U.S. Bureau of Mines axed

Despite a well-fought campaign by industry to save the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the agency has been abolished by the Department of the Interior.

For 85 years, the Bureau provided service in the fields of health and safety, pollution prevention, and many other research fields. As of Oct. 1, it will cease to be.

The move, in accordance with the 1996 Appropriations Bill, will leave about 1,200 government workers out of a job.

Agencies and services once provided by the bureau will be taken up by other branches of government.

Research and safety centres in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington state will be transferred to the Department of Energy’s Fossil Fuels division. Bureau employees in Alaska will likely be transferred to the Bureau of Land Management.

All other services will be terminated, including: the health and safety branches in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul; waste pollution prevention in Salt Lake City, Utah; environmental remediation in Minneapolis-St. Paul; land assessment and mineral evaluations; and some of the mineral analysis programs.

Offices will close in Salt Lake City; Reno, Nev.; the twin cities; Rolla, Mo.; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Rhea Graham, director of the Bureau, says she had “hoped that the political realities of downsizing, cutting and terminating government functions would not be this brutal.”

A memorandum from the White House has made job placement services available to assist those employees whose jobs are not being transferred to other agencies.