The company that runs the West Virginia mine where an explosion killed at least 25 workers frequently sidesteps hefty fines by aggressively contesting safety violations, including recent problems with the ventilation system that clears away combustible methane gas.
Bombarding federal regulators with appeals is an increasingly common industry tactic since the 2006 Sago mine disaster that killed 12 led to stiffer fines and new enforcement to punish the worst offenders, a review of records from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) showed.
While the rules aimed to make the nation’s mines safer, firms responded with challenges that have backlogged MSHA with claims that go unpaid and unresolved for years. Agency officials say the maneuvers block their ability to punish repeat violators, and worker advocates fear more tragedies.
“It’s gamesmanship by the industry,” said Celeste Monforton, who spent six years as a special assistant to MSHA’s assistant director and is now an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University.
In 2005, the year before Sago, mines contested 6 percent of the violations they faced. That rate climbed to 27 percent last year.
Massey Energy Co, which owns the Upper Big Branch mine, the site of Monday’s explosion, is still contesting more than a third of all its violations there since 2007. In the past year, federal inspectors have proposed more than US$1 million in fines for violations at the mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. Only 16 percent have been paid.
Among the violations that have been appealed are the company’s two largest fines on record, assessed in January for problems with the mine’s ventilation systems.
Investigators still don’t know what ignited Monday’s blast, but believe concentrated methane may have had something to do with it.
The mine has a history of violations for not properly ventilating the highly combustible gas, which is common in coal deposits.
MSHA records do not say whether the problems cited in January were fixed or how long inspectors gave the firm to resolve them.
In an interview on Tuesday, Massey chief executive office Don Blankenship downplayed the link between the ventilation system and the accident.
“I don’t know that MSHA thought there was a problem,” he said.
MSHA believes some mine operators are contesting violations to block the agency from declaring them repeat offenders.
Any delay in fixing serious violations “puts miners at risk, is at odds with the purpose of the Mine Act and mission of MSHA, and is unacceptable,” Joseph Main, assistant secretary of labor for MSHA said in testimony submitted to the congressional panel that oversees the industry.
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