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Mar 21 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - John Stamper
The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Eleven weeks after the Sago, W.Va., mine disaster exposed the coal industry's safety record to national scorn, the Kentucky legislature appears poised to pass a bipartisan bill that promises to make the state's nearly 600 coal mines a safer place to work. The compromise bill boosts the state's ability to enforce safety laws, jacks up fines and penalties for key safety violations, increases inspection requirements, and doubles the amount of breathable air available to miners during emergencies. The measure also creates a review panel to explore the feasibility of using new communications and miner-tracking technologies in underground mines. "This is personal to me," said Democratic Rep. Robin Webb of Grayson, a lawyer and former coal miner. "It was my chosen work and my life's work. I feel good about this bill." Senate Bill 200 now moves to the full House, which probably will take up the measure Thursday. The Senate then would need to concur with changes made in the House before the bill can be signed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who supports the proposal. Republican Sen. Robert Stivers of Manchester, the bill's primary sponsor, said the amended measure has "a good chance" in the Senate. However, one major sticking point remains. The bill proposes to increase the number of required annual inspections of coal mines from two to three. But proposed versions of the state's two-year budget provide no money to hire additional inspectors. LaJuana Wilcher, secretary of the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, called the bill "a great step forward" but warned that "there's absolutely no way this can be implemented effectively" without more resources. The state has 54 coal-mine inspectors, who performed 2,147 inspections last year. Inspectors must have five years of mining experience, but the position comes with a starting salary of $27,500, about half of what experienced coal miners can make. Wilcher estimated that 15 new inspectors would be needed to handle the additional inspection requirements. If more money isn't provided, the state will have to cut back on the number of "targeted" inspections at mines with documented safety problems, she said. Union officials urged legislators to provide money for more inspectors, noting that the number of game wardens in Kentucky is nearly triple that of coal-mine inspectors. "I think we all care just as much about our coal miners as we do our deer and turkey," said Steve Earle, lobbyist for United Mine Workers of America. Both Webb and Stivers said they will ask legislative leaders to include increased funding in the budget's final version. The bill contains a number of firsts for Kentucky mines, including provisions that: -- Give the commissioner of the Department for Natural Resources the authority to assess penalties of as much as $5,000 for violations of mine ventilation and roof-control plans. -- Require two-way communications between the working section of a mine and the surface. -- Put caches of self-rescuer devices in escapeways at specified intervals. -- Make it illegal to alter the scene of an accident. Notably absent from the proposal is any requirement that mines build rescue chambers, the only safety provision that experts think might have saved 12 miners killed after aexplosion in Sago. Underground emergency shelters, which mine operators could be required to build and maintain, successfully kept miners alive for nearly 30 hours after a January fire in a Canadian potash mine. It remains unclear whether similar rescue chambers would work in coal mines, said Stivers, noting that potash burns differently than coal. "If you start burning coal around a safe room, it becomes an oven," he said.
Reach John Stamper at (859) 231-1305 or 1-800-950-6397,05, jstamper@herald-leader.com [mailto:jstamper@herald-leader.com]. |