| By Bob Weaver
Massey Energy Co. has now been cited for more than 80 safety violations uncovered in the latest round of special inspections targeting troubled mines in US.
Massey amassed thousands more safety violations than any other coal company between 2000 and 2009.
Mine Safety and Health Administration Director Joe Main said,
"MSHA has been conducting these targeted inspections for nearly a year and, while some operators have been responsive and showed a willingness to change, others continue to commit the same serious violations."
The agency started new impact inspections after 29 miners died in an explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia on April, 2010.
Two Massey mines in West Virginia and one each in Virginia and Kentucky accounted for more than half the violations issued nationally during impact inspections last month. MSHA also cited three non-Massey coal mines in Kentucky and Alabama and a stone quarry in Pennsylvania.
"We treat citations seriously and we are working diligently to constantly improve safety at our operations," said Jeff Gillenwater, a spokesman for Richmond, Va.-based Massey.
At at least three Massey operations, the rate of serious violations was above 60 percent, MSHA said.
That included 11 serious violations cited at subsidiary Elk Run Coal's Seng Creek Powellton mine about 40 miles south of Charleston in Boone County.
A previous impact inspection at Seng Creek last September turned up serious violations that MSHA said could have caused an explosion, including cutting too deeply into the coal seam and skipping mandatory tests for explosive gases.
Government investigators have cited Massey Energy for failing to report more than 20 accidents at its Upper Big Branch coal mine in the two years before the April explosion that killed 29 miners.
The failures involve unreported roof collapses, assorted injuries and other instances, all that were suppose to be reported, say officials.
Massey workers have been charged with destroying safety records, while the Upper Big Branch explosion is the subject of a federal criminal investigation.
MSHA recently fined a Massey Energy subsidiary more than $542,000 for violations that contributed to a fatal accident at a Virginia mine in 2009.
Massey is a company with a lengthy record of environmental and safety abuses, amassing an estimated $2.4 billion dollars worth of fines.
In 2008, a federal judge approved a deal that required Massey to pay only $20 million on the $2.4 billion, to resolve thousands and thousands of alleged unpaid violations across the Appalachian coalfields.
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