Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993 TAG: 9304070289
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
MINE-SAFETY RULES MAY BE OVERHAULED
ONE JOB facing a special task force investigating December's fatal coal mine explosion in Wise County is to recommend changes in the state's mine-safety laws.
Do Virginia's mining-safety laws need to be totally rewritten?
One top state official suggested last year that they do.
Many provisions of Virginia mine law are "outdated and no longer apply to current mining operations," Larry Framme, state secretary of economic development, said last summer in a letter to Sam Church Jr., a United Mine Workers official in Wise County.
Church, UMW safety chief Joe Main and other state and local UMW officials met with Framme in Richmond last May 15 to complain about the operation and management of the state Division of Mines, the state's mine-safety agency based in Big Stone Gap.
The Virginia Mine Safety Act is "a very old law," Framme wrote Church following the meeting. "It needs substantial revision to improve its clarity and our ability to enforce safe mining conditions and practices."
Part of the responsibility of a special task force appointed by Gov. Douglas Wilder to oversee the investigation of the Dec. 7 explosion at a Wise County coal mine is to recommend changes in state law to improve safety for Virginia's 9,700 coal miners.
The task force resumes its work Thursday at the Norton Holiday Inn and will hear details of the state and federal investigation of the methane explosion at Southmountain Coal Co.'s No. 3 mine. The blast killed eight miners and was the worst mine disaster in Virginia in more than three decades.
Some Virginia mining laws already have been changed as a result of the explosion.
Coalfield legislators pushed through bills during this winter's legislative session that bring state law into line with federal law, which considers all mines as gassy mines. The state did not consider Southmountain a gassy mine.
A bill was also passed that requires all mines to have "bleeder" systems for carrying methane away from abandoned mine workings and to ensure the systems are not blocked by water or cave-ins. Other new laws make it a felony to carry smoking materials in a mine or to tamper with instruments designed to detect explosive methane gas.
No time to prepare
The Division of Mines, which would be expected to propose any major overhaul of the mine inspection law, has not had the time or money to prepare proposed changes in the law for the legislature, said division spokesman Mike Abbott.
However, the division has been working for years on legislative proposals to improve miner training and certification requirements for such mining specialities as shift foremen, electricians and explosives specialists, Abbott said.
Formal recommendations for changes in the law, including requiring more training for the holders of mining certificates, were made to the state Board of Mine Examiners last year but the board couldn't agree to forward the recommendations to the legislature, Abbott said.
In 1992, the Division of Mines proposed doing away with the state's mine safety-inspection program altogether and focusing instead on improving the training and technical assistance the division provides miners and mine operators.
The proposal was made in response to the state's revenue shortfall. Wilder asked that state agencies eliminate services duplicated by other agencies. The federal government also inspects coal mines.
The UMW opposed dropping state inspections because sometimes Virginia law goes beyond federal rules in protecting miners, Main said. The proposal was killed when no member of the legislature could be found to sponsor it.
Although Framme acknowledged that Virginia law has its weaknesses, his seven-page letter to union officials indicates he disagreed with the UMW's criticism of the management of the Division of Mines.
The union has targeted Harry Childress, the state's chief mine inspector, for criticism since the explosion of a Dickenson County mine in 1983 that killed seven miners.
Main said Framme's response to the meeting with union officials The union has targeted Harry Childress, the state's chief mine inspector, for criticism since the explosion of a Dickenson County mine in 1983 that killed seven miners. skirted the union's concerns. The union, however, did not follow up on an invitation in Framme's letter to provide more evidence of its safety concerns to him or his successor as secretary of economic development, Catherine Magennis.
Max Kennedy, a union safety official, said the UMW was distracted from responding to Framme's invitation by a series of events but has plans to respond with more information about its concerns.
Despite union criticism, Framme said that the state had made considerable improvement in the previous 2 1/2 years in its inspection program.
Before 1985, the state was making 85 percent of the mine inspections required yearly by law - four at each underground mine and two at each surface mine, Framme said. But that has improved to 100 percent, he said.
Frequent inspections of the state's 480 mines are necessary for a high quality safety program, but it's not easy to make the number of inspections required by state law, "given the budget and personnel rules" which the Division of Mines must meet, Framme said.
When the division improved its inspection rate, no additional inspectors were hired. "Instead, the existing 22 inspectors were challenged to work harder," Framme said.
This year, however, the legislature appropriated $508,000 to beef up the manpower in the Division of Mines. The division got money to hire two more inspectors, two mine ventilation specialists and four instructors for its training and certification program.
Once the division improved its inspection rate, it started to work on improving the quality of inspections, Framme said.
Standardized inspection forms were developed so each inspector would cover all required safety checks in each inspection. Information gathered during inspections has been computerized, so problem areas can be identified and given special attention in training and inspections.
The union complained to Framme that Childress was overriding his field inspectors and that inspectors were not given enough autonomy in making on-the-spot decisions.
Framme said that because of the complexity of the law, inspectors tend to go to Childress for an interpretation when confronted with questions that are out of the routine, feeling that is quicker than having to research the law and division policy themselves.
In the 3 1/2 years from Jan. 1, 1989 to May 13, 1992, Childress overruled his inspectors on only 11 of 16,000 violations they had cited against coal companies, Framme said. That was six-tenths of 1 percent of the violations, compared with up to 5 percent of violation notices vacated by the federal government.
Union complains
The union also charged that the state agency was not as concerned as it should be about safety issues.
One such complaint came from Danny Sparks, the chairman of the UMW mine safety committee at Island Creek Coal Co.'s Virginia Pocahontas No. 5 mine in Buchanan County. Sparks attended the meeting with Framme.
Sparks related how on one early morning shift in 1991, he discovered explosive levels of methane seeping through a crack into the mine.
After disagreeing with mine management about the danger, Sparks said he called a Division of Mines supervisor. He said the man told him to call the federal inspectors and if they couldn't help, to come back to the state.
Abbott said the division could not immediately respond to Sparks' comments but would look into the matter.