NYT: In Mine Safety, a Meek Watchdog

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/us/11mining.html


Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

Travis McKinney is comforted at the funeral of his grandfather, Benny Ray Willingham, one of 29 miners killed last week.
By MICHAEL COOPER, GARDINER HARRIS and ERIC LIPTON
Published: April 10, 2010


This article was reported by Michael Cooper, Gardiner Harris and Eric Lipton, and written by Mr. Cooper.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration was created almost 35 years ago, after deadly explosions at a Kentucky mine, with a mission to conduct more inspections of the nation’s mines and enforce safety standards more strictly. It was strengthened four years ago, after more disasters.

But it remains fundamentally weak in several areas, and it does not always use the powers it has.

The agency can seek to close mines that it deems unsafe and to close repeat offenders, but it rarely does so. The fines it levies are relatively small, and many go uncollected for years. It lacks subpoena power, a basic investigatory tool. Its investigators are not technically law enforcement officers, like those at other agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

And its criminal sanctions are weak, a result of compromises over the 1977 Mine Act that created the agency. Falsifying records is a felony, for example, while deliberate violations of safety standards that may lead to deaths are misdemeanors.

After an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., killed 29 miners last Monday — including four whose bodies were discovered late Friday — in the nation’s worst mining disaster in four decades, evidence quickly surfaced that the mine had been cited for hundreds of violations over the last year, including many serious ones.

Federal mining officials said Friday that they believed the mine’s safety record was poor enough to declare that it had a “pattern of violations,” which would have allowed them to increase oversight and to shut the mine down every time a significant violation was found.

But their hands were tied, they said, because Upper Big Branch, like many mines, had contested many of its violations — a tactic that helps mine owners fend off fines and delay added scrutiny.

FULL 3 page story and related stories at link.