While the safety record of Utah’s Crandall Canyon Mine, where six workers remain trapped, has come under scrutiny, Colorado’s own Elk Creek Mine has a more significant record of safety issues, according to federal data.
In January, a 26-year-old coal miner was killed while working at the Gunnison County coal mine, and management this year has received 155 citations from the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration.
Sixty-two of those violations were deemed “significant and substantial,” ones that could result in injury or death.
Explosive coal-dust buildup, inadequate ventilation, excessive methane, and poor maintenance and operation of equipment, including fire extinguishers, were among the violations found at Elk Creek this year, according to MSHA’s database.
In comparison, Crandall Canyon Mine has been cited 325 times for alleged safety violations since January 2004. Of those, 116 were considered “significant and substantial.”
Jim Cooper, the manager at Elk Creek, contends his mine is safe. He says that the January fatality was the first in the state in six years and that the numbers of violations don’t tell the whole story.
“Citations don’t have anything to do with safety records,” he said.
Cooper complained that MSHA writes citations when a foreman makes a slight error such as signing his name in the wrong place on a piece of paper or for not having a working toilet.
As to “significant and substantial” citations, Cooper says the company tries to learn from the infractions and move forward.
“We do feel under siege right now,” Cooper said of mining companies. “And I am prejudiced. I have been doing this for 35 years. I think the industry is being singled out right now.”
In 2006, Oxbow Mining LLC, the company that runs the mine, was fined $90,981 in penalties – an all-time high – but paid only $46,135 because violations can be appealed or disputed, according to MSHA records.
So far this year, Oxbow was told to pay $11,118 in fines, but the record doesn’t show whether any payments were made yet.
Not fined for death
Cooper says he was not fined for the miner’s death after three MSHA inspectors from out of state conducted an investigation.
Elk Creek’s record can’t be used to predict disasters like the ones at Crandall Canyon Mine or West Virginia’s Sago Mine, where a dozen miners died, but it is an indicator of risk, said Davitt McAteer, former assistant secretary of MSHA during the Clinton administration.
“You have enough to suggest in Elk Creek that this is a mine you should look at,” McAteer said of the 62 serious violations this year. “That is exactly the kind of violations that lead to death and an indicator that it is a problem mine.”
But Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Mining Association, says the state’s mines have a better safety record than the national average.
Through June this year, the national average of time lost to injury was 4.51 days per 200,000 man-hours worked, Sanderson said. So far this year, Elk Creek has had 2.88 days lost per 200,000 man-hours worked.
Also, Elk Creek produces about 6 million tons of coal annually, compared with 600,000 tons produced at Crandall Canyon last year.
“MSHA has a practice of citing violations extensively at all operations, and they are doing their job, but that does not necessarily correspond to increased safety risk,” Sanderson said.
Bob Butero, regional director of the United Mine Workers of America, said citations are one of the best signs that there are safety problems at a mine.
“I firmly believe … citations is one of the tools if I am looking at a mine and trying to judge if they are having problems,” he said. “It’s not the only measure of safety, but it’s a way of figuring out what is occurring at the mine.”
Many times, Butero said, miners won’t report their injuries so that a company’s accident numbers stay low and they get paid or get bonuses for having so many consecutive accident-free days.
McAteer said MSHA safety inspectors should be looking at a mine’s history going back at least three years to determine whether a mine needs to be sanctioned or shut down.
An “imminent danger”
MSHA inspectors don’t have the authority to shut down mines with frequent safety violations unless those violations present an “imminent danger” to the lives of miners.
However, McAteer says inspectors can discuss safety issues with mine management if they see the violation numbers trending up.
“What I told our inspectors is, ‘You see these numbers going in the wrong direction? Say, “Hey, what is going on? Things are going sloppy,”‘ McAteer said.
Elk Creek’s violations were highest in 2005, with 347. Last year, the company was cited 244 times.
The costliest fine given Elk Creek this year for a violation is $1,955, hardly a hefty price.
But McAteer says after the Sago Mine deaths, MSHA upped the fines for violations in an effort to increase compliance.
He says it’s too early to tell whether the increase has made an impact on the industry.
Cooper said inspectors “like to write citations” and complained that they take away time from managers who could be focusing on safety.
“I think a lot of citations hinder safety conditions at a mine,” he said. “If they have to deal with answering citations, it’s a waste of time.”
In the past two weeks, Cooper said an inspector wrote him a citation but said he wasn’t sure about the validity of the citation.
“He said, ‘I’m not sure this is a violation, but you can test it and find out,”‘ Cooper said.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
