The company said Railroad Commission surface mining and reclamation division director John Caudle presented the award for its Jewett mine stream restoration initiative project.

Texas Westmoreland was recognized for its innovative techniques in stream channel restoration, which was designed to reduce flooding and increase stream storage in the future as well as decreasing velocities and heightening infiltration.

“Westmoreland takes reclamation seriously at all of its operations and is committed to the highest reclamation standards,” president and chief operating officer Bob King said.

The honor is the second for Jewett crews this year.

On February 2 the mine achieved three years without a single notice of violation from the Railroad Commission of Texas, the Office of Surface Mining or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Texas Westmoreland’s 35,000-acre Jewett complex, located between Dallas and Houston, operates four active pits.

It supplies lignite under contract to the neighboring two-unit limestone electric generating station owned by NRG Texas.

Jewett has in-place capacity of up to 6.5 million tons per annum.

Westmoreland, the oldest independent coal company in the US, holds operations in the Powder River Basin in Montana as well as sub-bituminous mining in Wyoming and lignite mining operations in Montana, North Dakota and Texas.