Independent Review of MSHA's Actions at Crandall Canyon Mine

CMS&H STAFFING LEVELS
District staffing levels provided by CMS&H Headquarters from January 2003 to July 2007
indicate that the number of regular underground inspectors available to do regular inspections
decreased from 294 to 268. The number of technical specialists in the districts decreased from
196 to 160 for the same time period, and was at a low of 146 in January 2006. This was during
a time period when the number of mining fatalities was at all time low levels, and as accidents
reduced, so did the level of funding for MSHA provided by Congress. MSHA staffing was
approaching such reduced numbers that districts were having difficulty completing the
required number of mandatory inspections. Specialists were being taken away from their
duties of evaluating submitted plans for approval and conducting evaluations underground,
and were being required to assist with conducting underground inspections. District 4,
CMS&H largest district located in Mt. Hope, West Virginia, began conducting “Enhanced
Spot” inspections at some underground mines because they did not have the resources to
inspect all of them. These inspections only consisted of examining representative areas of the
mine. Based on information provided concerning completion rates for 2006, MSHA did not
conduct 146 inspections at 108 of the 731 underground mines that should have been inspected.
After the accidents at Sago, Aracoma Alma, and Darby, and due to intense pressure from
critics, MSHA began to attempt to staff up to appropriate levels. Hiring began en masse. At
the time of the Crandall Canyon accident MSHA had a total of 245 underground inspector
trainees in the process of becoming inspectors. It should be noted that the time frame for a
newly hired trainee to achieve inspector status takes about one full year. This would include
attending a minimum of four training modules at the Mine Health and Safety Academy, along
with traveling with regular inspectors for field training. This field training mainly consists of
the 245 trainees traveling with the 268 underground inspectors available to inspect mines. As
the number of inspectors decreased between the years 2003 to 2007, MSHA failed to backfill a
large number of those positions from which inspectors retired. Even when MSHA did replace
retirees, the time to hire and train the replacements generally exceeded one year. The shortage
of inspectors continues as of the writing of this report. Presently, MSHA is utilizing overtime
at a rate of about $10 million per year to complete inspections, along with requiring specialists
and supervisors to participate in inspection activities. Although MSHA’s primary
responsibility is to complete inspections, it is presently utilizing a special emphasis program
called the “100 % Inspection Program” to complete inspections.
As the number of inspectors was steadily decreasing, the industry was steadily increasing
along with the demand for coal. From 2002 to 2006 the number of underground coalproducing
sections called Mechanized Mining Units (MMUs) increased from 811 to 882. The
number of active MMUs was often a measuring tool used by MSHA to determine staffing
levels of inspectors. During the same time period (2002 to 2006), the coal industry reported an
increase of hours worked underground from 163,844,829 man hours to 188,990,182 man hours.
This indicated an obvious growth in the industry. By not replacing retiring inspectors or
hiring additional inspectors, MSHA failed to react to the significant increase in workload.
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