NMA recounts safety progress & urges greater federal funding and federal-state regulatory reconciliation.
In testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, Bruce Watzman, vice president of safety and health for the National Mining Association (NMA), said the mining industry has invested a quarter of a billion dollars to date in on-going efforts to implement the MINER Act and has taken additional, voluntary measures that will lead to safer conditions for underground coal mining.
Watzman recapped a long list of steps U.S. mining companies have taken to improve mine safety. For example, in the past 15 months, Watzman said the industry has invested $250 million to:
• Place 86,000 breathing devices into service and instituted quarterly training sessions in the use of these units for all 55,000 underground coal miners;
• Order more than 100,000 additional breathing devices scheduled to be in service in the coming months;
• Install lifelines in both primary and secondary escape ways;
• Implement new systems to track miners underground;
• Install redundant communications systems; and
• Test post-accident communications systems and establish, or develop plans to establish, 36 new mine rescue teams in advance of federal regulatory requirements.
In addition to complying with federal and state requirements to make mining safer, Watzman said the industry is also preparing to implement recommendations from the Mine Safety Technology and Training Commission, an independent panel of safety experts established in 2006 by NMA.
Among the commission's recommendations for improving mine safety is a potentially far-reaching proposal to design safety programs based on risk assessments for each individual mine. "Our goal is to create operational tools that will help every company identify and address significant hazards before they create situations that threaten life or property," said Watzman.
To that end, NMA worked with federal agencies to develop and distribute throughout the industry a generic mine rescue handbook to serve as a guide for companies forming mine rescue teams, develop mine rescue protocols and review procedures already in place.
NMA is working with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to develop risk-based management tools and templates to help mine operators implement a host of recommendations from the commission. Watzman described the paradigm shift to managing risks at each mine as a "significant undertaking" that will require flexibility for achieving the MINER Act's goals of "optimizing safety and survivability."
Watzman also notes that in addition to the substantial investments already made in better safety technology, more must be done to resolve conflicting requirements between state and federal mine safety requirements. "It is imperative that policies encourage the broadest possible applications of technology across all underground coal regions," advised Watzman.
Notwithstanding these efforts, said Watzman, increased funding for basic research under the auspices of NIOSH will be necessary to accelerate development of communications, tracking and breathable air technologies called for in the MINER Act. "At no time in our recent history has the expertise residing at the mining program in NIOSH been more vital to improving mine safety," said Watzman.
For the full text of Watzman's testimony, visit: http://www.nma.org/pdf/052207_miner.pdf.
For a list of specific mine safety improvements, visit: http://www.nma.org/pdf/050907_safety_progress.pdf.
To view the mine safety handbook, visit NMA’s website at www.nma.org.