rssMassey Mine Violations: A Running Tally
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 3:28 pm
- 34 Comments
Last updated April 22.
On Monday, April 5, an explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 workers and raised new questions about the safety record of Massey Energy, the company that owns the mine. But as Mike Lillis reported, other Massey mines have been cited for a slew of safety violations that could put miners’ lives in danger. The Freedom Energy Mine #1 in Pike County, Ky., for example, has received 250 citations for safety violations since the Upper Big Branch accident, including 68 violations deemed “significant and substantial,” meaning they are “reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness under the unique circumstance contributed to by the violations.”
Using data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, TWI has compiled a running tally of safety violations racked up by the ten most-cited Massey-owned tunnel mines:
| Mine | Violations This Year | Violations Since Upper Big Branch Explosion | “Significant and Substantial” Violations Since Explosion |
| Freedom Energy’s Mine #1
(Pike Co., Ky.) |
445 | 250 | 68 |
| Independence Coal’s Justice #1 Mine
(Boone Co., W.Va.) |
170 | 55 | 33 |
| Spartan Mining’s Ruby Energy Mine
(Mingo Co., W.Va.) |
131 | 29 | 8 |
| Aracoma Coal’s Alma Mine # 1
(Logan Co., W.Va.) |
129 | 38 | 27 |
| Rockhouse Energy’s Mine #1
(Pike Co., Ky.) |
121 | 47 | 16 |
| Spartan Mining’s Road Fork #51
(Wyoming Co., W.Va.) |
107 | 37 | 5 |
| Process Energy’s Mine #1
(Pike Co. Ky.) |
102 | 10 | 4 |
| Solid Energy’s Mine #1
(Pike Co., Ky.) |
99 | 11 | 5 |
| Independence Coal’s Allegiance Mine
(Boone Co., W.Va.) |
83 | 9 | 1 |
| Mammoth Coal’s Alloy Powellton
(Fayette Co., W.Va.) |
80 | 0 | 0 |
34 Comments
Pingback posted April 13, 2010 @ 5:28 am
[...] Massey Mine Violations: A Running Tally « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted April 13, 2010 @ 8:14 am
[...] Massey Mine Violations: A Running Tally « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted April 13, 2010 @ 2:13 pm
[...] Massey Mine Violations: A Running Tally « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted April 13, 2010 @ 3:10 pm
[...] Massey Mine Violations: A Running Tally « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted April 14, 2010 @ 10:02 am
[...] twice the national average” with “seven imminent danger orders” in 2008, and the Freedom Energy Mine in Pike County, KY, has had 285 violations this year [...]
Pingback posted April 14, 2010 @ 5:09 pm
[...] Massey Mine Violations: A Running Tally « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted April 14, 2010 @ 5:09 pm
[...] Massey Mine Violations: A Running Tally « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted April 15, 2010 @ 1:24 pm
[...] Daily life, Government, Law at 10:24 am by LeisureGuy Brayton: The Washington Independent has begun to tally up all of the safety violations in just the ten most commonly cited Massey mines. One of their mines [...]
Pingback posted April 15, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
[...] [...]
Pingback posted April 17, 2010 @ 11:51 am
[...] 6:44 PM by Category: Articles, Entries, Headlines, News, Posts The Washington Independent has begun to tally up all of the safety violations in just the ten most commonly cited Massey mines. One of their mines [...]
Pingback posted April 21, 2010 @ 10:20 pm
[...] amounted to “s**t happens;” that since April 5, Massey Energy’s mines have continued to collect safety violations — these are facts that arouse not grief but [...]
Pingback posted May 14, 2010 @ 10:41 am
[...] Massey Mine Violations: A Running Tally « The Washington Independent [...]
Pingback posted July 22, 2010 @ 9:45 am
[...] The investigation comes after an explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in April, which killed 29 people, brought new attention to the issue of mine safety. TWI has done extensive coverage of the explosion and its aftermath. To read our coverage, click here. And for a tally of safety violations at Massey mines in the two weeks following the Upper Big Branch explosion, see here. [...]
Comment posted November 11, 2010 @ 4:41 am
I have personally worked in the freedom #1 mine in pike co. Ky. And I have worked in other coal mines in ky and va. I can honestly say as far as safety goes, I would much rather work at the Freedom Energy mine than any mine I have ever worked in. Let us all agree that no mine will ever be truly safe, but safety standards of Massey mines are far better than any mine I have ever been in. I honestly think because Massey mines are so large that they get picked on by msha and state inspectors. I have been in small mines with the same inspectors as the ones throwing the book at massey and they don’t seem to find these same dangerous conditions, even though the smaller mines are by no means up to standards on safety, condition of equipment, cleaning & ventilation. I respect the fact that they don’t want to shut down the mom and pop mines but if they keep up with all the petty violations they are writing against the big mines then they will continue to drive up the price of coal which isn’t good for anyone. And I appreciate what the inspectors are doing for our safety, but I have seen so many petty violations wrote simply because some inspector before them wrote this many violations and it looks bad on them if they don’t find at least that amount of violations They are also afraid of an inspector coming in after them and writing a lot of violations after they have just inspected the mine and not writing many violations. An inspector can see a bolt laying on the ground of the haulage route and say its an abstruction. So many laws are too vague and I think too much pressure are put on the inspectors to write violations. Fact is, its a dangerous occupation and their will be accidents.
Trackback posted August 22, 2011 @ 1:33 am
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Trackback posted August 22, 2011 @ 1:49 am
Selling Lawnmower…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Trackback posted August 22, 2011 @ 2:40 pm
outdoor wall waterfall…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Trackback posted August 22, 2011 @ 3:39 pm
Immigration…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Trackback posted August 25, 2011 @ 3:59 pm
fan mini toiletries…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
Trackback posted August 26, 2011 @ 9:18 am
Check These Out…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]…
Trackback posted August 29, 2011 @ 3:05 pm
Rug…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Trackback posted August 31, 2011 @ 11:31 am
Netflix…
[...]below are several web links to internet sites which we link to seeing as we think they’re worth browsing[...]…
Trackback posted August 31, 2011 @ 10:17 pm
Netflix…
[...]here are a handful of web links to internet sites which I connect to as we think they are really worth checking out[...]…
Trackback posted September 2, 2011 @ 4:22 am
Taylor Lautner Workout…
[...Also you might wanna' check out this blog I found here...]…
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 11:56 am
E-commerce web design…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look at some below[...]…
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 8:21 am
war games online…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 5:18 pm
Convatec 22771 best soled product…
[...]the spended time ?f your life t? visit th? bellow [...]…
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 1:19 pm
Where to Invest Money…
[...] Wonderful info reckoned I could put several unrelated posts, nevertheless still worthwhile having a look!!! [...]…
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 10:35 pm
Stop sweat fast…
[...]these sites are really worth a look im sure you will agree they are top class[...]…
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 11:14 pm
Amy Winehouse…
[...]right here are a couple of hyper-links to internet sites we link to as we think they’re well worth visiting[...]…
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
