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Blue Water Industries: 865 MSHA citations operator

Controlled by Blue Water Industries Holdings LLC
MSHA operator ID: L02727

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
248
Mines on record
8
Years on record
1983–2023
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2000
865
citations
287
significant & substantial
$571,953
proposed penalties
$547,763
paid to date
96% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $24,190 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2000
427
inspections on record
7,386
inspection hours
11.7
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.
865 citations across 7,386 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.
$572K
proposed penalties
$548K
current assessed
$548K
paid to date
$0
outstanding
842 assessments are final orders; 9 contested dockets.
Of $119K in penalties contested before the Commission, $95K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2024-12-10.
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.
34.0%
significant & substantial
9.7%
high negligence or reckless
33.8%
reasonably likely or greater
57.8%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 9.6% low, 80.7% moderate, 9.7% high, 0.0% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.
Injury rate, 2024
ⓘ 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
Below average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 1.77 and the all-US-mining average was 2.08 cases per 100 workers.
Year total case rate days-away fatal
2024 0.00 0.00 0.000
2023 2.45 0.82 0.000
2022 5.69 1.63 0.000
2021 3.55 1.78 0.000
2020 1.87 0.00 0.000
2019 2.42 0.81 0.000
2018 3.43 2.74 0.000
2017 4.26 2.13 0.000
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: 2024-09-26
6%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
230
samples
146
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz829 over
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg60
  • Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz54
  • Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz11

Area samples (mill and shop air)

Last sampled: 2010-07-28, 16 years ago
1
samples
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.
18 citations taken to the federal commission · 2% of citations on record
  • Settled 15 · 83%
  • Stood as issued 3 · 17%
77%
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 13 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
20%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$119K proposed, $95K 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 2023-11-20. 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
SE 2011-63M Settlement Lewis 2012 $52K → $37K
SE 2009-690M Settlement Bulluck 2012 $20K → $16K
SE 2009-543M Settlement Gill 2011 $13K → $11K
SE 2009-583M Settlement 2010 $13K → $8K
SE 2009-600M Settlement Miller 2011 $12K → $16K
SE 2008-527M Dismissal Lesnick 2009 $4K → $4K
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2023
4
2022
7
2021
4
2020
4
2019
3
2018
5
2017
9
2016
5
2015
9
2014
4
2013
5
2012
3
2011
1
2010
2
2008
4
2007
11
2006
5
2005
6
2004
9
2003
6
2002
4
2001
3
2000
9
1999
5
1998
4
1997
1
1996
7
1995
15
1994
6
1993
7
1992
10
1991
15
1990
8
1989
14
1988
7
1987
10
1986
8
1985
5
1984
3
1983
1

Mines on record

For insurers, brokers, and safety consultants

Where Blue Water Industries 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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