The Mining Safety and Health Administration says the mandates of the MINER Act are already making the industry a safer place for its workers.

In December 2006, the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) published the Final Rule on Emergency Mine Evacuation. It included additional requirements for self-contained self-rescuers (SCSRs) and their storage, improved training and escape drills, lifelines, multi-gas detectors, and immediate accident notification.

(As of Jan. 10), safety protections were fully implemented except in cases where manufacturers have not been able to supply enough SCSRs. We expect this backlog to be eliminated soon.

MSHA also developed and implemented a Web-based SCSR database to help us locate SCSRs affected by future recalls. The database will also be used by MSHA and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to randomly select and collect SCSRs deployed at mines for testing in NIOSH’s Long Term Field Evaluation Program. 

To date, the database has been populated with 71,300 SCSRs. We have also put into place an improved penalty structure as required by the Mine Improvement and New EmergencyResponse (MINER) Act.    

In November 2006, we implemented the MINER Act provisions for flagrant violations. As of Jan. 1, 2008, 15 flagrant violations have been assessed, with 22 more in progress. Four have been assessed the maximum penalty of $220,000.

A final rule increasing civil monetary penalties was published on March 22, 2007. It included those penalties and increased civil penalty amounts for numerous categories of mine safety and health violations.

The amount of penalties we assessed increased more than 100 percent last year. In 2006, assessed penalties totaled $35 million; in 2007, assessed penalties totaled $74.6 million.

We have also implemented several changes to improve our civil penalty payment process to streamline debt collection and make the process more efficient. Since August 2006, operators have been required to submit their Emergency Response Plans (ERP) for MSHA approval.

In February 2007, MSHA issued guidance to mine operators about acceptable quantities and delivery methods for breathable air in underground coal mines. In addition to breathable air, the ERP must address post-accident communications and tracking, lifelines, training, and local coordination.

The MINER Act requires mine operators to adopt two-way wireless communications and electronic tracking systems by June 2009. In the meantime, all mines have installed redundant communications systems as required by the MINER Act.

The MINER Act also required MSHA to be the primary communicator with families at mine disaster sites. In November 2006, MSHA implemented a Family Liaison Program to provide an MSHA liaison to be with families at the site of an accident in which miners are unaccounted for or when there are multiple fatalities.

In May 2007, for only the fourth time in the history of the Mine Act, MSHA issued an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to strengthen the design, construction, maintenance and repair of seals, as well as requirements for sampling and controlling atmospheres behind seals.

The ETS was effective immediately upon issuance.

In December, we reopened the comment period on the ETS for the mining community to review and submit comments on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ draft report on the Sago Mine accident. The MINER Act required the MSHA to issue regulations to address improved training, certification, availability and composition requirements for underground coal mine rescue teams.

The MINER Act also required NIOSH to submit a report to the Secretary of Labor analyzing refuge alternatives in underground coal mines. MSHA is awaiting the final report from NIOSH, but once finalized, we are prepared to move quickly to institute appropriate rulemaking by June and issue final regulations by Dec. 31 of this year.

Enforcing Penalties
We have had a net increase of 177 enforcement personnel, which has exceeded our goal. We believe that this increase of new enforcement personnel will dramatically enhance MSHA’s performance in the future. To make sure we have an increased MSHA presence at mining operations, last October I announced the implementation of MSHA’s new 100-Percent Inspection Plan.

This plan calls for the temporary reassignment of MSHA inspectors to areas where they are most needed and provides for increased overtime hours needed to complete inspections until all our new inspector trainees are fully qualified.

We continue to be particularly aggressive with those mine operators who repeatedly violate MSHA standards and seem to view penalties as just another cost of doing business. The Mine Act authorizes MSHA to issue a withdrawal order for each significant and substantial (S&S) violation after a notice that the mine operator has a pattern of violations of mandatory standards that could have significantly and substantially contributed to mine hazards.

The first round of notices was sent last June to eight mining operations. Six of them have since met or exceeded the necessary criteria for reducing violation rates. They have successfully and dramatically reduced their S&S violation rates – on average, by 50 percent – but we strongly encourage these operators to continue to improve their compliance record.
    
Growth Requires Training
In 2006, there was a net gain of 20,000 miners due to the growth in the industry. With 350,000 miners and a 10 percent annual attrition rate, another 35,000 new miners entered the industry to replace those leaving. That is a total of 55,000 new miners entering the industry, all of whom must be properly trained.

The entire mining community – and MSHA – must work together to get ahead of this with more education and training. For the first time, MSHA recently awarded $500,000 for Brookwood Sago training grants to address new mine safety education and training. We are also holding ourselves to strict standards. Last June, I established an Office of Accountability to increase oversight and examination of existing enforcement programs within MSHA.

‘Injury- and Fatality-Free’
There were 33 fatalities in the nation’s coal mines and also 31 fatalities in this country’s metal and nonmetal mines in 2007 – for a total of 64 miners who we lost last year.

These are miners who will not be returning to their families. And these are deaths that we can and we must prevent. Our ultimate goal is to send every miner home safe and healthy at the end of every shift. We still have a lot of work to reach that goal.

To those who say that injuries and illnesses are inevitable in mining, I ask you to consider that:

• In 2006, there were more than 3,700 mining operations nationwide that worked the entire year with zero lost-time and restricted injuries. These operations were identified through the Sentinels of Safety award program.
• These 3,700 operations worked more than 80 million combined hours with no lost-time or restricted injuries. That is equivalent to a 40,000-employee operation working an entire year without a single lost time or restricted injury.
  

Last year, Kentucky – the state with most mines, most miners and the second-highest underground production – had zero fatalities in its underground mines. So, there is proof that it can be done. Working together, we can make this an injury- and fatality-free industry.

Richard E. Stickler is acting assistant secretary of labor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration. His opinions are edited from a speech he delivered in January at the West Virginia Coal Association 35th annual Mining Symposium in Charleston, W.Va. For more information, visit www.msha.gov.