CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AFX) - A federal proposal to substantially increase mine safety civil penalties is confusing and flawed, industry and labor representatives said Tuesday, because it either doesn't go far enough or is more punitive than safety-oriented.
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration proposal would revise existing policy and implement changes required by the new federal Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act. The proposal must be in place by December before the MINER Act, which was prompted by the deaths of 12 miners at International Coal Group's Sago Mine, goes into effect.
Deborah Hamner, whose husband George Junior Hamner, was killed at Sago, said she didn't understand all of MSHA's proposal, but knows that coal companies must realize that fixing safety problems would be less expensive than paying a fine.
'My fear is if MSHA doesn't do its job and hold operators accountable, who is going to be the next in line for a Sago disaster?,' said Hamner, who attended the hearing with her daughter, Sara Bailey.
Patricia Silvey, acting director of MSHA's Office of Standards, said the proposal is designed to reduce the number of safety violations in the nation's mines through increased penalties. In some cases, mine operators would face penalties of up to $220,000 for flagrant violations that resulted in an injury or death.
Penalties would be assessed based on a point system, with the minimum penalty increasing from $60 to $112 per violation. Operators, however, would be entitled to a 10 percent reduction if they move quickly to correct the violation.
'Penalties are the cost of noncompliance,' Silvey said.
In developing the criteria that would be used to assess penalties, MSHA determined that if penalty amounts increased by 250 percent, the number of safety violations would decrease by 20 percent, she said.
It would take the agency at least six months once the increased fines are in place to determine if its assumption was correct, she said.
Increasing penalties represent a 'punitive mind-set rather than safety mindedness,' said Richard Homko, mine safety director for Ohio Valley Coal Co. The company employs 507 miners and mines about 5 million tons a year at its mine in Ohio.
Larger mines are safer than smaller operations, Homko said, and increasing penalties from $60 to $112 would take resources away from safety initiatives.
But large and small operators need to be held to the same standard, said Tim Baker, deputy administrator for health and safety with the UMW.
Unsafe operators should be forced to shut down until safety problems are fixed, rather than be allowed to remain open while penalties work their way through MSHA's administrative process, he said.
'We would like to see more teeth,' Baker said.
West Virginia is the second-largest coal producing state in the nation, and while most of the discussion Tuesday centered on coal mining, MSHA's proposed changes would also affect other types of mines.
The agency's proposal would have a greater financial impact on quarries than coal mines, said Brian Peters with Mulzer Crushed Stone of Evansville, Ind.
'Increasing the fines results in a more adversarial role between you and us,' he said.
The panel will conduct a hearing in Pittsburgh on Thursday, the last stop on a six-city tour to obtain comments on the proposal.
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© 2006 AFX News
