What are Cargill Salt's MSHA penalties?

Cargill Salt has $56K in proposed MSHA penalties on record, $55K paid, and $0 outstanding.

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Cargill Salt: 1 recorded fatality operator

Controlled by Cargill Inc

MSHA operator ID: L00551

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Fatalities: 1
Total incidents: 192
Mines on record: 2
Years on record: 1997–2005

Compliance record

MSHA citations since 2000

515

citations

124

significant & substantial

$56,246

proposed penalties

$54,704

paid to date

97% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $1,542 gap.

Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.

Inspection activity

MSHA inspections since 2000

inspections on record

5,350

inspection hours

9.6

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.

515 citations across 5,350 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.

$56K

proposed penalties

$55K

current assessed

$55K

paid to date

outstanding

509 assessments are final orders; 5 contested dockets.

Of $2K in penalties contested before the Commission, $494 was upheld in final decisions.

As of the most recent assessment on 2005-06-07.

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.

24.3%

significant & substantial

2.7%

high negligence or reckless

26.3%

reasonably likely or greater

46.7%

permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs

Negligence coding: 0.4% none, 19.4% low, 77.5% moderate, 2.7% high, 0.0% reckless.

Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.

Injury rate, 2005

ⓘ

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.

4.59

total case rate

0.00

days-away rate

0.000

fatality rate

Above average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 3.76 and the all-US-mining average was 4.21 cases per 100 workers.

Year	total case rate	days-away
2005	4.59	0.00
2004	3.64	0.00
2003	3.60	0.72
2002	1.83	0.91
2001	5.06	1.54
2000	4.29	1.36

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.

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: 2005-05-26, 21 years ago

of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit

samples

limit-tested

Most sampled contaminants

Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz11 over
Total Carbon,calculated from elemental carbon.35
Total Carbon,TC35
Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz4

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.

3 citations taken to the federal commission · 1% of citations on record

Settled 2 · 67%
Stood as issued 1 · 33%

17%

Penalty reduction in decided contests

$180 proposed, $150 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 2005-04-07. 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 operator contested before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, with the outcome on record.

Docket	Decision	Judge	Year	Proposed / upheld
CENT 2004-88-M	Settlement	Melick	2004	$1K → $229
CENT 2004-197M	Settlement	Hodgdon	2004	$625 → $60
CENT 2005-6M	Dismissal	Lesnick	2005	$180 → $90
CENT20020229M	Settlement	Barbour	2002	$131 → $55
CENT 2005-152M	Settlement	Lesnick	2005	$60 → $60

Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

POWERED HAULAGE 1 fatality · 17 non-fatal
HANDLING OF MATERIALS 53 non-fatal
SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON 32 non-fatal
HOISTING 25 non-fatal
HANDTOOLS (NONPOWERED) 20 non-fatal
MACHINERY 19 non-fatal

Incident timeline

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

37 (1f)

1997

Mines on record

Fatalities under this operator

1 recorded

November 5, 1998 LA · Metal/Non-Metal Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE

Cargill Salt · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

EMPLOYEE WAS OPERATING A GRADALL 554-B TO CLEAN UP SALT ON WEST SIDE OF BELT 143 LOCATED ON THE 900' LEVEL OF MINE. CAUSE OF ACCIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION.

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Where Cargill Salt 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.

The federal record itself stays free on this site. What costs money, and why.

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