Opinion ID: 3171722
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statutory and accuracy-related challenges

Text: At the outset of their substantive challenge to the New Dust Rule, the petitioners question MSHA’s decision to depart from a regime of multi-shift averaging to single-shift sampling to determine the atmospheric conditions in the mine relative to its RCD limits. The petitioners claim that the single-shift scheme distorts the congressional intent to limit “chronic exposure to excessive RCD, not . . . short-term or episodic exposures.” Murray Energy Br. 29. They further 45 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 46 of 83 contend that the prior multi-shift scheme “‘minimize[d] the variability associated with the result of a single shift sample or several samples on a single shift’” and from “‘human and mechanical error.’” Id. at 31 (quoting Am. Mining Cong. v. Marshall, 671 F.2d 1251, 1259 (10th Cir. 1982)). By contrast, the New Dust Rule’s focus on the dustiest locations in the mine violates the statutory directive to determine “the atmospheric conditions . . . to which each miner . . . is exposed.” Mine Act § 202(f), 30 U.S.C. § 842(f) (emphasis added). Consequently, they contend, the move to single-shift sampling defies the statute’s requirement that the RCD samples “accurately represent” the atmospheric conditions in the mine. Id. The industry petitioners further submit that the level of “accuracy” attained by single-shift sampling is insufficient. Indeed, they maintain that the statute permits single-shift sampling only if it meets a dictionary definition of accuracy, i.e., “in exact conformity to truth.” NMA Br. 29 (internal quotation marks omitted). MSHA responds that the New Dust Rule’s approach of measuring over a single shift will, “after applying valid statistical techniques to such measurement, accurately represent such atmospheric conditions during such shift.” Mine Act § 202(f), 30 U.S.C. § 842(f). In its view, the move to single-shift sampling is the product of reasoned decision-making because it is based on “significant improvements in sampling technology, updated data, and comments and testimony on previous notices” as well as “recommendations contained in both the 1995 46 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 47 of 83 NIOSH Criteria Document and the 1996 Dust Advisory Committee Report.” 79 Fed. Reg. at 24,933. We cannot accept the petitioners’ arguments. First, the petitioners are incorrect in asserting that the statute is concerned only with chronic exposure. This subsection, 202(f) of the Mine Act, 30 U.S.C. § 842(f), demonstrates Congress’s recognition that cumulative exposure is the product of daily exposure. It therefore explicitly requires an accurate measurement of the actual, real-time conditions in the environment it is measuring—that is, the isolated shift in which the sampling occurs. NMA’s argument that the result is a sampling scheme with “no connection to the hazard that MSHA seeks to mitigate,” NMA Br. 37, is therefore unfounded. Indeed, Congress intended the former multi-shift sampling scheme to accomplish the same purpose as single-shift sampling. Under the Mine Act, the former approach was considered a temporary accommodation until technology and experience convinced MSHA that an accurate single-shift methodology was feasible. The statute therefore allows multi-shift sampling only when there is a finding that measurement during a particular shift does not accurately describe the conditions of that particular shift. See Mine Act § 202(f), 30 U.S.C. § 842(f). MSHA’s move to single-shift sampling is, therefore, grounded in the statute. We also see no merit in the petitioners’ contention that the single-shift sampling methodology of the New Dust Rule is inherently unreliable and therefore 47 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 48 of 83 frustrates the purposes of the statutory scheme. In addressing the accuracy of single-shift sampling, MSHA acknowledged in its rulemaking that “all measurements of atmospheric conditions are susceptible to some degree of measurement error.” 79 Fed. Reg. at 24,934. In deciding to employ NIOSH’s Accuracy Criterion to determine the acceptability of single-shift sampling, it selected a rule that requires samples to be within 25 percent of the actual sample 95 percent of the time. In making this decision, MSHA noted that the Accuracy Criterion “is relevant and widely recognized and accepted in the occupational health professions as providing acceptable limits for industrial hygiene measurements.” Id. To support its decision, MSHA relied upon NIOSH studies, which showed that, using either available monitoring technologies (the CPDM or the CMDPSU), 24 single-shift sampling conforms to the Accuracy Criterion. 25 24 “Since the 1970s, mine operators and MSHA inspectors have used the approved coal mine dust personal sampler unit (CMDPSU) to determine the concentration of respirable dust in coal mine atmospheres.” 79 Fed. Reg. at 24,859. The CMDPSU is a pump unit, worn or carried by the miner for 8 hours or his entire shift, whichever is shorter. Through its internal mechanism, nonrespirable particles are removed, and respirable dust particles are deposited on the filter surface. The collection filter is capped at the end of sampling “and sent to MSHA for processing, where it is disassembled to remove the filter capsule for weighing under controlled conditions to determine the amount of dust that was collected on the filter.” Id. at 24,860. The analysis took a week or more, preventing mine operators from putting in place effective controls when dust exceeded the applicable limits. As described in the preamble to the present rule, the principal goal in the development of the CPDM technology was “[t]he ability to continuously monitor and give mine operators and miners real-time feedback on dust concentrations in the work environment.” Id. MSHA set forth to support the development of “a new type of personal dust monitor that would provide a direct measurement of respirable coal mine dust levels in the mine atmosphere on a real-time (continued . . .) 48 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 49 of 83 In evaluating the industry petitioners’ specific objections, we first must note that the decision to use the Accuracy Criterion to evaluate the technology is not properly challenged in the present case. The regulation establishing its use to evaluate CPDM technology, 30 C.F.R. § 74.8, was not challenged within sixty days of its promulgation in 2010, as required for this court to have jurisdiction. See Mine Act § 101(d), 30 U.S.C. § 811(d). Even if implementation of the basis, unlike the existing sampling system used since 1970.” Id. Unlike its predecessor, the CPDM achieves that goal: The CPDM is a respirable dust sampler and gravimetric analysis device that is incorporated into the miner’s cap lamp battery case as a single package located on the belt. The device represents the first major advance in dust sampling technology in more than 30 years. Respirable Coal Mine Dust: Continuous Personal Dust Monitor (CPDM), 74 Fed. Reg. 52,708, 52,709 (Oct. 14, 2009). Mechanically, the core of the device is an inertial mass sensor called the TEOM, a hollow, tapered tube “which is clamped at the base and free to oscillate at its narrow or free end on which the collection filter is mounted.” Id. Electronics near the tapered element cause it to oscillate at its natural frequency when free of dust. Dust entering the device is first filtered to remove oversized, nonrespirable particles. RCD continues to the filter mounted on the free end of the tapered element, where it is captured. Once affixed to the filter, the particles change the frequency of oscillation of the TEOM in direct proportion to their mass. Critically, that change in oscillation is processed and analyzed internal to the device, and it continuously and immediately calculates and displays: (1) The respirable dust concentration calculated at distinct 30-minute intervals; (2) the average respirable dust exposure from the beginning of the shift; and, (3) the percent of exposure limit. Through the display, both the mine operator and miners wearing the device have the ability for the first time to gauge respirable dust exposures, as well as the effectiveness of corrective actions taken by authorized personnel to reduce a miner’s exposure. Id. 25 See, e.g., Appendix at V-BKG-55 at 1005, II-BKG-8 at 20. 49 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 50 of 83 Accuracy Criterion were properly before us, we only would have to determine that MSHA’s determination was a reasonable one worthy of our deference. The statute does not require technology with a zero tolerance for error—an impossible standard—as a prerequisite to the adoption of single-shift sampling. Indeed, it expresses a preference for single-shift sampling. Mine Act § 202(f), 30 U.S.C. § 842(f) (identifying single-shift sampling as the default rule). MSHA was justified in determining that technology that satisfies the Criterion is sufficiently accurate to sustain a move to single-shift sampling. 26 The industry petitioners also maintain that the abandonment of multi-shift sampling introduces an element of variability into the sampling methodology that eviscerates the statutory command for accuracy. By implementing the new scheme without the check provided by multi-shift sampling, reliance on samples taken from the dustiest locations is, they contend, also unfaithful to the statutory command to evaluate the conditions “to which each miner in the active workings of the mine is exposed,” Mine Act § 202(f), 30 U.S.C. § 842(f). See Murray Energy Br. 31–32. To support this argument, the petitioners invite our attention to American Mining Congress v. Marshall, 671 F.2d 1251 (10th Cir. 1982), in which 26 The use of the Accuracy Criterion and its margin of error is not, as the petitioners contend, an admission that the measurements taken are inaccurate. It is not a “drastic[] re‑defin[ition],” NMA Br. 38, of the statutory term “accurately.” It is an accepted methodology, used successfully in other occupational health contexts. 79 Fed. Reg. at 24,934. 50 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 51 of 83 our colleagues on the Tenth Circuit evaluated area sampling, a program designed to sample near dust-generating sources away from the working sections of the mine. In their view, the court in that case approved of area sampling only because MSHA employed multi-shift sampling. We cannot accept such an interpretation of American Mining Congress. The petitioners in that case challenged the prior 1980 Dust Rule on numerous bases. In considering those myriad challenges, the court did evaluate whether MSHA had sufficiently accounted for variability inherent in the chosen sampling methodology. The court relied in part on its conclusion that a multi-shift scheme “minimizes the variability associated with the result of a single sample.” Id. at 1259. This case hardly stands for the proposition that multi-shift sampling was required to account for variability. It merely states that MSHA’s response to the “conflicting evidence” about variability, which included persistence in the use of multi-shift sampling, was adequate to address any variability issues. Id. Indeed, the court’s remaining analysis undercuts any claim that it was a necessary response. In soundly rejecting the petitioners’ suggestion that citations should not issue when the measurements were within the range of sampling error from the statutory standard, the court stated that such a rule would resolve the remaining variability solely in favor of mine operators, to the detriment of the congressional purpose to protect miners from black lung disease. Congress has not mandated any accounting for variability and has given the Secretary broad discretion in enforcing the respirable dust standard. The Secretary 51 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 52 of 83 has not abused his discretion by refusing to put the risk of the remaining error on miners. Id. (emphasis added). Moreover, this discussion of potential issues with variability was entirely separate from the section addressing new additions to the existing sampling program, which found that MSHA’s judgment in favor of area sampling was reasonable despite the fact that it might overestimate a given miner’s exposure: The Secretary has demonstrated a rational basis for the designated area sampling program: if the atmosphere in the area of a known dust generation source is in compliance with the statutory standard, then it can safely be assumed that all miners are protected from overexposure to respirable dust. This assumption is justified since no one individual constantly works next to an outby[ 27] dust generation source over the course of an entire shift. Id. at 1256. Sampling in the dustiest locations 28 is and has been the applicable rule for decades and cannot seriously be challenged here. In any event, even when considered in conjunction with a new single-shift sampling scheme, we must conclude that MSHA has supplied for its action a reasoned basis consistent with 27 The program under review in the Tenth Circuit case included not simply designated occupation sampling, but a new “designated area sampling program in the non-working sections of the mine,” specifically, a program that responded to “studies showing that dust generated by sources outby (away from) the working face poses a significant health hazard to miners.” Am. Mining Cong. v. Marshall, 671 F.2d 1251, 1254 (10th Cir. 1982) (internal quotation marks omitted). 28 See supra note 3; see also Am. Mining Cong., 671 F.2d 1251. 52 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 53 of 83 congressional intent. In the context of the present rulemaking, MSHA has responded that the dustiest locations are indeed areas where miners work and where they travel, and that all miners are thereby protected from excessive concentrations. MSHA’s response to comments submitted during the rulemaking reads, in relevant part: While area sampling does not show a particular miner’s dust exposure, the area sampling results will show whether miners are exposed to excessive dust concentrations. The objective of area sampling is to control the concentration of respirable dust to which miners are exposed in the workplace. In American Mining Congress v. Secretary of Labor, 671 F.2d 1251 (10th Cir. 1982), the Court found that area sampling was reasonable and consistent with the Mine Act. If placed in a fixed location, the CPDM will provide an accurate measurement of the respirable dust in the atmosphere where miners work or travel. In addition, it will provide immediate information to the miners working in that location so that the mine operator could make immediate adjustments in controls in relation to dust sources to reduce dust generation or suppress, dilute, divert, or capture the generated dust. Compared with administrative controls or respirators, well-designed engineering controls provide consistent and reliable protection to all workers because the controls are less dependent on individual human performance, supervision, or intervention to function as intended. Area sampling with the CPDM will also provide information on miners’ exposure in areas with the highest concentration of dust. This will give the mine operator and MSHA valuable data to pinpoint areas in need of improvement. 79 Fed. Reg. at 24,886. In light of the congressional purpose and the lack of any statutory command to the contrary, it is permissible for MSHA to select a sampling scheme that resolves ambiguities in dust levels resulting from sampling issues in favor of 53 Case: 14-11942 Date Filed: 01/25/2016 Page: 54 of 83 miners’ health, even if it results in a scheme that is more aggressive in its demands on the industry. See Am. Mining Cong., 671 F.2d at 1256. MSHA’s conclusions on this issue are reasoned, take into account prior court decisions, and serve the practical purpose of allowing immediate corrective measures in mine trouble-spots.