Mining Incidents

Damascus 535: 98 MSHA citations Metal/Non-Metal

Ronald Opeil Flagstone Co., LLC · Surface
Controlled by Timothy M Smith
Windsor, Broome County, NY  ·  Intermittent
MSHA Mine ID: 3003377

Damascus 535 has $25K in proposed MSHA penalties and $22K outstanding across 0 contested dockets, plus health sampling and the full incident record.

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
0
Years on record
Latest incident
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2001
98
citations
37
significant & substantial
$25,207
proposed penalties
$3,266
paid to date
13% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $21,941 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2001
34
inspections on record
455
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: 455 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.
4
Section 107(a) orders
Most recent order: 2021-11-09.
On record since 2015.
Source: MSHA imminent-danger order records, updated weekly.

Damascus 535 has $25K in proposed MSHA penalties and $22K outstanding across 0 contested dockets.

Penalty disposition
Differences between proposed and paid penalties reflect both settlements and conference reductions and amounts still owed. Outstanding is the balance currently owed.
$25K
proposed penalties
$25K
current assessed
$3K
paid to date
$22K
outstanding
92 assessments are final orders; 0 contested dockets.
As of the most recent assessment on 2025-06-04.
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.
39.4%
significant & substantial
24.5%
high negligence or reckless
39.4%
reasonably likely or greater
51.1%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 7.4% low, 68.1% moderate, 24.5% 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: 2014-07-22, 12 years ago
33%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
4
samples
3
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz31 over
  • Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz1
Show the individual readings (4)
Date Contaminant Concentration Limit Conc / limit Occupation
2014-07-22 Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz 0.69 0.41 1.68 Drill Operator, Jumbo Perc.
2014-07-22 Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz 0.23 0.56 0.41 Truck Driver
2007-11-28 Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz 0.19 Backhoe Operator
2007-11-28 Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz 0.2 1.48 0.14 Truck Driver
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.

Damascus 535 recorded 0.00 reportable injury cases per 100 full-time workers in 2015.

Injury rate, 2015
This rate is reportable injury cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers per year, computed as 200,000 times cases divided by MSHA operator-reported employee-hours. Cases are injuries MSHA graded degree 01 through 07; accident-only events that hurt no one are excluded, and so are contractor injuries, whose hours do not attach to a single mine. Rates begin in 2000, when quarterly employment reporting starts, and are withheld below 20,000 hours in a year.
0.00
total case rate
0.00
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
No reportable injury cases in any year shown. Employee-hours were reported in each of those years, so these are true zeros rather than missing data. Citations, listed in the compliance record above, are inspector-found violations and are counted separately from worker injuries.
Below average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 2.26 and the all-US-mining average was 2.72 cases per 100 workers.
In New York, metal and nonmetal mining averaged 1.99 cases per 100 workers that year.
Under 100,000 employee-hours were reported that year, so a single case moves the rate by two or more. Read the figure as approximate.
Source: injury cases from MSHA accident and injury records; employee-hours from MSHA quarterly employment reports. Rate is cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers, operator employees only.
Ownership history
  1. Southern Tier Stone Products LLC 2001 to 2006
  2. B S Quarries Inc 2006 to 2016
  3. Ronald Opeil Flagstone Co., LLC 2016 to present
Source: MSHA controller and operator history, updated weekly.
Workforce and production
Year Employees
2026 4
2025 3
2024 1
2023 0
2022 1
2021 5
2020 5
2019 2
2018 0
2017 2
2016 4
2015 14
2014 0
2013 7
2011 0
2010 0
2009 4
2008 6
2007 10
2006 3
2002 1
2001 3
Source: MSHA quarterly employment and production, updated weekly.

Damascus 535 sits in Broome County, New York, where the Census mining category is 0.1% of county employment.

Local economic context
County figures come from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 5-year pooled estimates, so the 2023 vintage covers 2019 through 2023. The Census category is 'mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction', which is broader than MSHA jurisdiction and includes oil and gas workers no mine employs. These figures describe the surrounding county, not this mine, and are not a factor in any specific incident.
Broome County, New York · Population 197,738
0.1%
Mining share of county employment
$61,059
Median household income
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 5-year estimates.
Quarterly safety rates
Citations per million reported employee-hours. Rates begin in 2000, when MSHA's quarterly employment data starts; earlier incidents are counted but cannot be rate-adjusted. Quarters under 100,000 reported hours are greyed: too few hours for a stable rate.
Citations per million employee-hours, as reported to MSHA
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2026 Q2 1,300 0 0 0.0
2026 Q1 1,447 0 0 0.0
2025 Q4 1,174 0 0 0.0
2025 Q3 2,163 0 0 0.0
2025 Q2 280 10 4 35714.3
2025 Q1 0 0 0
2024 Q4 193 0 0 0.0
2024 Q3 0 0 0
Show 66 earlier quarters
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2024 Q2 0 0 0
2024 Q1 0 0 0
2023 Q4 0 0 0
2023 Q3 0 0 0
2023 Q2 0 1 0
2023 Q1 0 0 0
2022 Q4 0 0 0
2022 Q3 0 0 0
2022 Q2 0 0 0
2022 Q1 1,008 0 0 0.0
2021 Q4 2,596 11 5 4237.3
2021 Q3 1,988 0 0 0.0
2021 Q2 2,007 0 0 0.0
2021 Q1 1,218 0 0 0.0
2020 Q4 2,285 6 2 2625.8
2020 Q3 2,741 0 0 0.0
2020 Q2 2,859 0 0 0.0
2020 Q1 2,079 0 0 0.0
2019 Q4 1,935 4 1 2067.2
2019 Q3 102 0 0 0.0
2019 Q2 0 0 0
2019 Q1 0 0 0
2018 Q4 0 0 0
2018 Q3 0 1 0
2018 Q2 0 0 0
2018 Q1 238 0 0 0.0
2017 Q4 442 0 0 0.0
2017 Q3 1,112 7 3 6295.0
2017 Q2 238 0 0 0.0
2016 Q4 0 1 0
2016 Q3 0 0 0
2016 Q2 4,710 0 0 0.0
2016 Q1 198 0 0 0.0
2015 Q4 2,818 6 4 2129.2
2015 Q3 8,233 0 0 0.0
2015 Q2 4,977 4 0 803.7
2015 Q1 5,518 20 10 3624.5
2014 Q4 0 0 0
2014 Q3 0 4 1
2014 Q2 0 0 0
2014 Q1 0 0 0
2013 Q4 2,617 0 0 0.0
2013 Q3 3,030 2 1 660.1
2011 Q2 0 0 0
2011 Q1 0 0 0
2010 Q4 0 0 0
2010 Q2 0 0 0
2010 Q1 0 0 0
2009 Q4 73 0 0 0.0
2009 Q3 1,088 0 0 0.0
2009 Q2 600 0 0 0.0
2009 Q1 926 0 0 0.0
2008 Q4 1,819 0 0 0.0
2008 Q3 2,355 0 0 0.0
2008 Q2 2,851 0 0 0.0
2008 Q1 788 0 0 0.0
2007 Q4 3,577 8 1 2236.5
2007 Q3 5,591 0 0 0.0
2007 Q2 3,519 0 0 0.0
2007 Q1 2,082 0 0 0.0
2006 Q4 1,406 1 1 711.2
2002 Q4 0 0 0
2002 Q3 9 0 0 0.0
2002 Q2 24 0 0 0.0
2002 Q1 72 0 0 0.0
2001 Q4 802 1 0 1246.9

No reportable incidents on file.

MSHA has no recorded reportable accidents for this mine in the current dataset. New reports appear here within a week of being filed.