Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who announced earlier this month that she will step down from her post, announced the revision to MSHA’s 30 Code of Federal Regulations Part 104 regulations, which were first proposed after the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia.

The outlines will ensure mine operators across the US monitor and address the most hazardous safety problems at their respective mines.

They also strengthen MSHA’s hand to respond to dangerous mining conditions.

Among the most significant provisions are the ability for MSHA to issue a POV notice without first issuing a potential POV notice and the elimination of an existing requirement that MSHA may only consider final orders in its POV review.

The provisions also:

• Establish general criteria and procedures that MSHA will use to identify mines with a pattern of significant and substantial violations
• Reinforce mine operators’ responsibility for compliance with MSHA safety and health standards and for monitoring their mines’ compliance
• Clarify that MSHA will consider a mine operator’s effective implementation of an MSHA-approved corrective action program as a mitigating circumstance in its POV review – if the program contains definitive benchmarks implemented prior to POV notice and the operator has reduced S&S violations; and
• Restate the statutory requirement that, for mines in POV status, each S&S violation will result in a withdrawal order until a complete inspection finds no S&S violations.

“The tragedy at the Upper Big Branch Mine should not be forgotten,” Solis said.

“Over the last three years, the Labor Department has undergone a serious and comprehensive evaluation of mine safety practices, and that has led to reforms to protect America’s miners.

“The rule we are announcing today will hold mine operators accountable when they disregard life-saving safety measures.”

Citing the blast that took 29 lives, MSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor Joseph Main added: “We think that this final rule will help prevent another tragedy such as occurred at the Upper Big Branch mine.

“It promotes consistency in applying the POV notice as an enforcement tool, provides for a more open and transparent process, emphasizes operators’ responsibility to comply with safety and health standards and monitor their own compliance and more effectively achieves the statutory intent of the Mine Act.”

Under the outlines of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, also known as the Mine Act, MSHA must issue a POV notice to any mine operator demonstrating a disregard for the health and safety of miners through a pattern of S&S violations.

An S&S violation is one that MSHA defines as contributing to a safety or health hazard that is reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness.

The final rule’s scope also stems from several recommendations made by the Labor Department’s Office of the Inspector General in a September 2010 report, by bolstering MSHA’s ability to deal with the nation’s most dangerous and troubling mines and operators.

As Main noted, it places the agency in a better position to identify operators which are disregarding miners’ health and safety and which have not responded to other acts of enforcement.

“There has been recognition by many that the system has been broken, with no mine being placed on POV status until 2011 – 33 years after the law went into effect,” Main said.

“MSHA should not be prevented from taking action to protect the lives of miners for months, or even years, while we await the final outcome of citations and orders that a mine operator can easily contest. The new rule addresses those flaws.”

The POV rule is the third federal regulation targeting dust explosions, such as the one that occurred at UBB.

It issued a final rule to improve rock dust standards on June 21, 2011 and later a final rule on underground coal mine examinations on April 6, 2012.

A full text of the final rule, which has a 60-day delayed effective date, can be viewed here.