Dragging Feet on Mine Safety
It’s been two years since coverage of the Sago Mine disaster saturated the airwaves and pages of daily newspapers.
The outrage that followed moved Congress to toughen mine safety standards in 2006.
How quickly the urgency to overhaul decades-old regulations has been forgotten.
The Washington Post reported last week that despite congressional action in the wake of Sago and several other mining accidents, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has not yet implemented many of the new standards.
New laws established standards that require safer working conditions for miners. Mine operators, for instance, must now provide additional air for miners along escape routes. They must provide communication and tracking devices. The civil penalty ceiling for violating safety regulations was increased from $60,000 to $220,000.
But strengthening standards does little good if the agency that administers provisions of the federal Mine Safety and Health Act falls short on its charge.
MSHA director Richard Stickler told The Post that while it may appear the agency is dragging its feet on implementing new standards, there has been progress, though slow.
More citations have been issued, Stickler said. More mines have been ordered to shut down temporarily for safety violations. This with a shortage of mine inspectors and other difficulties, he told The Post.
“Nothing gets done as fast as I would like,” Stickler said.
Until the walls of another mine implode, or more miners are trapped beneath tons of loose coal.
Disasters such as the Sago Mine explosion fade from memory in short time. The urgency to act dissipates, particularly when it is so quickly replaced by another disaster as tragic, or worse.
The Virginia Tech massacre, the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the lead-tainted toys made in China. There has been plenty to push Congress to enact measures to safeguard against injury and death.
On mine safety, Congress did its part. But by lagging on the follow-through, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has not.
The tragedy is the agency’s failure to act with urgency — and the resulting possibility of another mining accident that could have been prevented if new standards had been fully implemented and enforced.
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