Mining Incidents

Johnson Creek Quarry: 31 MSHA citations Metal/Non-Metal

Controlled by Steve Olson; Mike Olson
Rainier, WA, Thurston County, WA  ·  Intermittent
MSHA Mine ID: 4503777

Johnson Creek Quarry has $7K in proposed MSHA penalties and $0 outstanding across 1 contested dockets, plus health sampling and the full incident record.

Watch this mine

Email me when a new MSHA incident is filed at Johnson Creek Quarry.

Fatalities
0
Total incidents
1
Years on record
2021
Latest incident
Sep 2021
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2018
31
citations
7
significant & substantial
$6,749
proposed penalties
$6,749
paid to date
100% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $0 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2018
19
inspections on record
242
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: 242 inspection hours is too few for a stable rate. A minimum of 1,000 inspection hours is required.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.

Johnson Creek Quarry has $7K in proposed MSHA penalties and $0 outstanding across 1 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.
$7K
proposed penalties
$7K
current assessed
$7K
paid to date
$0
outstanding
31 assessments are final orders; 1 contested dockets.
Of $132 in penalties contested before the Commission, $132 was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-02-04.
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.
22.6%
significant & substantial
16.1%
high negligence or reckless
22.6%
reasonably likely or greater
45.2%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 29.0% low, 54.8% moderate, 16.1% high, 0.0% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, 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.
1 citations taken to the federal commission · 3% of citations on record
  • Settled 1 · 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%
0%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$132 proposed, $132 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 2019-11-20.
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 mine contested before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, with the outcome on record.
Docket Decision Judge Year Proposed / upheld
WEST 2020-0099 Settlement Rae 2020 $132 → $132
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), 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: 2024-04-25
7
samples
0
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz3
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg3
  • Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz1
Show the individual readings (7)
Date Contaminant Concentration Limit Conc / limit Occupation
2024-04-25 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Crusher Oper/Worker
2024-04-25 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Laborer, Bullgang
2019-08-08 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Front-end Loader Operator
2018-08-21 Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz 0.25 Backhoe Operator
2018-08-21 Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz 0.13 Front-end Loader Operator
2018-08-21 Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz 0.23 Truck Driver
2018-08-21 Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz 0.18 Front-end Loader Operator
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. RG Crushing, Inc. 2018 to 2019
  2. Mountain Stone Aggregate 2019 to present
Source: MSHA controller and operator history, updated weekly.
Workforce and production
Year Employees
2026 4
2025 3
2024 4
2023 3
2022 6
2021 6
2020 6
2019 3
2018 2
Source: MSHA quarterly employment and production, updated weekly.

Johnson Creek Quarry sits in Thurston County, Washington, 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.
Thurston County, Washington · Population 296,640
0.1%
Mining share of county employment
$93,985
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 1,400 0 0 0.0
2026 Q1 1,324 7 3 5287.0
2025 Q4 1,400 0 0 0.0
2025 Q3 632 0 0 0.0
2025 Q2 2,030 2 1 985.2
2025 Q1 1,566 0 0 0.0
2024 Q4 1,503 1 0 665.3
2024 Q3 908 0 0 0.0
Show 26 earlier quarters
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2024 Q2 1,122 1 0 891.3
2024 Q1 1,228 0 0 0.0
2023 Q4 1,220 0 0 0.0
2023 Q3 985 0 0 0.0
2023 Q2 1,289 4 0 3103.2
2023 Q1 657 0 0 0.0
2022 Q4 1,029 0 0 0.0
2022 Q3 1,684 1 1 593.8
2022 Q2 1,310 0 0 0.0
2022 Q1 1,254 0 0 0.0
2021 Q4 2,419 0 0 0.0
2021 Q3 2,597 0 0 0.0
2021 Q2 1,298 0 0 0.0
2021 Q1 2,735 0 0 0.0
2020 Q4 2,406 2 0 831.3
2020 Q3 3,192 0 0 0.0
2020 Q2 1,120 0 0 0.0
2020 Q1 2,891 0 0 0.0
2019 Q4 2,476 1 0 403.9
2019 Q3 1,034 2 0 1934.2
2019 Q2 1,897 2 1 1054.3
2019 Q1 1,426 3 0 2103.8
2018 Q4 1,674 0 0 0.0
2018 Q3 814 3 1 3685.5
2018 Q2 856 0 0 0.0
2018 Q1 246 2 0 8130.1
No fatalities recorded at this mine.

Reportable incidents

1 on file

2021 · 1 incident

September 28, 2021 WA · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON
Mountain Stone Aggregate · Fall from machine

Haul truck driver was dumping a load into the apron feeder of the crushing plant. They finished dumping the load and heard a loud pop when the bed of the truck was fully in the down position. Driver then saw smoke and flames. The operator got out of the cab went down the initial set of steps and then jumped off of the lower set of steps onto the pit floor and broke an ankle.