Pit & Quarry, February 2013

RoundTable ConfeRenCe nel not just machines but personnel that you would bring back WILLIFORD Do more with less HEFFLEY Thats what were expecting to see happen ALEXANDER Thats the mode everyone has been in for the past four years Everyone Williford has been forced to become more efficient and you recognize the savings associated with that And as things improve and you move forward you still want to take advantage of those efficiencies And I think it is a new mindset which has been good I mean thats one of the positives that has come out of all this CONSTANTINO Our managing editor Kevin Yanik conducted a one on one interview with Joe Main in which the leader of the Mine Safety Health Administration MSHA said his agency has improved consistency in the past two or three years and adds that he wants to further improve consistency and understanding Has the agency changed for the better or worse under Joe Main What have been your experiences REDDIN I have a question How do you producers measure quantify evaluate the performance of MSHA What are the metrics that you use to determine if its better or worse good or bad ALEXANDER One of the good things about MSHA is you can go on their website and you can look at every location historically and see the number of citations and the amount of fines And what you can see is an increase in the number of citations and the number of fines Yet our safety as MSHA evaluates all the producers as an industry has improved So youve got fines and citations going up and overall a safer industry So as far as measuring the performance of MSHA those are really the only metrics that Im aware of the number of citations and the amount of fines and the severity of the citations which is all very public REDDIN So are you saying theres a correlation then between MSHA ramping up their citations and fines and safety improvement ALEXANDER Well it would appear that there is WILLIFORD If youre looking at deaths in our industry they have been on a constant decline for a number of years So I dont think the ramping up of MSHA has necessarily improved that But I guess a closer watch from MSHA has made us all better in regards to safety and I think our operations are a lot safer today from some of their actions I do think that they have carried it a little bit too far to where youve had some overzealous inspectors But I give Joe Main credit he has eliminated a lot of those MCLAUGHLIN Has the consistency gotten better WILLIFORD Yes I definitely think it has Two years ago I would disagree Now I think the citations are typically more warranted and theres a little more understanding from the producers viewpoint on negligence and things of that nature CARDOSA You raised the question of TENSIONED AND MODULAR www flexmat com Booth 1935 March 19 21 2013 Cardosa 30 PIT QUARRY February 2013 www pitandquarry com