American Coal said earlier this week in its filed documentation against the federal agency that MSHA had used “unlawful regulation” in its oversight of the company’s Galatia mining complex, a property made up of three mines in Illinois.
The suit was filed recently in the Southern District Court of Illinois and named assistant secretary of labour for coal mine safety and health Richard Stickler, MSHA acting administrator Kevin Stricklin, and the district managers and inspectors for the local District 8 agency office as defendants.
Specifically, the operator said in the documentation that it felt MSHA had ordered its inspectors to be quota-based in its violations, did not allow representatives for the company to be available during the mines’ inspections and did not notify anyone that an inspector was onsite for a review of one of its mines. All of these items are violations of federal law.
However, MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere commented on the situation Wednesday, stressing that the agency would continue its course against the company.
“MSHA stands strongly behind the citations issued and the $1.46 million in fines assessed and will not be deterred from protecting miners’ lives,” she said.
In early October, the agency cited Galatia with nine flagrant violations that resulted in that total fine.
“American Coal repeatedly demonstrated its failure to comply with basic safety laws over a number of months, and for that it must be held accountable," Stickler said at the time.
According to the agency, a federal inspector observed that a mine maintenance supervisor came within inches of an uninsulated lug inside an electrical panel during a visit last September.
“He stated he was aware that the panel was energised and he ‘was just taking a shortcut’,” agency officials said.
In the same month, an inspector issued the mine with a high-negligence, unwarrantable failure order for coal and coal dust accumulation around a conveyor belt tail roller at Galatia, as well as for a crew’s failure to remove previous coal and coal dust accumulations at the same location.
The conditions were noted and, less than a week later, the mine was issued two violations for combustible materials accumulation and handed down fines of $179,300 and $164,700.
On November 7 and December 5 last year, a federal inspector cited the mine for failure to conduct pre-shift examinations and issued two unwarrantable failure orders. The violations were assessed at $161,800 and $145,800 with officials adding that a November 8 violation for a broken roof along the escapeway resulted in a fine of $158,900.
Finally, on January 11, 13 and 24 of this year, MSHA gave Galatia three unwarrantable failure orders for combustible materials accumulation at the complex, with associated fines of $153,100, $153,100 and $188,000.
Included in American Coal’s Galatia complex are the Galatia North mine, the New Era mine and the New Future operation, all longwalls. In total, the property employs 800 workers and produces more than 7 million tons of coal annually.
