Source: http://www.wvlegislature.gov/bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB4351%20SUB%20ENR.htm&yr=2012&sesstype=RS&i=4351
Timestamp: 2018-03-19 11:30:01
Document Index: 673961100

Matched Legal Cases: ['§15', '§15', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22', '§22']

AN ACT to amend and reenact §15-5B-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §15-5B-6; to amend and reenact §22A-1-4, §22A-1-14 and §22A-1-21 of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto two new sections, designated §22A-1-13a and 22A-1-40; to amend said code by adding thereto a new article, designated §22A-1A-1, §22A-1A-2, §22A-1A-3 and §22A-1A-4; to amend and reenact §22A-2-2, §22A-2-12, §22A-2-16, §22A-2-20, §22A-2-24, §22A-2-43, §22A-2-55 and §22A-2-66 of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §22A-2-43a; to amend and reenact §22A-6-4 of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto two new sections, designated §22A-6-13 and §22A-6-14; to amend and reenact §22A-7-5 of said code; to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §22A-7-5a; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new article, designated §22A-12-1, all relating to mine safety generally; requiring coal mine operators to provide reports to and notify certain entities in the event of an emergency; establishing a mine safety anonymous tip hotline; exempting information provided to the hotline from the Freedom of Information Act; permitting the Director of the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training to share information regarding certification suspensions or revocations with other states and to promulgate certain legislative rules; requiring a study be conducted regarding mine inspector qualifications, compensation, training and inspections; creating a criminal offense and establishing criminal penalties for providing advance notice of an inspection or an inspector’s presence at a mine; increasing civil and criminal penalties; requiring operator or employer to investigate complaints involving impaired miners; creating criminal offense and penalty for willful violation of mine safety laws, rules or standards causing a fatality; providing confidentiality of certain meetings relating to violations and mining accidents; excepting certain statements from release under freedom of information act; providing conditions relating to statements to director; allowing designation of certain persons by miner family members to attend interviews and hearings in certain circumstances and providing limitations thereto; providing that Director prepare and distribute list containing certain information of persons to assist families following accidents; providing for suspension of mining certificates in certain circumstances; requiring coal mining operators and certain employers to implement substance abuse screening policy and program for certain persons; providing procedures and minimum requirements of substance abuse screening policy and program; requiring substance abuse screening upon preemployment, rehiring or transfer of miner; requiring coal mine operators to provide notification to the Director of the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training of certain information at specified intervals and upon certain events related to substance abuse violations; allowing operator policies to be more restrictive than minimum statutory requirements; requiring substance abuse screening of all persons in safety sensitive positions; requiring immediate suspension of miner certificates as a result of suspensions or revocations for substance abuse in other jurisdictions and reciprocity; providing procedure for board of appeals hearings on certification suspensions and judicial review of board decisions; providing exemptions from and exceptions to the disclosure of substance abuse screening results; proving rule-making on thresholds and other protocols and requirements; providing internal effective dates; revising procedure for approval, review, comment and enforcement of mine ventilation plans; increasing the number of days an apprentice must work within sight and sound of mine foreman or experienced miner; authorizing additional training when certain conduct creating hazardous condition at mine; requiring methane detectors be maintained in accordance with manufacturer specifications; requiring periodic review copies of fire boss books by the mining superintendent or senior person at the mine, and duties thereto; requiring director to proscribe fire boss book; revising and expanding examination and reporting requirements relating to certain inspections; increasing the percentage of rock dust to be maintained in coal mines and providing certain information upon request; prescribing actions required to detect and respond to excess methane gas levels in coal mines; establishing safety levels and testing requirements relating to methane and providing for rules relating thereto and requiring certain action at certain levels; prescribing requirements for persons to operate or repair mining machinery; providing for increased training regarding the use of self-contained self-rescue devices; providing additional notification by coal mine operators in the event of an accident; allowing reduction of civil penalties when mitigating circumstances exist; authorizing board to conduct investigation in accidents resulting in a fatality; requiring study of and report on the safety of working or traveling in bleeder or gob areas of certain coal mines; requiring studies of expanding certification and mandatory substance abuse program and authorizing emergency rule-making by the Board and Director relating thereto; directing additional education for certain miners rights and protections; requiring study of and report on education, training and examination associated with certifying miners; and requiring a study and report on enforcement procedures.
(c) Mine inspectors shall devote their full-time and undivided attention to the performance of their duties, and they shall examine all of the mines in their respective districts at least four times annually, and as often, in addition thereto, as the director may direct, or the necessities of the case or the condition of the mine or mines may require, with no advance notice of inspection provided to any person, and they shall make a personal examination of each working face and all entrances to abandoned parts of the mine where gas is known to liberate, for the purpose of determining whether an imminent danger, referred to in section fifteen of this article, exists in the mine, or whether any provision of article two of this chapter is being violated or has been violated within the past forty-eight hours in the mine. No other person shall, with the intent of undermining the integrity of an unannounced mine inspection, provide advance notice of any inspection or of an inspector’s presence at a mine to any person at that mine. Any person who, with the requisite intent, knowingly causes or conspires to provide advance notice of any inspection or of an inspector’s presence at a mine is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $15,000 or imprisoned in a state correctional facility not less than one year and not more than five years, or both fined and imprisoned.
(g) At the commencement of any inspection of a coal mine by an authorized representative of the director, the authorized representative of the miners at the mine at the time of the inspection shall be given an opportunity to accompany the authorized representative of the director on the inspection.
(a) The Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training shall prescribe and establish a course of instruction in mine safety and particularly in dangers incident to employment in mines and in mining laws and rules, which course of instruction shall be successfully completed within twelve weeks after any person is first employed as a miner. It is further the duty and responsibility of the Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training to see that the course is given to all persons as above provided after their first being employed in any mine in this state. In addition to other enforcement actions available to the director, upon a finding by the director of the existence of a pattern of conduct creating a hazardous condition at a mine, the director shall notify the Board of Miners’ Training, Education and Certification, which shall cause additional training to occur at the mine addressing such safety issue or issues identified by the director, pursuant to article seven of this chapter.
(c) Persons whose duties require them to use a approved methane detecting deviceor other approved methane detectors shall be examined at least annually as to their competence by a qualified official from the Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training and a record of the examination shall be kept by the operator and the office. Approved methane detecting devices and other approved methane detectors shall be given proper maintenance and shall be tested before each working shift. Each operator shall provide for the proper maintenance and care of the permissible approved methane detecting device or any other approved device for detecting methane and oxygen deficiency by a person trained in the maintenance, and, before each shift, care shall be taken to ensure that the approved methane detecting device or other device is in a permissible condition and maintained according to manufacturer’s specifications.
The mine foreman shall, each day, read carefully and countersign with ink or indelible pencil all reports entered in the record book of the fire bosses. The mine foreman shall supervise the fire boss or fire bosses, except as provided in section twenty-one of this article. No less frequently than bi-weekly, the superintendent or, if there is no superintendent, the senior person at the mine shall obtain complete copies of the books of the fire bosses, and acknowledge that he or she has reviewed such copies and acted accordingly. This acknowledgment shall be made by signing a book prescribed by the director for that purpose.
(a) It is the duty of the fire boss, or a certified person acting as such, to prepare a danger signal (a separate signal for each shift) with red color at the mine entrance at the beginning of his or her shift or prior to his or her entering the mine to make his or her examination and, except for those persons already on assigned duty, no person except the mine owner, operator or agent, and only then in the case of necessity, shall pass beyond this danger signal until the mine has been examined by the fire boss or other certified person and the mine or certain parts thereof reported by him or her to be safe. When reported by him or her to be safe, the danger sign or color thereof shall be changed to indicate that the mine is safe in order that employees going on shift may begin work. Each person designated to make the fire boss examinations shall be assigned a definite underground area of the mine, and, in making his or her examination shall examine all active working places in the assigned area and make tests with an approved device for accumulations of methane and oxygen deficiency; examine seals and doors; examine and test the roof, face and ribs in the working places and on active roadways and travelways, approaches to abandoned workings, accessible falls in active sections and areas where any person is scheduled to work or travel underground. He or she shall place his or her initials and the date at or near the face of each place he or she examines. Should he or she find a condition which he or she considers dangerous to persons entering the areas, he or she shall place a conspicuous danger sign at all entrances to the place or places. Only persons authorized by the mine management may enter the places while the sign is posted and only for the purpose of eliminating the dangerous condition. Upon completing his or her examination he or she shall report by suitable communication system or in person the results of this examination to a certified person designated by mine management to receive and record the report, at a designated station on the surface of the premises of the mine or underground, before other persons enter the mine to work in coal-producing shifts. He or she shall also record the results of his or her examination with ink or indelible pencil in a book prescribed by the director, kept for the purpose at a place on the surface of the mine designated by mine management. All records of daily and weekly reports, as prescribed herein, shall be open for inspection by interested persons.
(a) Hand-held testing required. -- In any mine, no electrical equipment or permissible diesel powered equipment may be brought inby the last open crosscut until a qualified person tests for methane. If one percent or more methane is present, the equipment may not be taken into the area until the methane concentration is reduced to less than one percent. Thereafter, subsequent methane examinations shall be made at least every twenty minutes while any electrical or diesel powered equipment is present and energized.
(f)(1) A self-contained self-rescue device approved by the director shall be worn by each person underground or kept within his or her immediate reach and the device shall be provided by the operator. The self-contained self-rescue device shall be adequate to protect a miner for one hour or longer. Each operator shall train each miner in the use of the device and refresher training courses for all underground employees shall be held once each quarter. Quarters shall be based on a calendar year.
(b) Whenever any accident occurs in or about any coal mine or the machinery connected therewith, it is the duty of the operator or the mine foreman in charge of the mine to give notice, within fifteen minutes of ascertaining the occurrence of an accident, to the Mine and Industrial Accident Emergency Operations Center at the statewide telephone number established by the Director of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management pursuant to the provisions of article five-b, chapter fifteen of this code stating the particulars of the accident: Provided, That the operator or the mine foreman in charge of the mine may comply with this notice requirement by immediately providing notice to the appropriate local organization for emergency services as defined in section eight, article five of said chapter, or the appropriate local emergency telephone system operator as defined in article six, chapter twenty-four of this code: Provided, however, That if, immediately upon ascertaining the occurrence of an accident, the operator or the mine foreman in charge of the mine provides notice to the local organization for emergency services as defined in section eight, article five, chapter fifteen of this code, or the appropriate local emergency telephone system operator as defined in article six, chapter twenty-four of this code, then, in order to comply with this subsection, the operator or mine foreman in charge of the mine shall also give notice to the Mine and Industrial Accident Emergency Operations Center at the statewide number identified in this subsection within fifteen minutes of completing the telephone call to the local organization for emergency services or the appropriate local emergency telephone system operator, as applicable: Provided, further, That nothing in this subsection shall be construed to relieve the operator from any reporting or notification requirement under federal law.
ARTICLE 12. UNDERGROUND ACCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS.§22A-12-1. Report on enforcement procedures.