Sep 28, 2005 5 min read

Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced Monday the introduction of legislation to strengthen standards for protecting Pennsylvania miners and ensuring the state’s mining operations continue to excel in a changing industry. The legislative package includes some of the most significant changes in decades to the state’s mine safety laws.

“Pennsylvania’s mine safety program is a national model, but we want to make sure we have in place the highest standards to protect our miners and maintain our leadership in mining operations,” Rendell said. “While our mines are among the safest in the world with consistently high production, we want to make sure they remain safe work places for our 4,600 underground miners.

“Since the near disaster and dramatic rescue of nine miners at Quecreek, we have worked with industry and labor representatives to address various concerns and update antiquated rules,” the Governor said. “The end result, this legislative package, will make miners safer and enhance the reputation of our already renowned mining industry.”

Rendell said Sen. Richard A. Kasunic (D-Dunbar) and Rep. Bob Bastian (Somerset) will introduce the legislation.

Rendell’s proposed legislation encompasses all bureaus within the Department of Environmental Protection’s mining program and includes far-reaching changes to the state’s Bituminous Coal Mine Act to enhance the role of DEP safety experts in permit reviews, increase corporate responsibility and broaden the department’s authority to issue regulations, impose penalties and hold mine operators responsible for safety compliance issues.

“All of us want Pennsylvania’s mining industry to be successful – we are home to four of the most productive underground mines in the United States – but there is no compromise when it comes to the safety of our miners,” Rendell said. “We need laws that give us more flexibility in responding to a crisis and increase our ability to prevent accidents to begin with.”

The changes eliminate obsolete language in Pennsylvania’s mine safety statutes, which were written in the late-19th century and last updated slightly in 1961. The changes remove references to animals and stables in mines, signals to “turn steam to the pumps” and “substituting approved gas detection devices in lieu of ‘flame safety lamps'” – clearly outmoded language that demonstrates how outdated state’s mine safety statute has become.

Rendell’s initiative includes the creation of a three-member Mine Safety Board with the authority to promulgate regulations to keep pace with changing mine safety technology. The board could act more quickly to put in place necessary improvements and precautionary measures to keep miners safe as the industry continues to advance rapidly.

Corporate responsibility also would increase under the proposed changes, which make the mine operator/owner primarily responsible for safety compliance at the mine. Currently, only individual certified employees or supervisors, such as foremen, can be held responsible for an accident, not the mine company or its executives. The maximum penalty the DEP can enforce is revoking a certification, which can be reapplied for after one year. Rendell’s initiative establishes criminal penalties with fines and incarceration, as well as civil enforcement actions and civil sanctions for certain violations of the coal mining act.

Among some of the other provisions of the initiative:

– Strengthening the DEP’s Bureau of Deep Mine Safety’s role in the mine permitting process to review the application to ensure no health or safety threats exist (the DEP enacted policy changes that accomplished this same goal shortly after the accident).

– Increasing to 500 feet from 200 feet the distance from which a bituminous underground operator must conduct advanced drilling when approaching an adjacent mine which may contain water or gas (this same requirement was put into effect through an executive order shortly after the Quecreek accident).

– Enabling the DEP to promulgate rules and regulations that keep pace with technology to ensure continuous improvement with respect to mine safety.

– Authorizing the DEP to enforce actions against mine owners who violate mine safety standards and allowing the department to assess fines and penalties for noncompliance.

– Making the mine owner the bearer of responsibility for mine safety. Existing mine safety laws preclude enforcement actions generally against the owners of mines.

– Strengthening the permit application review process to require the operators to demonstrate that all maps being presented are reliable (the department enacted policy changes that accomplished this same goal shortly after the accident).

– Granting the department statewide authority to copy all mine maps and increasing measures to ensure final mine maps are submitted in a timely manner.

– Authorizing the department to seek from a mine operator reimbursement for expenses incurred in responding to a mine emergency and other costs incurred as a result of a failure to submit an accurate certified, final map.

Authorizing the department to use emergency contracting provisions to pay for mine rescue and other mine safety activities.

Pennsylvania’s bituminous underground coal mines are among the safest in the world while maintaining consistently high production rates. There has been one fatality in the past three years among the Commonwealth’s 4,600 underground miners.