Office of Surface Mining
For Release:   February 8, 1990
Jerry Childress (202) 343-4719

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT TO CO-SPONSOR VALID EXISTING RIGHTS SYMPOSIUM
APRIL 3-4

Harry M. Snyder, Director of the Interior Department's Office of
Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM),  today announced
that OSM, the University of Kentucky Mineral Law Center, and the
American Bar Association will co-sponsor a Valid Existing Rights
(VER) symposium in Washington, D.C., April  3-4,  1990.

The symposium will provide a forum to examine the policy and legal
aspects of VER, particularly as it applies to coal mining in
certain protected areas such as park lands.

"We want to get as much input as we can from all sources," Snyder
said. "I would like to come as close as possible to consensus on
the issue before a new rule is proposed."

Representatives of the coal industry, members of Congress,
environmental organizations, and law faculty members from
universities throughout the nation have been invited to present
papers and participate in panel discussions at the symposium.

"If scholarly interpretation of the law can be brought to bear, 
instead of emotion, then I am hopeful we can avoid the kind of
controversy that has greeted past attempts at VER rulemaking,"
Snyder said.

The Mineral Law Center of the University of Kentucky College of Law
will publish the papers presented at the symposium in a special VER
symposium issue of its Journal of Mineral Law & Policy in June.

The symposium will be held in the Department.of the Interior
Auditorium, 18th and C Streets, N.W., April 3 and 4.  All sessions
are open to the public.

-DOI-