MSHA wrote a record number of citations for violations last year and is on track to set a new record in 2008.
"This year we are trending toward 180,000 violations that will be issued nationwide," said Acting Assistant Secretary Richard Stickler during a 45-minute media teleconference today (June 16). In comparison, approximately 140,000 violations, a record, were written last year.
Stickler said there has been a stronger enforcement emphasis in the area of unwarrantable failure violations, which are written for reckless disregard beyond ordinary negligence. "There's probably been a 60% increase in the number of unwarrantable failure violations that we've issued," he said. A third round of letters have also been sent to operators MSHA considers potential pattern violators, he added. More than $75 million in fines were assessed in 2007, up from just over $35 million the year before.
MSHA's increased emphasis on enforcement has prompted a backlash from some operators, who have responded by contesting a greater percentage of alleged violations. More than 200 operators are contesting 100% of the violations that MSHA has issued recently, Stickler said.
"So it appears to me that they are deliberately abusing the system and creating a backlog that is making it difficult for MSHA and for everyone involved" he remarked. He said that, to deal with the problem, the Agency has increased the number of its conference & litigation representatives, known as CLRs. At the same time, the Solicitor’s Office is adding more attorneys.
Stickler’s comments on enforcement came during a Q-and-A session with reporters that followed prepared remarks by the MSHA chief on progress that has been made since passage of the MINER Act. Today marks the second anniversary of passage of the landmark reform legislation.
The Assistant Secretary summarized four new rules the Agency has issued in the past two years – on civil penalties, emergency mine evacuation, mine rescue teams, and seals - and called attention to a proposal released today on refuge alternatives. A proposal on belt air is to come out June 19. He described the level of MSHA's recent regulatory activity as "unprecedented."
A provision of the MINER Act calls for coal operators to have two-way wireless communication between the surface and underground in place by June 2009. If the technology is not available, operators are to install the most advanced system on the market. Stickler said he did not believe wireless systems would be ready by the deadline.
Asked about alternatives to wireless, Stickler said MSHA was working with NIOSH to develop a set of performance-based criteria to identify "what that next best form of communication would be." The legislation also requires devices capable of tracking miners' location underground. Those devices are available and operators are expected to have them in place by next summer, he said.
Asked if MSHA now had the resources to do its job, Sticker responded in the affirmative. He noted that 322 coal personnel had been hired since June 2006, along with an additional 100 new inspectors in metal/non-metal, bringing the Agency to its highest level of personnel since 1994. He added that the influx of newly trained inspectors gives MSHA the opportunity to fill vacant specialist positions, such as those in ventilation and roof control, from the inspector ranks.
Asked if MSHA's enhanced enforcement methods had improved safety, Stickler noted that, in all of mining, the fatality rate per 100 workers had dropped to 0.019 from 0.022 between 2006 and 2007. During the same period, the lost-time injury rate had decreased to 2.33 from 2.43 and the total case incidence rate, to 3.42 from 3.64. From 2000 through 2007, the lost-time and total incidence rates have declined 33%, while the fatality rate has dropped 30%, he said.