Mining Incidents

Joli Tewalt; Denice Tewalt: 84 MSHA citations controller

MSHA controller ID: M11290

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
2
Mines on record
1
Years on record
1996–2026
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2015
84
citations
16
significant & substantial
$30,123
proposed penalties
$21,797
paid to date
72% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $8,326 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2015
35
inspections on record
476
inspection hours
n/a
citations per 100 inspection hours
This rate is recorded citations divided by MSHA inspection hours, per 100 hours. It reflects inspection effort, not mine size or production.
Rate withheld: 476 inspection hours is too few for a stable rate. A minimum of 1,000 inspection hours is required.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.
Imminent-danger orders
A Section 107(a) order removes miners from an area when an inspector finds an imminent danger. Each order is lifted once the condition is corrected, so this counts orders issued, not orders now in effect.
1
Section 107(a) orders
Most recent order: 2018-10-11.
On record since 2018.
Source: MSHA imminent-danger order records, updated weekly.
Penalty disposition
Differences between proposed and paid penalties reflect both settlements and conference reductions and amounts still owed. Outstanding is the balance currently owed.
$30K
proposed penalties
$25K
current assessed
$22K
paid to date
$3K
outstanding
78 assessments are final orders; 1 contested dockets.
Of $9K in penalties contested before the Commission, $4K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-07-08.
Source: MSHA assessed-violations and conference/litigation data, updated weekly.
Violation severity profile
Shares are computed over citations that carry the MSHA gravity and negligence coding; a small share of records are uncoded.
19.3%
significant & substantial
1.2%
high negligence or reckless
19.3%
reasonably likely or greater
36.1%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 16.9% low, 81.9% moderate, 1.2% high, 0.0% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.
Health sampling
A sample is a point in time compliance measurement, not an individual exposure history. These figures describe MSHA sampling records and do not establish causation or personal dose.

Metal and nonmetal contaminants (personal samples)
Many samples are screening measurements of substances with no applicable exposure limit; they are counted as samples but excluded from every over-limit figure. Over-limit shares use only limit-tested samples.

Last sampled: 2025-09-04
0%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
9
samples
2
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg4
  • Fibers, >5um3
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz2
Source: MSHA respirable dust, quartz, and noise sampling records, updated weekly. Metal/nonmetal contaminant figures come from MSHA's Personal Health Samples and Area Samples files (public record), updated weekly.
When citations were contested
Contesting a citation before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission is a lawful right. These figures state the public outcomes of that process, from MSHA's Contested Violations file.
10 citations taken to the federal commission · 12% of citations on record
  • Settled 10 · 100%
40%
S&S designation survived the contest
Counts a Significant & Substantial citation as surviving when a settlement or judge's decision kept the designation, or the contest was dismissed or defaulted so the citation stands as issued. Vacated and withdrawn citations, and settlements that removed the designation, count against.
of 5 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
56%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$9K proposed, $4K after decisions · industry: 39%
Source: MSHA Contested Violations file (public record), updated weekly. A dismissed or defaulted contest leaves the citation standing as issued; a vacated or withdrawn citation is removed from the violation record. Latest contest filed 2020-05-17. Vacated and withdrawn citations are removed from the file this view attributes through, so that outcome is slightly undercounted here.
Contested penalties
A reduction or dismissal at the Commission is a lawful outcome of contesting a proposed penalty. Figures are the proposed amount and the amount upheld in the docket's decision.
Largest penalties this controller contested before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, with the outcome on record.
Docket Decision Judge Year Proposed / upheld
WEST 2020-0293 Settlement Miller 2020 $9K → $4K
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2026
1
1996
1

Operators under this controller

Mines on record

For insurers, brokers, and safety consultants

Where Joli Tewalt; Denice Tewalt stands on silica, penalties, and injury rate

MSHA's standard limits respirable silica to 50 micrograms per cubic metre, but MSHA publishes dust and quartz as separate files and never the silica figure itself. We derive it per sample, score it against the limit, and set the operator's injury rate against a benchmark built from the full MSHA operator record. With the 26-year penalty trail, contest posture, and fatality history. Delivered as a PDF with the underlying data as CSV.

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