U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of Surface Mining
For immediate release						Contact: Mike Gauldin
March 4, 2003									    (202) 208-2565

OSM named "Partner of the Year"

The Office of Surface Mining has been named "Agency Partner of the Year" by Black Diamond 
Resource Conservation and Development, Inc., a Southwestern Virginia community group.

Black Diamond RC&D is a non-profit community organization that coordinates community 
improvement projects across six counties in the coal country of southwestern Virginia. Resource 
and Conservation Districts are nonprofit organizations supported by the US Department of 
Agriculture. Black Diamond RC&D's award recognizes OSM "for its innovation and spirit, its 
outreach and team building and its commitment to local partnerships."  The award is to be 
presented at the group's awards banquet in April.

"OSM has been a particularly valuable partner in several projects across the coalfields of 
Southwestern Virginia," said Black Diamond RC&D Coordinator Blaine K. Delaney in a letter to 
OSM Director Jeff Jarrett. OSM, said Delaney, has contributed to "bringing cleaner water and 
community revitalization to our region."

Working together, OSM and Black Diamond RC&D have placed OSM Watershed Interns, 
expanded the OSM/VISTA program to new watersheds, designed a new wetlands treatment 
system for acid mine drainage in the center of the University of Virginia-Wise campus, and 
played a central role in the OSM/EPA effort to strengthen the Eastern Coal Region Roundtable, 
a new source of vital information for coal country watersheds. 

Delaney's letter particularly praised the contributions of Dr. Allan Comp, Watershed Assistance 
Coordinator, and Ronnie Vicars, Clean Streams Coordinator for Virginia, who have been the 
lead staffers for OSM on Black Diamond's projects.

 "The President and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton have directed us to work toward a 
new environmentalism built on partnerships and cooperative conservation," said Jarrett. "It is 
very gratifying to get this kind of recognition from the people who are working in the 
communities and on the landscapes. It's good to know that what we're trying to create here is 
actually getting delivered on the ground where it counts and makes a difference in the lives of 
Americans and their families."

Delaney said Black Diamond will nominate OSM for a state-wide award for its "strong record of 
partnership in improving our region."

-OSM-