of Labor’s website, a detailed map or set of maps showing 
the exact geographic location of each operating or aban-
doned mine in the United States. Such map or maps 
shall— 
(1) be presented, through links within the 
website, in such a way as to make the location of a 
mine instantly available to the emergency personnel 
responding to the mine; 
(2) be available to members of the public; 
(3) allow a user to find the geographic location 
of a particular mine, or the geographic locations of 
all mines of a particular type in a county, congres-
sional district, State, or other commonly used geo-
graphic region; and 
(4) provide the geographic location of any min-
ing waste impoundments with links to associated 
emergency contact information and available emer-
gency response plans. 
(d) REQUIRED NOTIFICATION OF EMERGENCIES AND 
SERIOUS INCIDENTS.—Section 103(j) (30 U.S.C. 813) is 
amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(j) In the event of any accident occurring in any 
coal or other mine, the operator shall notify the Secretary 
and shall take appropriate measures to prevent the de-
struction of any evidence which would assist in inves-
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tigating the cause or causes of the accident. For purposes 
of the preceding sentence, the notification required shall 
be provided by the operator within 15 minutes of the time 
at which the operator realizes that the death of an indi-
vidual at the mine, or an injury or entrapment of an indi-
vidual at the mine which has a reasonable potential to 
cause death, has occurred, or within 1 hour of the time 
at which the operator realizes that any of the following 
have occurred in the mine: 
‘‘(1) a fire; 
‘‘(2) a roof fall, unplanned inundation, collapse, 
or unplanned explosion; 
‘‘(3) a sudden change in mine atmospheric con-
ditions in a sealed area; 
‘‘(4) a rib fall that impairs ventilation or im-
pedes escape; 
‘‘(5) a coal or rock outburst that causes the 
withdrawal of miners; 
‘‘(6) the failure of an impoundment; 
‘‘(7) damage to hoisting equipment in a shaft 
or slope that endangers an individual; 
‘‘(8) any incident that leads to the death, seri-
ous injury with a reasonable potential to cause 
death, or entrapment, of a miner; and 
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‘‘(9) any other emergency or incident, as deter-
mined in regulations promulgated by the Secretary, 
that needs to be examined in order to determine if 
the working conditions in the mine are safe.’’. 
(e) ENHANCING THE CAPABILITIES OF MINE RES-
CUE
TEAMS.—Section 
115(e)(2)(B) 
(30 
U.S.C. 
825(e)(2)(B)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(v) The provision of uniform credentials to 
mine rescue team members, support personnel, or 
vehicles for immediate access to any mine site; 
‘‘(vi) The plans required at each mine to ensure 
coordination with local emergency response per-
sonnel and to ensure that such personnel receive 
adequate training to offer necessary assistance to 
mine rescue teams in the event such assistance is re-
quested. Such local emergency response personnel 
shall not perform the duties of any mine rescue 
team; and 
‘‘(vii) Requirements to ensure that operators 
are prepared to facilitate the work of mine rescue 
teams during an emergency by— 
‘‘(I) storing necessary equipment in loca-
tions readily accessible to mine rescue teams; 
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‘‘(II) providing mine rescue teams with a 
parking and staging area adequate for their 
needs; 
‘‘(III) identifying a space appropriate for 
coordinating emergency communications with 
the mine rescue team; and 
‘‘(IV) identifying and maintaining separate 
spaces for family members, community mem-
bers, and press to assemble during an emer-
gency so as to facilitate communications with 
these groups while ensuring the efforts of the 
mine rescue teams are not hindered.’’. 
(f) EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE.— 
(1) AMBULANCE.—Not later than 3 months 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary shall promulgate regulations to require mine 
operators to have, within 20 minutes from the site 
of every coal or other mine, an ambulance or other 
means of providing emergency medical response in 
the event of an accident. 
(2) MEDICAL EMERGENCY TECHNICIAN TRAIN-
ING.—The Secretary shall review the training and 
availability requirements for medical emergency 
technicians in effect as of the date of enactment of 
this Act and shall promptly revise such requirements 
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in any regulations necessary to improve such train-
ing and increase the availability of medical emer-
gency technicians. 
(g) ACCIDENT
AND INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS.— 
Section 103(b) (30 U.S.C. 813(b) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘For the purpose’’ and inserting 
‘‘(2) For the purpose’’; 
(2) by inserting after the subsection designation 
the following: 
‘‘(1) Not later than 30 days after the date of enact-
ment of the S–MINER act, the Secretary shall initiate 
rulemaking activity to establish rules on the procedures 
that will be used to investigate mining accidents and inci-
dents, and shall directly contact and solicit the participa-
tion of— 
‘‘(A) individuals identified by the Secretary as 
family members of miners who perished in mining 
accidents of any type during the preceding 10-year 
period; 
‘‘(B) organizations representing miners; 
‘‘(C) mine rescue teams; 
‘‘(D) Federal, State, and local investigation and 
prosecutorial authorities; and 
‘‘(E) others whom the Secretary determines 
may have information relevant to this rulemaking. 
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Such rules shall be issued not later than October 1, 2008, 
and shall include the investigation of any activities of Fed-
eral employees that may be relevant to such accidents or 
incidents, and may establish alternative procedures for 
such investigations depending upon such factors as the 
Secretary determines are appropriate. Such rules shall in-
clude procedures to ensure that witnesses are not coerced, 
to avoid conflicts of interest in witness representation, and 
to ensure confidentiality if requested by any witness. Such 
rules shall also require upon completion of an accident or 
incident investigation, the Secretary shall issue findings 
as to the actions or inactions which resulted in the acci-
dent or incident, and shall make recommendations as to 
policy, regulatory, enforcement or other changes, including 
statutory changes, which in the judgment of the Sec-
retary’s mine safety and health experts would best prevent 
a recurrence of such actions or inactions at other mines, 
and shall promptly make all such findings and rec-
ommendations public (except findings and recommenda-
tions that must be temporarily withheld in connection with 
a criminal referral). Such rules shall further provide that 
the Secretary shall hold appropriate public hearings at the 
conclusion of the investigation of incidents to inform the 
mining community of the findings and recommendations, 
and shall also provide that the Secretary track the imple-
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mentation of accident and incident investigation rec-
ommendations and provide such information annually to 
the Congress.’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(3) After an accident or incident and upon the time-
ly request of the authorized representative of the miners 
or the families at a mine, the Secretary shall contract with 
the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board to 
conduct an independent investigation of the accident or 
incident and provide recommendations to the Secretary. 
Such investigation shall be in addition to any investigation 
conducted by the Secretary, and shall be conducted pursu-
ant to whatever procedures such authority determines are 
appropriate for the investigation. The Secretary shall pro-
vide such authority with all information and expertise re-
quested, and shall pay for such authority to conduct the 
authority’s investigation, including the costs of obtaining 
the services of independent experts required for any such 
investigation.’’. 
SEC. 7. RESPIRABLE DUST STANDARDS. 
(a) 
RESPIRABLE
DUST; 
RESPIRABLE
SILICA 
DUST.—Section 202 (30 U.S.C. 842) is amended to read 
as follows: 
‘‘DUST STANDARD AND RESPIRATORY EQUIPMENT 
‘‘SEC. 202. (a)(1) Effective on the date of enactment 
of the S–MINER Act, each mine operator shall continu-
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ously maintain the concentration of respirable dust in the 
mine atmosphere during each shift to which each miner 
in the active workings of such mine is exposed at or below 
a time-weighted average of 1.00 milligrams of respirable 
dust per cubic meter of air averaged over 10 hours or its 
dose-equivalent for shorter or longer period of time. For 
purposes of this paragraph, ‘a dose-equivalent’ means the 
amount of dust that a miner would inhale during his work 
shift as if he were working for 10 hours, and the term 
‘shift’ means portal-to-portal for coal mines and ‘bank to 
bank’ for other mines. 
‘‘(2) At regular intervals to be prescribed by the Sec-
retary and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, 
the Secretary will take accurate samples of the amount 
of respirable dust in the mine atmosphere to which each 
miner in the active workings of such mine is exposed in 
order to determine compliance with the requirements of 
paragraph (a)(1) of this section. In addition, the Secretary 
shall cause to be made such frequent spot inspections as 
he deems appropriate of the active workings of coal mines 
for the purpose of obtaining compliance with the provi-
sions of this title. All samples by the Secretary shall be 
taken by a personal dust monitor that measures, records 
and displays the concentration of respirable dust to which 
the miner wearing the device is exposed, and shall include 
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the sampling of areas, occupations or persons. For the 
purposes of determining compliance with the exposure 
limit for respirable dust, only a single sample shall be re-
quired to determine non-compliance, and there shall be no 
adjustment for measurement error in the measured level 
of respirable dust. 
‘‘(3) Each operator of a coal mine shall take accurate 
samples of the amount of respirable dust in the mine at-
mosphere to which each miner in the active workings of 
such mine is exposed to identify sources of exposure so 
that the operator can take corrective action and assure 
that the exposure of each mine is below the exposure limit. 
Under the provisions of this Act, all such samples shall 
be taken by a personal dust monitor that measures, 
records and displays the concentration of respirable dust 
to which the miner wearing the device is exposed. The re-
sults of such sampling shall be transmitted to the Sec-
retary in a manner established by him, and recorded by 
him in a manner that will assure application of the provi-
sions of this section of the Act. 
‘‘(4) Each miner shall be equipped with a personal 
dust monitor that measures, records and displays the con-
centration of respirable dust to which the miner wearing 
the device is exposed. Each miner shall be permitted to 
adjust his work activities whenever necessary to keep his 
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exposure to respirable coal dust, as measured, recorded 
and displayed by such device, at all times at or below the 
permitted concentration. 
‘‘(b) Effective on the effective date of the S–MINER 
Act, each operator shall continuously maintain the con-
centration of respirable silica dust in the mine atmosphere 
during each shift to which each miner in the active work-
ings of such mine is exposed at or below a time-weighted 
average of 0.05 milligrams of respirable silica dust per 
cubic meter of air averaged over ten hours or its dose- 
equivalent for shorter or longer period of time. For the 
purposes of this paragraph, compliance shall be deter-
mined by the sampling of areas, occupations or persons, 
only a single sample shall be required to determine non- 
compliance, and there shall be no adjustment for measure-
ment error in the measured level of respirable silica dust. 
For the purposes of this paragraph, a ‘dose-equivalent’ 
means the amount of dust that a miner would inhale dur-
ing his work shift as if he were working for 10 hours, 
and the term ‘shift’ means portal-to-portal for coal mines 
and ‘bank to bank’ for other mines. 
‘‘(c) Respiratory equipment approved by the Sec-
retary and the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
shall be made available to all persons whenever exposed 
to concentrations of respirable dust or silica in excess of 
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the levels required to be maintained under this section. 
Use of respirators shall not be substituted for environ-
mental control measures in the active workings. Each op-
erator shall maintain a supply of respiratory equipment 
adequate to deal with occurrences of concentrations of res-
pirable dust and silica in the mine atmosphere in excess 
of the levels required to be maintained under this section. 
‘‘(d) Each operator shall report and certify to the 
Secretary at such intervals as the Secretary may require 
as to the conditions in the active workings of the coal 
mine, including, the average number of working hours 
worked during each shift, the quantity and velocity of air 
regularly reaching the working faces, the method of min-
ing, the amount and pressure of the water, if any, reach-
ing the working faces, and the number, location, and type 
of sprays, if any, used.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 205 (30 
U.S.C. 845) is repealed. 
(c) ASSESSMENT ON PROGRAM OPERATIONS OF CU-
MULATIVE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL REQUIREMENTS ADDED 
SINCE 1977.—The Secretary shall request the National 
Academy of Sciences to conduct a study of the impact on 
the mine safety and health responsibilities of the Depart-
ment of Labor of various statutes, executive orders, and 
memoranda applicable to the issuance of rulemaking and 
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guidance and to enforcement. The study shall include an 
assessment of the Equal Access to Justice Act, the Regu-
latory Flexibility Act, the Small Business Regulatory En-
forcement Fairness Act, the Data Quality Act, the Paper-
work Reduction Act, the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, 
the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the Congressional 
Review Act, Executive Order 12866, Executive Order 
13422, and memoranda from the Office of Management 
and Budget on guidance, risk assessment and cost anal-
ysis. The Secretary shall request that the National Acad-
emy of Sciences consult widely with experts in administra-
tive law and other disciplines knowledgeable about such 
requirements, and to quantify to the extent possible the 
costs to miners of the aforementioned requirements. The 
Secretary shall further request that recommendations be 
included in the report, and request that such report and 
recommendations be completed, and copies forwarded to 
the Congress, no later than 21 months after the effective 
date of this Act. 
Æ 
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