The Casper Area Office (CAO) is located in Casper, Wyoming, and is responsible for federal oversight of the regulatory and abandoned mine land (AML) programs in the states of Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, and the Crow Tribe of Indians. The primary agencies responsible for carrying out the provisions of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) are the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the North Dakota Public Service Commission, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, and the Crow Office of Reclamation. The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is currently the direct regulatory authority for coal mining on Crow lands and the CAO is responsible for all permitting, inspection and enforcement activities on Crow lands. The Crow Tribe is in the process of obtaining primacy and is developing the Crow Coal Regulatory Program. The CAO is also the regulatory authority in South Dakota, Idaho, California and all other northern tribes, although there are currently no coal mining operations in these areas.

The CAO's major responsibilities for oversight of regulatory and AML programs include inspections, enforcement, declaration of AML emergencies, and financial assistance (grants) to the States of Montana, North Dakota, and the Crow Tribe.

Performance Agreements have been established with each state agency to help measure each state/tribe’s success in meeting the goals of SMCRA. Copies of these agreements are available upon request from CAO or from the appropriate state agency. Annual Evaluation Summary Reports of each state or tribal program are prepared each year based on these performance agreements. These reports are available on OSMRE’s website http://odocs.osmre.gov.

For more information about the CAO, please contact Jeff Fleischman at (307) 261-6550.