Summary: In a recently released report, GAO evaluated the extent to which the Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have investigated reported cases involving trespass of federally owned coal in the Eastern States. In addition to a general failure to take aggressive and timely investigative action, the BLM Eastern States Office neglected to advise the Secretary of the Interior and senior officials promptly of suspected serious cases in Alabama. Agency response to coal trespass cases has been largely reactive, apparently triggered more by news reports and congressional inquiries than by a recognition of the problem. BLM has experienced difficulty in the timely completion of maps identifying Federal mineral ownership underlying Federal, State, and private lands, and has no program for obtaining other resource data, such as aerial photographs. In general, the agency lacks "presence" in the Eastern States, an overall management plan and public awareness program. BLM needs to find the means to effectively manage coal under these lands or seek some appropriate means of divesting itself of this ownership responsibility.
