MSHA has issued eight such program information bulletins since mid-August, seven of which have focused on issues that became hot buttons in the wake of the deadly Upper Big Branch blast in April.
While the bulletins do not have the force of regulation, agency watchers say they are good indication of what Administrator Joe Main and his coal safety deputy, Kevin Stricklin, plan to pursue using existing enforcement powers.
"If I were a federal district manager or a federal inspector and those [bulletins] came out ... I'd say that is the direction that we're being told to take and [would] enhance inspection along those line," Joe Angleton, director of the Illinois Office of Mines and Minerals, said.
Mine ventilation and the buildup of methane gas have been a central focus of the investigation into the death of 29 workers at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia and have been addressed in the recent program bulletins.
The bulletins also have highlighted proper maintenance of methane monitors, prohibiting the advance notice of inspectors' presence at mine sites and protecting miners' rights to report hazardous conditions to authorities. Government and union officials have repeatedly raised concerns about such issues in congressional hearings leading up to the introduction of mine safety legislation in the House of Representatives.
The industry has begun to see the effects of the program information bulletins, National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich. A particular focus has been placed on concrete barriers that separate fresh air used to ventilate mines from air being returned to the surface as exhaust.
An agency spokesman did not return requests for comment.
Former MSHA Administrator J. Davitt McAteer, who was appointed by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin to head an independent inquiry into the Upper Big Branch blast, said the bulletins are one of several tools that can be used to warn operators that inspectors will place more emphasis on certain
regulations.
Giving the industry advanced notice of shifting regulatory focus, whether through bulletins, media interviews or speeches, addresses a common complaint among mining companies that the agency is inconsistently enforcing its regulations, he said.
"The industry used to say we hate the 'gotcha notion' ... [or that] 'You didn't focus attention on it and therefore we kind of fell into complacency,'" McAteer said. "I think it's a good use of enforcement resources, especially following a series of accidents."
Before the recent round of bulletins, MSHA increased off-hour inspections, more aggressively publicized its pursuit of mines with checkered safety records and targeted for more enforcement underground coal operations with a history of high methane levels. The stepped-up enforcement since Upper Big Branch has drawn criticism from industry and even some agency officials who said other enforcement areas are being given short shrift.
A recent memo from Stricklin brought attention to 14 other coal miners who died this year in accidents largely overlooked by the press. It stressed that inspectors must emphasize training and pay close attention to hazards that lead to roof and rib fall accidents, moving heavy equipment and
out-of-control haul trucks at surface mines.
"In light of these continuing fatalities, I want you to be especially vigilant as you conduct your inspections," Stricklin wrote. "Mine operators must have all work areas examined for conditions that may harm miners."
