Gov. Rendell this week signed the first major update of Pennsylvania's 125-year-old bituminous deep mine safety law in 45 years, ensuring better protection for the Commonwealth's 4,200 underground bituminous coal miners.

The new law-- Senate Bill 949 (Kasunic-D-Somerset)-- incorporates recommendations to improve safety conditions that were made following the 2002 Quecreek Mine Rescue in Somerset County.

It also allows Pennsylvania mines to be competitive in the national and international markets while holding mine operators responsible for the safety of their mines, and it creates a process to update mine safety regulations in the future.

"Our miners and their families face the dangers of working underground every day to provide us with the energy we need to carry on our way of life," said Gov. Rendell. "We owe it to them to provide a safe workplace.

"This industry and its dedicated workers have been a cornerstone of our economy for more than 200 years. Thanks to the hard work of the legislature and representatives of labor and industry, we have enacted one of the nation's strongest mine safety laws, which completes the work begun following the Quecreek Mine accident."

Pennsylvania began regulating mine safety in 1869. The bituminous mine safety law was first written in 1883, but it had not been updated since 1961.

Most significantly, the new law creates a seven-member Board of Coal Mine Safety that will be chaired by the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, with equal representation among mine owners and mine workers. The board will have the authority to write new mine safety regulations-something the department is unable to do through existing statute.

In addition, the new law will:

· Make the mine owner or operator primarily responsible for safety compliance at the mine and allow DEP to assess fines and penalties for noncompliance. Currently, only individually certified employees or supervisors, such as foremen, can be held responsible for an accident, not the mine company or its executives;

· Increase to 500 feet from 200 feet the distance from which a bituminous underground operator must conduct advanced drilling when approaching an adjacent mine that may contain water or gas to provide an extra measure of security so miners don't accidentally breech an abandoned mine pool, as happened at Quecreek; and

· Authorize the department to use emergency contracting provisions to pay for mine rescue and other mine safety activities.

"Mining can be a dangerous profession and we need to be able to protect against the realities of 21st century mining if we're to keep our miners safe," said Gov. Rendell. "Our old mine safety law contained out-dated language that had little to do with modern coal mining, including references to animals and stables in mines. This bill makes substantial improvements to ensure that owners and operators are responsible for the safety of their mines and allows us to adapt quickly to changing mining methods and technologies."

Updating Pennsylvania's underground mine safety program has been a priority since 2002 when nine miners at the Quecreek Mine in Somerset County were trapped underground after they breached a flooded and abandoned mine that was not shown on mining maps. All nine miners survived following a dramatic rescue.

The measures in this bill supplement administrative changes made by DEP's Bureau of Mine Safety since the Quecreek accident, including:

· Giving mine safety officials the authority to review every mine permit application and reject applications if they think unsafe conditions may exist;

· Implementing stringent new requirements to validate and verify underground mine maps before new mining can take place;

· Increasing the distance between planned mining and abandoned mines from 200 feet to 500 feet-to provide an extra measure of security so miners don't accidentally breech an abandoned mine pool containing millions of gallons of water, as happened at Quecreek;

· Replacing outdated equipment that was more than 30 years old with 84 new, self-contained breathing units, at a cost of $745,000, for underground mine rescue teams. These new units are housed at mine rescue stations in Uniontown, Fayette County; Ebensburg, Cambria County; and Tremont, Schuylkill County;

· Developing and implementing training for dealing with mine inundation, as well as continuing education programs for mining professionals, mine managers, and mine inspectors on mine safety issues; and

· Increasing salaries for engineers, inspectors and training staff in order to be more competitive when recruiting and maintaining quality safety professionals.

In October, Gov. Rendell signed the Mine Families First Act, sponsored by Rep. Bob Bastian (R-Somerset), into law to ensure that families of miners involved in underground emergencies are treated with dignity and respect while they await information on their loved ones.

The act establishes a plan for notifying families about the status of their relatives and the progress of rescue operations; provides for transportation to and from a place for family members to gather; institutes security measures to ensure privacy; and provides counseling through social service organizations.

Pennsylvania is the fourth largest coal producing state, following Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky, with 35 underground bituminous mines reporting production in 2007, including four of the six highest-producing underground mines in the nation. More than 20,000 bituminous coal miners have died in accidents since the commonwealth began keeping records in 1877.

With Gov. Rendell's signature on the new mine safety legislation, the Department of Environmental Protection has followed through on every recommendation made by the Gov. Schweiker’s Commission on Mine Safety, DEP's Bureau of Mine Safety, the state Attorney General's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration in the wake of the Quecreek accident.

The bill is now Act 55 of 2008.

For more information, visit DEP’s Deep Mine Safety webpage.

NewsClip: Rendell Signs Updated Mine Safety Bill Into Law

State Addresses Mining Issues

Editorial: New Regulations Focus on Advances Since Quecreek

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7/11/2008