|
Just days after taking their case for strengthened mine safety to the White House, the West Virginia Congressional Delegation is in the final stages of preparing legislation with the aim of preventing future fatal mine tragedies.
“Coal miners deserve the best protections and the best safety enforcement possible, and the West Virginia Congressional Delegation is committed to that mission,” U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., said Monday. “Another mine accident could happen today. It could happen tomorrow. We cannot afford to sit back and wait for the safety problems to fix themselves. We have a moral obligation to get this done.”
“The tragedies we’ve seen in the last few weeks in West Virginia have shown us that we cannot hesitate to address the issue of mine safety. The legislation we will introduce this week can improve mine safety dramatically and almost immediately by mandating the Secretary of Labor to exercise her authority under MSHA and improve mine communications, improve breathing devices, and increase the speed of mine rescue teams,” said Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. “These actions represent just the first step in our effort to bring about the biggest changes in mine safety in a generation. For the legacy of the 14 West Virginia miners who gave their lives and for the sake of the thousands of coal miners working in a dangerous profession, we must make sure that they have the tools and resources they need.”
“I, along with the rest of the West Virginia Congressional Delegation, aim to ensure that the legacy of the Sago and Alma miners will be the certainty that this Nation’s mine safety laws are enforced to the fullest extent and that technology that can save lives does not sit on the shelves,” Third District Representative Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., explained. “We owe them, and their brothers and sisters still in the mines, nothing less.”
“Although nothing can be done to restore the terrible losses that were suffered at the Sago and Alma mines, we must do everything in our power to help prevent a repeat of such tragedies,” First District Representative Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va., stated. “This legislation is a part of that effort, and we are committed to pushing it through Congress and onto the President’s desk.”
“The tragedies at Sago and Alma will never be forgotten, but these terrible events will further our commitment at a federal level to improve the safety of our miners,” Second District Representative Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “As a united Congressional Delegation, West Virginia will continue to work together to see mine safety legislation become law.”
The West Virginia Delegation’s federal mine safety package would focus on several areas, including rapid notification and response, tougher penalties for habitual safety violators, emergency communications and breathing equipment, and expanded use of advanced safety technologies.
- Rapid Notification and Response -- The legislation would require the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to establish a rapid notification and response system, and requires coal operators to expeditiously notify MSHA of emergencies. It would require MSHA to update and improve mine rescue regulations to help ensure an immediate response.
- Emergency Communications and Breathing Equipment -- The legislation would require coal operators to store additional emergency breathing caches underground. It would require communications equipment that would allow miners underground to communicate with surface rescue efforts, and allow surface rescue efforts to locate miners underground.
- Penalties -- The legislation would establish a floor on penalties so that no fine less than $1,000 can be assessed for a safety violation that could cause serious illness and injury, and that no fine less than $5,500 can be assessed to a habitual violator for a safety violation that could significantly and substantially contribute to a safety or health hazard.
- Technology -- The legislation creates a science and technology office in MSHA to help expedite the introduction of the most advanced health and safety technologies into the mines.
“Something good must come out of this tragedy -- and that something is legislation designed to keep other coal miners from dying and other coal miners’ families from having to go through this terrible experience,” Byrd added.
The Delegation’s actions come on the heels of the deaths of 14 West Virginia coal miners in two separate mining tragedies. A dozen men were killed after an explosion trapped them in the International Coal Group’s Sago mine in Upshur County, while two other men died after an underground fire trapped them in the Aracoma Alma mine in Logan County.
This past weekend again highlighted the importance of advanced safety technologies and emergency planning in mining. Fire broke out Sunday in a mine in central Canada, forcing some 70 miners trapped underground to retreat to emergency refuge rooms stocked with oxygen and supplies, a mine official said. A spokesman for the Minneapolis-based firm that operates the mine explained that, because of those rooms, the miners were able to stay clear of toxic gases and survive the weekend disaster.
###
|
|
