Mine agency moves to bolster safety
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WASHINGTON - The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is seeking funding to divide its busiest district, which included the Upper Big Branch mine where 29 men died in an explosion last year.
In President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2012 budget, which includes cuts to many agencies, MSHA sees a $19 million funding increase from the 2010 budget, to $384 million. (Congress has been unable to agree on a 2011 budget, enacting temporary stopgap measures instead.) Included in the increase is $491,000 to set up a new office in Pineville, W.Va., and $634,000 in annual rent for the space. This new District 12 will be carved out of District 4 in southern West Virginia, which still will include Upper Big Branch, starting this spring.
The current district, according to MSHA, has the most employees, hands out the most citations and oversees the most mining machines - by far.
"Resources must be reallocated to allow MSHA's coal division to effectively carry out its mission, including new administration initiatives designed to strengthen health and safety protections for the nation's miners," MSHA head Joe Main said in a statement. "MSHA is committed to implementing management reforms that will increase the agency's efficiency and effectiveness within a significantly constrained budget framework."
The various investigations into April's Upper Big Branch explosion, the deadliest mine disaster in 40 years, are winding down, and MSHA is likely to take considerable heat in the final record for failing to shut down the troubled mine. MSHA issued more major citations at the Massey Energy-owned mine - the company is now being acquired by Alpha Natural Resources - than at any other mine in the country.
Kentucky mine safety attorney Tony Oppegard, a former MSHA official, said the agency bore some blame for Upper Big Branch, and that splitting up the district was a positive step.
"I think it's an acknowledgment that enforcement wasn't up to snuff in the district and changes need to be made," he said.
First Published February 16, 2011 12:00 am
