Jun 27, 2013 2 min read

A federal appeals court has upheld the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s determination that the failure by the Cumberland Mine to maintain emergency lifelines, regardless of the likelihood of a mine emergency, is a significant and substantial violation under the mine act.

An MSHA investigator cited the mine for violations of the lifeline requirement during an inspection of four of the mine’s escapeways in December 2007, according to a MSHA release. tMining law requires mine operators to provide flame resistant and directional lifelines in escapeways for miners to use to evacuate the mine in an emergency.

The investigator designated each violation significant and substantial, finding that in the event of an emergency, the lack of a lifeline would have delayed miners’ escape, and the delay would have been reasonably likely to result in serious injury or death. A significant and substantial violation could lead to enhanced enforcement actions under the mine act.

A June 7 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the secretary of labor’s interpretation that, in evaluating the significant and substantial nature of violations of standards that come into play only in the event of an emergency, one must assume the occurrence of the emergency.

The court agreed that “emergency safety standards are fundamentally different from non-emergency standards because they are designed to apply meaningfully only in times of emergency.”

Cumberland Coal Resources LP had argued in its appeal that the commission applied the wrong standard when it reversed an administrative law judge’s determination that the violations were not significant and substantial, and that even if it applied the correct standard, its findings were not supported by evidence.