Mines No Safer Since Sago, Committee in Congress Told
By Ken Ward Jr.
kward@wvgazette.com
If coal miners were trapped deep underground by an explosion today, they would likely face the same fate as the Sago miners, a congressional committee was told Wednesday.
Coal operators have made some improvements, but still haven’t provided enough emergency oxygen, improved communications gear or adequate rescue crews, safety advocates told a U.S. Senate committee.
“If we had an accident today, we would still be stuck in the same situation we were in before,” said Davitt McAteer, a former top mine safety regulator and adviser to Gov. Joe Manchin.
Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers union, agreed.
“What would happen tomorrow morning in the nation’s coal mines if we had a similar explosion, God forbid, that we did on January 2, 2006?” Roberts said. “The truth is we would have the same kinds of problems.”
McAteer and Roberts testified in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon as part of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on mine safety.
The hearing, called by Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., was the first in a series of mine safety reviews planned by the new Democratic-controlled Congress.
Byrd warned that miners still face risks every day, as he said the deaths of two McDowell County miners in a roof fall showed.
“The crisis in the coalfields is not over,” Byrd said.
Richard Stickler, assistant labor secretary in charge of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, faced tough questioning over MSHA’s implementation of a new mine safety law passed after the Sago and Darby disasters and the Aracoma Mine fire.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., reminded Stickler that his recess appointment – meaning the Senate never confirmed him – expires at the end of the year.
“Mr. Stickler, you’re on the spot,” Specter said. “You have to perform. We will be watching you very closely.”
Specter pressed Stickler to explain several findings of a House committee report that said MSHA has moved too slowly in implementing the MINER Act and other safety improvements.
For example, Specter demanded to know why MSHA had not required mine operators to install newer, fire-proof conveyor belts, especially after two miners died in a belt fire at the Aracoma Mine last year.
Stickler first said federal law does not require the improved belt materials, then that he was waiting for the results of a study of the issue, and then that it would take a new MSHA rule to force the industry’s hand.
“First I hear about a rule change, then I hear about a study,” Specter replied. “It seems to me that it ought to be done. These more flammable belts could cause an accident at any time.”
Roberts of the UMW explained that an MSHA rulemaking proposal initiated by the Clinton administration would have required the newer belt materials. After President Bush took office, the rule was one of more than a dozen mine safety measures that MSHA dropped, Roberts said.
Bruce Watzman, a lobbyist for the National Mining Association, said the coal industry has spent or expects to spend nearly $160 million on safety improvements in 2006 and 2007.
About $65 million of that money is for 90,000 additional self- contained, self-rescuers to give miners additional air supplies to escape in case of fires or explosions, Watzman said.
Stickler said mine operators are deploying new SCSRs at the rate of about 10,000 per month. But, he said, the two largest manufacturers have a backlog of more than 10 months to fill new orders.
McAteer, though, testified that another SCSR maker, Draeger Safety, has about 7,000 of its units in a warehouse in Pittsburgh, waiting to be purchased.
McAteer said the mining community needs to form a task force that could act quickly to recommend ways to speed up the addition of more SCSRs to underground mines.
In his testimony, McAteer also recommended Congress ask the National Academy of Sciences to study the issue of lightning- induced explosions and recommend ways to avoid a repeat of the Sago disaster.
Chris Hamilton, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said the industry was “the victim of its own success and became complacent” with improved accident numbers, leading up to a record low number of deaths in 2005.
“That has now changed,” Hamilton said. Mine operators have committed “endless resources and countless man-hours” to improved safety in the last year, Hamilton said.
Hamilton also noted an “unprecedented level of cooperation” among various sectors, including labor, government and the industry.
But in his testimony, Roberts noted that the National Mining Association has filed a court challenge to MSHA’s rule to require more SCSRs and other mine rescue improvements.
“The union is not certain which aspects of the rule NMA is contesting, but it is certain that such legal maneuvers delay the protections Congress mandated only last year,” Roberts said in his prepared testimony.
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.