Now, Joe Pizarchik directs Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Mining and Reclamation, but if the U.S. Senate confirms his nomination, he’ll oversee regulation of surface mining across the nation.
Pizarchik has an extensive resume. He’s been with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection since 1991. Both the Obama White House and the U.S. Department of the Interior sent out press releases citing one particular achievement.
Pizarchik helped author Pennsylvania’s Environmental Good Samaritan Act. In his current role, he also oversees the program, which protects landowners and groups that want to rehabilitate and reclaim abandoned mine lands from civil and environmental liability.
Tom Clarke is Pizarchik’s equivalent at the West Virginia DEP.
“I’ve known him for probably at least 12 years, maybe 13,” Clarke said. “I’ve always found him to be a dedicated professional. He’s done a good job for the state of Pennsylvania, and I believe he’s a good choice for OSM and I look forward to working with him in that capacity.”
But Pizarchik’s nomination has drawn mixed results from others.
Jeff Stant is the Director of the Environmental Integrity Project’s Coal Combustion Waste Initiative. He says Pizarchik is a poor choice.
“His theology about mining, his beliefs, the policies he’s been pursuing are totally behind the industry and they’re not down the middle, much less in our direction,” he said.
The coal industry says Pizarchik is fair. George Ellis is the president of the Pennsylvania Coal Association. He’s found Pizarchik to be intent on enforcing SMCRA, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.
“He has been a very fair and open-minded person and he is very accessible,” Ellis said.
“Does that mean he accepts the arguments the industry makes all the time? No. Far from it. But he has allowed us to go in there and make our arguments while he still has an open mind. And that’s been very much appreciated.”
Stant says Pizarchik’s involvement with a Pennsylvania coal ash program shows he’s not concerned with enforcing SMCRA.
“Pizarchik has presided over the development of the flagship program in America by a state mining program to turn mines into dumps for huge quantities of coal combustion waste,” he said.
The program advocates the use of coal ash as a remediation technique for abandoned mines.
“And they’ve done it all under this ruse of claiming this is a ‘beneficial use.’ There’s nothing innovative about that.
“There are no performance goals; they’re not setting any cleanup standards. There’s no isolation requirements to keep the material from contacting water and contaminating good water.
"There are bogus characterization requirements for the ash that are based on these leach tests that everybody concedes cannot tell what the coal ash will do in the environment.”
Stant says the OSM position requires a consensus builder. Ellis says that’s exactly what Pizarchik is.
“He’s interested in what the law says and implementing the law,” he said. “At the same time, I think he understands the challenges facing both the industry and the concerns of the environmentalists. And he’s a consensus builder.”
Stant is meeting with Pizarchik on Wednesday to discuss corrective action standards around the disposal of ash in mines. He says Pizarchik’s nomination is the Obama Administration’s way of reassuring the coal industry.
“It seems to be saying that they really do want to reassure the coal industry that they’re going to be mining every kind of coal that the coal industry wants to mine,” he said.
Pizarchik’s nomination, along with 10 others announced Monday, must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.