Firms Get Look at Rescue Chambers
By Ken Ward Jr.
kward@wvgazette.com
With a legal deadline looming, West Virginia coal operators got a look Monday at the latest designs for underground mine rescue chambers.
Operators have until April 15 to submit plans for installing shelters to the state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training.
On Monday, five shelter manufacturers demonstrated and promoted their products at a joint state-industry meeting in Charleston.
None of the designs have received approval from state mine safety Director Ronald Wooten, a requirement for operators to include them in their plans.
But Randy Harris, a consultant to Wooten, said he is impressed with the products and expects designs to be approved sometime next month.
“This is phenomenal,” Harris said. “We really need to acknowledge these vendors and the efforts they have put in to bring these technologies to our miners.”
Harris led the discussion at Monday’s conference, the first of a two-day event co-sponsored by state regulators and the Coal Forum, an industry-labor organization.
Two manufacturers – Strata Products Inc. and ChemBioShelter – have applications pending with state regulators.
Strata offers standard steel chambers and inflatable units aimed solely at protecting miners from dangerous gases produced by mine fires and explosions.
ChemBioShelter’s only unit is an inflatable tent, originally designed to protect against bioterrorist attacks.
Ed Roscioli, the company president, said his product could sustain up to 20 miners for four days underground, and costs about $60,000.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that if the men at Sago had one of these, they would be with us today,” Roscioli said.
Under West Virginia’s rule, shelters must provide a minimum of 48 hours of air, water, medical supplies and food. They must survive an initial explosion, and give miners who cannot escape the mine a safe place to wait for rescue crews.
“The purpose of the shelter is to be there after an event if you need it, not really to survive a secondary explosion,” Harris said.
If regulators do not approve any shelter designs by the end of May, mine operators will be required to instead provide each miner with at lest 16 self-contained self-rescuer, or SCSR, breathing devices.
Since 1969, federal mine safety regulators have had authority from Congress to require mine operators to equip their mines with rescue or refuge chambers.
Congress created that authority, and said that regulators should mandate rescue chambers if a new federal study said that they would work. In 1970s, that report, by the National Academy of Engineering, recommended the development of rescue chambers for underground coal mines.
But the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and its predecessor agencies never took action.
Even now, MSHA has not required rescue chambers. Instead, the agency is waiting for the results – due in December – of a congressionally ordered study of rescue chamber designs.
Earlier this month, MSHA did appear to open the door for rescue chambers, with an order that the mining industry provide workers with at least 96 hours of breathable air for emergencies.
“If miners cannot evacuate a mine following an underground mine emergency, they need a safe location that maintains an adequate supply of breathable air for them to use while they await rescue,” MSHA chief Richard Stickler said in announcing that order.
One option for meeting that MSHA requirement would be to install a rescue chamber, and manufacturers at Monday’s meeting said that they had redesigned their products to meet the 96-hour standard.
Officials from two companies at Monday’s meeting, Jack Kennedy Metal Products and Draeger Safety, said that they had developed chambers years ago, but got no interest from the coal industry.
“The chamber was a natural for us, and was a really old idea,” said Bill Kennedy of Jack Kennedy Metal. “We had this on our minds for years, but it sort of languished. We didn’t think the market would support it.”
Chris Hamilton, a lobbyist for the West Virginia Coal Association, said the coal industry was skeptical when reformers started demanding rescue chambers following the deaths of 12 miners in the Sago Mine disaster.
At the time, Hamilton said, industry officials did not believe the technology had been properly adapted to the unique rigors of a coal mine.
“We’ve come a long way in a year,” Hamilton said. “All of a sudden, the industry has evolved with these applications from other industries so that they meet the application for coal mining.”
Hamilton said that the industry still has one major reservation: That miners will see rescue chambers – rather than seeking all possible routes of escape from a mine – as their first and best alternative during a fire or after an explosion.
“If we have these nice, pretty chambers sitting on a section, the tendency is going to be to use them,” Hamilton said. “That will continue to be a concern.”
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348- 1702.
(c) 2007 Charleston Gazette, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.