P&Q exclusive: MSHA chief reflects on 2023 mining fatalities

Williamson

P&Q: The agency is now publicizing the results of its impact inspections monthly for industrywide consumption. What impact do you expect these to have on mine safety and health nationwide?

Williamson: There are a few reasons why we share that information. One is transparency. We should be transparent about the mines that we visited and the citations, orders and the paper that was issued.

We also list out the rationale or why that mine was selected. Not always, but there’s multiple criteria we use in doing that. First and foremost, it’s being transparent about it.

If you’ve noticed from the press release[s], one of the things that I think is important, too, [is] we’ll usually pick one or two narratives if we have one, talk about what we found during the impact inspection, [and] the violations that were issued. Really, what I think is important – and this goes back to the education and awareness function that we have as an agency – is to really explain [what] we found and why it’s important to miners. [We explain]: ‘This is why it was important for us to do that inspection to identify this potential environment, [or] this potential hazard that, if uncorrected, could potentially lead to an accident [or] could potentially cause an illness.’ I think that’s an incredibly important part of that, too. It’s to share information.

To tie these two conversations together: We’ve already seen in the first couple months that we’ve issued press releases this year that we’re finding a lot of things in the impact inspections that go hand in hand with some of the things we’re finding in these fatality investigations. [It’s] some of the things we already talked about: examinations, training, maintenance, electrical hazards. We’re finding a lot of those same things that we’re discovering in the fatalities – and that’s troubling to me, too. But I think it also underscores the importance of the impact inspections and why we’re going to continue doing them every month.

P&Q: It seems MSHA is experiencing a number of vacancies at the management and inspector level. What is the agency doing to fill vacancies?

Williamson: Over the course of the last year or so, we’ve hired a number of inspectors. That was a big priority – not just with me, but this administration. So, we’re building back the team. I think that’s incredibly important. It’s been a huge priority.

We bring inspectors on, we have to train them and there’s a whole process there. We’re going through a lot of that now, but it was incredibly important to bring some new talent and personnel on to fill some of those vacancies. We were pretty much at historically low staffing levels, and we have hired a number of people. There’s always more work to do in that space.

We started an apprenticeship program that’s been incredibly productive. We’re still looking at ways to use that, and we’re going to continue to build our team because we know we need to have a strong team. We’re going to continue to focus on that.

P&Q: Any final remarks you’d like to add about the ‘Stand Down to Save Lives’ campaign next week or anything else?

Williamson: The top-line message is really encouraging everyone to spend some time next week and to join with us. I think we accomplish more if we all work together, and miners are safer and healthier as a result.

Everyone has been receptive to the letter and the idea of having an annual stand-down day. I just really would like everyone to participate and jump in. I think it will go a long way to helping address this issue that is troubling for all of us. I think we all want to do better in that space, and I think this is one way where we can do that.

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