Mining Incidents

Drake Pit: 21 MSHA citations Metal/Non-Metal

Big River Excavating · Surface
Controlled by Mike Sarin
Astoria, Clatsop County, OR  ·  Active
MSHA Mine ID: 3503823

Drake Pit has $2K in proposed MSHA penalties and $0 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 2014
21
citations
1
significant & substantial
$2,390
proposed penalties
$2,390
paid to date
100% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $0 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2014
26
inspections on record
274
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: 274 inspection hours is too few for a stable rate. A minimum of 1,000 inspection hours is required.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.

Drake Pit has $2K in proposed MSHA penalties and $0 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.
$2K
proposed penalties
$2K
current assessed
$2K
paid to date
$0
outstanding
21 assessments are final orders; 0 contested dockets.
As of the most recent assessment on 2024-10-16.
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.
4.8%
significant & substantial
4.8%
high negligence or reckless
4.8%
reasonably likely or greater
28.6%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 14.3% low, 81.0% moderate, 4.8% 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: 2026-04-30
0%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
8
samples
3
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg4
  • Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz3
  • Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz1
Show the individual readings (8)
Date Contaminant Concentration Limit Conc / limit Occupation
2026-04-30 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Shovel Operator
2024-10-23 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Shovel Operator
2020-04-07 Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz 0.2 Shovel Operator
2020-04-07 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Front-end Loader Operator
2014-12-23 Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz 0.12 10 0.01 Shovel Operator
2014-12-23 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Shovel Operator
2014-12-23 Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz 0.2 10 0.02 Front-end Loader Operator
2014-12-23 Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz 0.19 10 0.02 Supervisor, Co. Official
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.
Ownership history
  1. Big River Excavating 2014 to present
Source: MSHA controller and operator history, updated weekly.
Workforce and production
Year Employees
2026 7
2025 8
2024 7
2023 6
2022 5
2021 5
2020 7
2019 6
2018 7
2017 4
2016 5
2015 4
2014 4
Source: MSHA quarterly employment and production, updated weekly.

Drake Pit sits in Clatsop County, Oregon, where the Census mining category is 0.2% 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.
Clatsop County, Oregon · Population 41,343
0.2%
Mining share of county employment
$68,705
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 2,380 0 0 0.0
2026 Q1 1,665 0 0 0.0
2025 Q4 1,981 0 0 0.0
2025 Q3 3,770 0 0 0.0
2025 Q2 1,654 0 0 0.0
2025 Q1 1,727 0 0 0.0
2024 Q4 2,082 1 0 480.3
2024 Q3 3,634 0 0 0.0
Show 39 earlier quarters
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2024 Q2 2,496 1 0 400.6
2024 Q1 1,828 0 0 0.0
2023 Q4 3,693 0 0 0.0
2023 Q3 1,616 0 0 0.0
2023 Q2 1,770 0 0 0.0
2023 Q1 1,020 0 0 0.0
2022 Q4 1,360 1 0 735.3
2022 Q3 1,987 0 0 0.0
2022 Q2 1,656 0 0 0.0
2022 Q1 2,636 1 0 379.4
2021 Q4 1,648 0 0 0.0
2021 Q3 1,824 0 0 0.0
2021 Q2 2,550 0 0 0.0
2021 Q1 2,976 0 0 0.0
2020 Q4 2,872 0 0 0.0
2020 Q3 3,690 0 0 0.0
2020 Q2 3,769 1 0 265.3
2020 Q1 5,066 1 0 197.4
2019 Q4 3,291 0 0 0.0
2019 Q3 2,176 0 0 0.0
2019 Q2 3,065 0 0 0.0
2019 Q1 3,404 0 0 0.0
2018 Q4 2,836 2 0 705.2
2018 Q3 3,547 0 0 0.0
2018 Q2 5,477 1 0 182.6
2018 Q1 3,078 0 0 0.0
2017 Q4 416 0 0 0.0
2017 Q3 772 0 0 0.0
2017 Q2 2,393 1 0 417.9
2017 Q1 1,210 0 0 0.0
2016 Q4 2,287 1 0 437.3
2016 Q3 2,071 0 0 0.0
2016 Q2 2,224 0 0 0.0
2016 Q1 2,075 1 1 481.9
2015 Q4 1,518 0 0 0.0
2015 Q3 3,799 0 0 0.0
2015 Q2 1,907 3 0 1573.2
2015 Q1 1,897 0 0 0.0
2014 Q4 2,318 6 0 2588.4

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.