Wooten tries to speed mine safety changes

State mine safety director Ronald Wooten on Friday encouraged the coal industry to speed up implementation of West Virginia’s new mine rescue law.

Wooten announced that the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training ”will step up its efforts to expedite” the addition of emergency breathing devices, rescue shelters and communications equipment.

”Since taking the role of director three months ago, I have reviewed the progress within the office and throughout state mines, and I believe the time is now to require that mines get these safety features in their mines as fast as possible or face the consequences of enforcement actions,” Wooten said in a statement.

State mine safety director Ronald Wooten on Friday encouraged the coal industry to speed up implementation of West Virginia’s new mine rescue law.

Wooten announced that the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training ”will step up its efforts to expedite” the addition of emergency breathing devices, rescue shelters and communications equipment.

”Since taking the role of director three months ago, I have reviewed the progress within the office and throughout state mines, and I believe the time is now to require that mines get these safety features in their mines as fast as possible or face the consequences of enforcement actions,” Wooten said in a statement.

But after complaints from coal industry lobbyists, state regulators repeatedly delayed the deadlines for purchasing the new equipment.

Now, most coal operators say they have the devices on backorder, and are waiting for delivery. But at least one manufacturer, Draeger Safety, has thousands of SCSRs sitting in a Pittsburgh warehouse, waiting to be bought.

So far, the state has been willing to accept purchase orders from mine operators for compliance, and Wooten’s Friday news release did not indicate whether that was going to change.

In the news release, state officials said they expected to soon receive proposals by three different manufacturers for five different types of rescue shelters that could be used in underground mines. Wooten’s office will review those, and ”expedite approval” of their use ”so state mines can order the shelters and put them in place ahead of the schedule originally set,” the news release said.

Also in the news release, Wooten praised a state task force that was examining mine communications and miner tracking devices, but then took a position contrary to the group’s recommendations.

Wooten said the labor-industry task force ”has taken its task to heart and worked many long hours to give us a blueprint for installing safety equipment in the mines.”

Last year, the task force helped to rewrite state rules requiring mine operators to, by the end of July, submit plans for installing new wireless communications and miner tracking devices in underground mines.

The plans must include technology specifically approved by Wooten’s office. And, at the task force’s urging, state rules now include a long list of specific features that most existing products can’t meet. For example, the rules as rewritten require the devices to provide two-way communications, a requirement that shuts out an Australian text-messaging device advocated by Manchin mine safety adviser Davitt McAteer, because it sends messages only one-way to miners.

In his report on the Sago disaster, McAteer blasted the idea of waiting for a perfect underground communications system before installing any improvement at all.

”If we insist on waiting for perfect technological answers to the challenges facing us, we will wait forever,” McAteer wrote. ”The unmistakable message of the Sago disaster is that we cannot afford to wait.”

In his news release, Wooten indicates he has come around to McAteer’s position, a move that would contradict the task force recommendations.

Wooten said that, ”by taking a common-sense approach,” mines can introduce some systems that are available now.

”These are not the complete wireless systems we hope to see in mines in the near future,” Wooten said. ”But they are reliable wireless systems that provide present-day communications while additional work is done on more advanced technology.”

Gresham said, though, that the state did not plan to amend its rules to require companies to take actions beyond what is currently mandated.

Wooten said in the release, ”I am not satisfied, nor can the mining industry be satisfied, with just meeting regulations’ deadlines.

”We must meet the spirit of the law by doing everything we can to get safer conditions in our mines as fast as we can,” Wooten said. ”And we cannot wait for perfect-fit solutions; we need to make the best use of what’s available, upgrading as we are able.”