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MSHA Moves Too Slowly on Mine Safety, Another Sago Possible |
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Last year, after disasters killed 12 West Virginia coal miners in the Sago Mine, five Kentucky coal miners at Darby and eventually claimed 47 lives in all, Congress passed the first new mine safety legislation in decades.
But while the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006 mandates several important mine safety improvements, its implementation has been far too slow and it doesn’t go far enough to protect miners’ lives, witnesses told a Senate hearing yesterday.
The new law, says Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts:
would do little to change matters today if a mine were to experience an explosion like the one at Sago or a mine fire like the one at Alma…underground miners would likely fare no better than those who perished over one year ago.
Roberts was among those appearing yesterday before the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Also testifying: J. Davitt McAteer, former head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in the Clinton administration, Richard Stickler, President Bush’s controversial recess appointment to MSHA’s top spot and others.
Roberts says since last year’s law was passed, the Bush administration has shown no concentrated effort in addressing problems, ranging from mine rescue teams to underground communications and lack of additional oxygen units. In addition, he points to several vital safety issues the legislation didn’t address.
MSHA still allows mine operators to ventilate sections with belt air and non-flammable belts are still not required. Today, there are no requirements that operators provide systems that would enable miners to communicate with the surface or vice versa. There is nothing in place to require an operator to be able to locate trapped miners, and very few could do so. Safety chambers are not required nor are safe havens prescribed. Most operators do not have a complete approved emergency response plan as required by the MINER Act. Many miners caught in a disaster would likely have one additional hour of oxygen as opposed to early 2006, but keep in mind that it took 40 hours for the first mine rescue teams to reach the mines at Sago.
Last year’s legislation, says McAteer, was designed to address some of “most egregious shortcomings” in mine safety law.
Are the nation’s miners safer today than they were on Jan. 1, 2006? In the months since the Sago disaster much has changed, and much more is in progress, but unfortunately for the average miner, not much has improved from the day-to-day safety and health standpoint.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a chief sponsor of the MINER Act, criticized the Bush administration for its mine safety track record.
The agency and department charged with protecting our nation’s miners exacerbated the dangers in the coal fields in the years before Sago and Alma. The dedicated public servants in the mine safety agency were undermined by their own political leadership.
He also noted that Bush’s mine safety budget for 2008 contains no new funding for research on safety and rescue technologies, including emergency breathing and communications equipment, and no funding for testing and strengthening materials to seal abandoned underground mine sections. Bush’s budget also neglects the development of underground refuge chambers and the improvement of mine rescue training.
These omissions are glaring. They are inexcusable. And they must be remedied.
Last year, the Senate twice refused to confirm Stickler, a former coal industry executive whose mine safety track record was questioned. So Bush used a back-door recess appointment to place Stickler in MSHA’s top post. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) reminded Stickler that his recess appointment expires at the end of the year.
Mr. Stickler, you’re on the spot. You have to perform. We will be watching you very closely.
You can read the full testimony from all witnesses at the committee’s website and get more details from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s blog here.
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