IG: Coal safety agency stinting on mine inspections
Report says Mine Safety and Health Administration's inspector force was sharply cut between 2002 and 2006.
The Labor Department's inspector general is highlighting the parallel between a decline in coal mine inspections and an increase in fatal accidents -- a conclusion the administration says is based on faulty numbers.
Inspector General Gordon Heddell released a report recently that showed between 2002 and 2006, the Mine Safety and Health Administration's inspector force was sharply cut, dropping from 605 in 2002 to 496 in 2006 -- an 18 percent reduction. In the same span, coal production increased and so did the agency's workload, rising from 811 mechanized mining units to 882 while the ratio of inspectors per unit fell from 0.75 to 0.56.
A mechanized mining unit is based on the daily tonnage of coal removed from a mine. The decrease in inspectors was a result of a decline in MSHA funding by Congress and the Bush administration, the report said. From 2002 to 2006, the agency's labor costs grew from $78.8 million to $84.9 million because of cost-of-living salary increases. Total appropriations for the agency grew by less than 1 percent, from $116.1 million to $117.2 million.
"As a result," the report said, "MSHA did not have sufficient funding to replace personnel that left the agency."
Meanwhile, mining accidents spiked. West Virginia's Sago mine explosion killed 12 in January 2006; the Darby Mine explosion in Kentucky cost five miners their lives in May 2006, and Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine collapse in August killed six miners and led to the deaths of three rescue workers.
Coal mines are required to undergo comprehensive safety inspections at least four times a year. The report chides MSHA for not performing the required inspections at 107 of the nation's 731 underground mines last year.
"This occurred," the report said, "because of decreasing inspection resources and [MSHA's] management not placing adequate emphasis on ensuring the inspections were completed."
In response, MSHA administrator Richard Stickler said the report failed to acknowledge that 70 percent of the alleged "incomplete" inspections were counted at mines that either were not producing coal or were intermittent during the inspection period.
Following the 2006 disasters, Congress passed legislation to tighten the safety agency's inspection rules and authorize more money for additional inspectors. Stickler said more than 250 people are in training to augment the depleted ranks of the MSHA's mine inspection force. The collapse of the Crandall Canyon mine stirred efforts to strengthen the mine safety law.
A bill has been introduced by Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., but it is opposed by the administration and has little momentum considering an MSHA overhaul passed a year ago. The bill would bolster mine ventilation and communications systems, reduce the chance of friction fires ignited by conveyor belts, require the installation of rescue chambers to provide refuge in case of emergencies, strengthen mine seals at worked-out sites against methane gas explosions and increase penalties for safety infractions. Meanwhile, the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee will hear testimony in mid-December from Robert Murray co-owner of the Crandall Canyon mine. Murray's absence from a Sept. 5 hearing on the disaster prompted the panel to issue a subpoena for his testimony on Tuesday.