The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration announced that federal inspectors issued 131 citations and 11 orders during special impact inspections conducted at 12 coal mines in August.
The monthly inspections, which began in force in April 2010 following the death of 29 miners in the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine, involve mines that merit increased agency attention and enforcement due to their poor compliance history or particular compliance concerns, including evidence of a mine’s failure to control respirable dust and operator tactics to prevent MSHA from finding violations. The August 2014 impact inspections included examples where MSHA found both.
Click here for: MSHA report with link to spreadsheet (pdf).