One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

4.3.5 Explosives Research Center, Mining Research Center, Health and Safety Research Testing
Center, Pittsburgh, PA
These three centers studied miner safety and health and were based primarily at the Bureau’s
Forbes Avenue facility in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Research areas included coal
mining, control of mine water and methane gas, roof control in mines and tunnels, mining
electrical equipment, health hazards and mine ventilation for their control, mine safety training,
and other health and safety work. Several bills had already been introduced in Congress by 1965
to convey the Bureau land and buildings in the city of Pittsburgh to the Carnegie Institute of
Technology. This transfer eventually took place in the 1980s.
4.3.6 Bruceton Laboratories, Bruceton, PA
Theoretical and applied studies on hazards associated with explosives, fires, and explosions were
performed at the Bruceton Laboratories. The Bruceton facility was operated at this time as a
joint entity with the Pittsburgh facility in Oakland. There were also extensive Bureau
laboratories at Bruceton engaged in coal and energy-related research, and also a metallurgy
laboratory performing iron and steel research. The 1965 Bureau plan advocated construction of
new facilities at Bruceton in the expectation that the Forbes Avenue facility would eventually be
transferred by Congress to the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
4.3.7 Spokane Mining Research Laboratory, Spokane, WA
The Spokane lab managed research to develop improved methods and systems for support of
underground openings and the means for preventing rock bursts. Working relationships were
maintained with nearby Gonzaga University, and with Washington State University and the
University of Idaho, both about 80 miles away.
The 1965 report contained a proposal that would have eventually consolidated the Bureau’s
research to six locations: Washington, DC area, Minneapolis, MN, Bartlesville, OK, Albany,
OR, Pittsburgh-Bruceton, PA, and Salt Lake City, UT. Interestingly, nearly 30 years later, a
similar proposal would have consolidated all Bureau research to four centers at Minneapolis,
Albany, Bruceton, and Salt Lake City. However, the Bureau plan for research facility
consolidation in the 1990s was never carried out due to the closure of the U.S. Bureau of Mines
in 1996.
4.4 Legislation and USBM Accomplishments of the 1960s
The Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act of 1966 was the first federal statute directly
regulating non-coal mines. This Act provided for the promulgation of standards, many of which
were advisory, and for inspections and investigations of noncoal mines. However, it gave very
little enforcement authority to the Bureau. The 1966 Act extended protection to miners at 18,000
noncoal mines [Kaas 2006].
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