Mining Incidents

Terri Stelter: 185 MSHA citations controller

MSHA controller ID: M08466

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
59
Mines on record
5
Years on record
1987–2008
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2000
185
citations
30
significant & substantial
$27,868
proposed penalties
$27,365
paid to date
98% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $503 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2000
97
inspections on record
1,253
inspection hours
14.8
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.
185 citations across 1,253 inspection hours.
Source: MSHA inspections data, 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.
$28K
proposed penalties
$27K
current assessed
$27K
paid to date
$0
outstanding
184 assessments are final orders; 1 contested dockets.
Of $6K in penalties contested before the Commission, $5K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2012-10-24.
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.
16.3%
significant & substantial
5.4%
high negligence or reckless
16.3%
reasonably likely or greater
38.6%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 7.1% low, 87.5% moderate, 5.4% 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: 2011-10-18, 14 years ago
25%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
16
samples
4
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz41 over
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg10
  • Unlisted Particulate, 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.
2 citations taken to the federal commission · 1% of citations on record
  • Settled 2 · 100%
100%
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 1 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
9%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$6K proposed, $5K 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 2007-08-16. 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 2007-789M Settlement Lesnick 2008 $6K → $5K
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2008
1
2006
1
2005
2
2004
2
2003
7
2002
5
2001
3
2000
4
1998
3
1997
1
1995
2
1994
2
1993
2
1992
5
1991
2
1990
10
1989
5
1987
2

Operators under this controller

Mines on record

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Where Terri Stelter 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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