On Tuesday the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration announced for the first time it has successfully placed two coal mines on notice that bthey could be closed for a pattern of violations. "Bledsoe Coal Corp.'s Abner Branch Rider Mine in Leslie County, Kentucky, and The New West Virginia Mining Co.'s Apache Mine in McDowell County, West Virginia, are the first in the history of the 1977 Mine Act to be subject to a pattern of violations enforcement action, which targets mines with chronic and persistent health and safety violations," Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
"We're trying to send a message to the mining industry that you don't want to go down this path" of a pattern of violations, MSHA chief Joe Main said during a conference call Tuesday. "There are some in the industry that don't get it, and we have two here that have exposed themselves." Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett said the Bledsoe mine owner had appealed the majority of the citations, which included roof control problems, coal dust accumulation, mine ventilation and electrical wiring issues, that led to the pattern-of-violations sanction.
MSHA, part of the Department of Labor, issued the Bledsoe mine and 12 others potential pattern-of-violations notices in November. Massey Energy voluntarily closed one of those mines, Freedom No. 1 in Pike County, Kentucky, after MSHA sought a court-ordered shutdown. From January to March, MSHA inspected the remaining 10 mines that were still operating and found eight had met the safety plans put in place in November. The Bledsoe and New West Virginia mines had not; in fact, their rates of serious violations had increased. "The great disappointment is this, that they didn't take measures that they should have to fix the problems . . . to avoid this enforcement action," Main said. (Read more)
"We're trying to send a message to the mining industry that you don't want to go down this path" of a pattern of violations, MSHA chief Joe Main said during a conference call Tuesday. "There are some in the industry that don't get it, and we have two here that have exposed themselves." Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett said the Bledsoe mine owner had appealed the majority of the citations, which included roof control problems, coal dust accumulation, mine ventilation and electrical wiring issues, that led to the pattern-of-violations sanction.
MSHA, part of the Department of Labor, issued the Bledsoe mine and 12 others potential pattern-of-violations notices in November. Massey Energy voluntarily closed one of those mines, Freedom No. 1 in Pike County, Kentucky, after MSHA sought a court-ordered shutdown. From January to March, MSHA inspected the remaining 10 mines that were still operating and found eight had met the safety plans put in place in November. The Bledsoe and New West Virginia mines had not; in fact, their rates of serious violations had increased. "The great disappointment is this, that they didn't take measures that they should have to fix the problems . . . to avoid this enforcement action," Main said. (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment