WASHINGTON – Deputy Director Glenda Owens today announced the selection of William Joseph as the new regional director for the Mid-Continent Region of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
regional director.
In this new role, Joseph will lead staff at the regional office in Alton, Illinois, the Tulsa Field Office in Oklahoma, and the Birmingham Field Office in Alabama, who implement the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in a jurisdiction that covers 40% of all coal producing states in the country and on Tribal lands in Oklahoma. In fiscal year 2023, more than $178.2 million in abandoned mine land grants ($140.5 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) and $9.3 million in regulatory grants were available to eligible states and Tribes with coal programs in this region.
“I am very pleased to announce the selection of Bill Joseph as the regional director for the Mid-Continent Region,” said Deputy Director Owens. “Bill has served as the acting regional director for the past nine months and has close to 40 years of experience applying the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act on several levels, which prepares him well for this critical position.”
Joseph brings to this new role experience gained from boots-on-the-ground jobs such as an environmental protection specialist and geologist and leadership roles such as branch chief for the Technical Services and chief of the Program Support Division. Most recently, he directed the Alton Field Division, overseeing Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act operations in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa for four years. Joseph also has six years of experience as geologist with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
“I have spent my career pursuing the needs of the mining and reclamation community to meet the challenges of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act,” said Joseph, OSMRE regional director. “As the new regional director, my commitment is to continue focusing on the work on the ground and the needs of SMCRA communities, as this is where the mining impacts occur, and reclamation is achieved.”
Joseph holds a bachelor’s degree in reclamation from the University of Wisconsin at Platteville with graduate work in botany and statistics at Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas. He is a graduate of the Office of Personnel Management’s Executive LEAD Certificate Program and has been a Henry Krumb Lecturer for the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.
– OSMRE –
OSMRE carries out the requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 in cooperation with states and Tribes. OSMRE’s objectives are to ensure that coal mining activities are conducted in a manner that protects citizens and the environment during mining, to ensure that the land is restored to beneficial use after mining, and to mitigate the effects of past mining by aggressively pursuing reclamation of abandoned coal mines.