English

Abstract

Providing a common set of technology tools to regulators and reclamation specialists in the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is helping to streamline the mandates of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). The Technical Innovation and Professional Services (TIPS) Team consists of 32 people in four OSM offices. In cooperation with State and Tribal regulatory and reclamation agencies, as well as OSM offices nationwide, TIPS provides the latest off-the-shelf scientific and engineering software and hardware tools to federal, state, and tribal experts. These are the same tools used commonly by the mining industry. With the industry regulators and reclamation specialists at the state, tribal, and federal level using the same tools, exchange of information is facilitated and the regulatory and reclamation processes are expedited. This has become an extraordinarily efficient way to carry out the reclamation and regulatory mandates of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. TIPS began in 1987 as a team of nine persons serving 28 customer locations in 24 states. Today the Team provides scientific and engineering modeling software, hardware, and full training classes to 700 customers in 96 office locations at 24 states, three tribes, and 15 federal offices. This team of innovators holds costs low through shared licensing of the software via the Internet and centralized federal procurement contracts. TIPS also provides full software support and training classes at no cost to its customers. These are specially tailored courses, customized specifically around mining applications of the software. Customers value this training so much that they volunteer as instructors. Over half of all TIPS instructors today come from the customer base. The innovators of TIPS have fostered electronic exchange of data between federal, state, and tribal agencies for 20 years. Their hard work has brought mining reclamation and regulation to increasing levels of efficiency. The most recent two years have brought significant department cooperation and subsequent progress for TIPS, and they continue to pursue new technology and the tools to promote better and more efficient enforcement of the Surface Mining Act. Additional