All agree that reducing the number of blasters should help remedy this situation. All Districts with internal blasting programs expressed concern that the trainees in the program are not progressing towards full certification adequately. Too little blasting is going on to gain the necessary experience. All Districts feel that the current level of need for the program will remain at about the current level into the foreseeable future. There will be some fluctuations, but there also will probably not be any huge increases or decreases.
Safety is of paramount concern to the managers.
There are 2 types of blasting training needed by BLM employees. Blasters need to be recertified periodically to ensure that they are doing their blasting safely and in a competent manner. Employees who administer contracts that have blasting included in them also need safety training. Certification - Blaster Certification will be held once every 3 years and consist of 16 hours classroom and 8 hour field exercise. Blasters must attend the training every 3 years in order to be certified as a BLM blaster.