Emergency Evacuations; Emergency Temporary Standard

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is issuing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) under section 101(b) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) in response to the grave danger which miners are exposed to during mine fire, explosion, and gas or water inundation emergencies. The recent deaths of 14 miners at two underground coal mines confirm that miners working underground are exposed to grave danger during mine emergencies and demonstrate the need for MSHA to address proper training and mine emergency evacuation procedures in an ETS. This ETS requires operators of underground coal mines to designate, for each shift that miners are working underground, a responsible person in attendance at the mine to take charge during mine fire, explosion, and gas or water inundation emergencies. In order to make an informed decision regarding an evacuation, this ETS also requires that the designated responsible person have current knowledge of various mine systems that protect the safety and health of miners. In addition, this ETS requires the responsible person to initiate and conduct an immediate mine evacuation when there is a mine emergency which presents an imminent danger to miners due to fire, explosion, or gas or water inundation. This ETS further provides that only properly trained and equipped persons essential to respond to the mine emergency may remain underground. This ETS also broadens the existing requirements for a program of instruction for firefighting and evacuation to address fire, explosion, and gas or water inundation emergencies. Under this ETS, operators must adopt a program of instruction which incorporates mine fire, explosion, and gas or water inundation emergencies into existing approved firefighting and evacuation plans and must train miners in those procedures. Finally, this ETS revises the part 48 training requirements to reflect that annual refresher training includes a review of mine fire, explosion, and gas or w