 strip mine inspectors and other employees to meet a federal Office of Surface Mining mandate.

Here we are now, in 2009 … and WVDEP lists that total of 270 positions, with 257 of them filled and 13 vacancies. OSMRE’s most recent annual report on the WVDEP mining program notes that, between 2007 and 2008:

… The number of vacancies declined by 48 percent, due to the state’s decision to abolish some long vacant positions. The total regulatory program staff has 9.2 FTE positions less than last year.

The report continues:

State officials have acknowledged that they are finding it difficult to fill some technical positions. Given the state’s permitting workload and the number of vacancies, OSM has encouraged the state to be more aggressive in filling these vacant positions.

So, don’t forget what DEP Secretary Randy Huffman has said regarding federal government involvement in reviewing mountaintop removal permits:

“We are the environmental regulators here in West Virginia. We are the ones on the front line here. We are the ones responsible for protecting the environment. We have a very rigorous and robust regulatory program that is basically being challenged.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Coal pollution, Media coverage, Mountaintop Removal, Water pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.