Department of the Interior Nomination of Walter N. Heine To Be Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

The President today announced that he will nominate Walter N. Heine, of Newville, Pa., to be Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

Heine was born February 21, 1934, in New York City. He received a B.S. in civil engineering from Drexel Institute of Technology in 1959 and an M.S. in sanitary engineering from the University of Michigan in 1964.

From 1955 to 1970, Heine worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, serving as a staff engineer, operations engineer, regional sanitary engineer, and chief of the Division of Mine Drainage Control. In 1970 and 1971, he was director of environmental engineering for a Harrisburg consulting firm.

Since 1971 Heine has been associate deputy secretary for mines and land protection in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. He has been responsible for developing the organizational structure of the Office of Mines and Land Protection and for implementation of State-wide programs for surface mine reclamation, mine safety, solid waste management, occupational health, mine subsidence control, and oil and gas welldrilling regulation.

Heine assisted in drafting Federal coal surface mine regulation bills. He is the author of several technical articles on mining.