Those are the main provisions of Utah Senate Bill 224, the "Coal Mine Safety Act," which was approved by the Legislature last week.
The bill is a byproduct of the twin tragedies at the Crandall Canyon coal mine that claimed nine lives in Emery County last August. And it sounds like lawmakers, acting on some of the 45 recommendations made by the Utah Mine Safety Commission, did everything they could to make our underground mines safer. But they did not.
The Utah Office of Coal Mine Safety will have a single employee, a far cry from the full-fledged state mine inspection agency that existed into the late 1980s, enhancing mine safety by augmenting the efforts of federal mine inspectors and regulators.
Unlike its predecessor, or mine safety offices in 11 other coal-mining states, the new Utah agency will not review mining plans, inspect coal mines or levy fines. There won't be another pair of boots on mine floors, or another set of eyes on mining plans. And those are the two things that Utah's coal miners need most to assure they return safely to their families after each and every shift.
A one-man office and a telephone hot line and all the training in the world would not have prevented the tragic events at Crandall Canyon, where a poorly conceived and dangerous mining plan that emphasized profit over safety was approved by the overworked and understaffed federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. And they won't prevent the next tragedy which, lacking adequate state oversight, could easily occur.
Richard Stickler, acting MSHA director, told The Salt Lake Tribune that his agency welcomes the help of states with their own mine inspection programs. "Two sets of eyes are better than one."
But, instead of an extra set of eyes, the Legislature delivered lip service, window dressing.
Lawmakers should consider this legislation a starting point, something to build on, a first step toward re-establishing a state mine inspection program.
As it stands, the new legislation is better than nothing. But our miners deserve much better than that.
