Quicklinks

Western Regional Technical Team

The seven Western primacy States of Alaska, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming fall within the geographic area of responsibility for the Office of Surface Mining's (OSM's) Western Region (WR) office. In 1995, WR's Office of Technology Transfer and these seven Western primacy States came together to form a joint Western Regional Technical Team (WRTT). This team was established in recognition of the fact that each of the involved regulatory authorities, whether State or Federal, had the capability and expertise, as well as the need, to identify, prioritize, and resolve regional technical issues related to surface coal mining in these seven States: Alaska, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

WRTT's charter, which the team developed early on in its meetings, states that "[i]ssue resolution may include development of specific processes such as work group establishment and coordination, enhancement of educational opportunities[,] and presenting of interactive forums and technical symposia. The WRTT reports its priorities and recommendations to its State and OSM policy makers. An additional responsibility of this group is to enhance communications between governmental units so that technology transfer occurs efficiently and resources are shared whenever practicable."

In support of its charter, WRTT identified technical topics of interest to most of the seven Western States, all of which proved to be related to bond release. It then collaborated to hold yearly technical interactive forums on bond release-which have been attended by States, industry, academia, the interested public, and consultants-in order to share experiences in dealing with complex Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act issues, thereby allowing regulatory authorities to obtain new ideas and explore their successes or failures. Previous forum topics have included bond release guidelines and regulations, selenium, sediment-control measures, modeling sediment yield and runoff on mined lands [both before and after mining] in the arid and semi-arid West, computer-aided design [CAD], electronic permitting, revegetation, and hydrology.

In addition, the team has developed a technical assistance and technology transfer process for providing technical assistance to the seven Western States, striving for reasonable technical interpretations of rules and regulations. It has supplemented its interactive forums with subject-specific workshops, which provide the opportunity to furnish advanced educational opportunities and usually have a smaller enrollment. Past workshops have addressed topics such as electronic permitting, surface-water modeling, abandoned mine lands CAD designs, geographic information systems, modeling reconstructed topography as it relates to approximate original contour issues, regression analysis, and the geochemistry of soils. Finally, WRTT has been instrumental in implementing an electronic permitting initiative and an advanced applied statistics initiative, both of which are currently underway.

WRTT Meeting Notes

2008

• March 17, 2008
• February 11, 2008
• January 14, 2008

2007

• December 17, 2007
• November 19, 2007
• October 22, 2007
• September 17, 2007
• August 20, 2007
• July 23, 2007
• May 21, 2007
• March 19, 2007
• February 20, 2007
• January 16, 2007

• December 18, 2006
• November 20, 2006
• October 16, 2006

WRTT Events

2007

• July Technology Transfer Events for 2007
• June Technology Transfer Events for 2007
• April Technology Transfer Events for 2007
• February Technology Transfer Events for 2007

2006

• December Technology Transfer Events for 2006
• November Technology Transfer Events for 2006
• October Technology Transfer Events for 2006
• September Technology Transfer Events for 2006
• January Technology Transfer Events for 2006

WRTT Workshops

WRTT Charter