Pit & Quarry, May 2018

SAFETY P Q ROUNDTABLE tenure and he continued to reach out to us regionally and meet with our folks We started to see that trickle down to the districts and also the state supervisory inspectors One thing we would like to see from this administration and I think assistant secretary Zatezalo would agree communication is the key when we have inconsistencies Jacomet Our business is run on being consistent We have to make the product We have to make the spec If we dont know what the goals are and they keep moving the goalpost we cant score So I hope this administration continues that because I think that was very very positive to deal with some of these issues before they snowball ALEXANDER KANARIS VAN DER GRAAF My comment about MSHA comes from a manufacturing perspective because some of our equipment has to be MSHA approved I think it should be a two way street MSHA should educate us what theyre looking for But at the same time we should be educating MSHA because sometimes they have rules and regulations applicable to our equipment that make absolutely no engineering sense So sometimes to comply with those regulations we end up manufacturing substandard equipment This is why I think between MSHA and the manufacturing sector they have to understand what were doing WILL PIERCE SCHURCO SLURRY I have a question for Ogletree Deakins Margo Lopez Does MSHA have statutory authority or do they have leeway to go for more of prevention versus a punitive approach Can they do that Or are they authorized to only do enforcement Pierce MARGO LOPEZ OGLETREE DEAKINS They are allowed to do the training The Mine Act actually requires them to issue the mine grants that are used to fund state and other safety training programs But I think youre touching on something thats important MSHA at the same time is required by law to do regular inspections So they have to go to surface mines at least twice a year every underground mine at least four times a year As Pat was saying if an AR authorized representative sees something he has to cite it So they dont have any option with that But where they do have some leeway even when they are citing something a lot of subjectivity goes into writing citations One inspector might see something as high negligence whereas another sees it as moderate or low So theres a lot of room for interpretation there even when there are statutory inspection requirements Another thing if you ever interact with an agency on this the only thing you can point out to them is they do collect the data on the causes and of fatalities and injuries to the extent they understand what that is Sometimes we disagree with how theyre interpreting that but theyve got the data And this data is going to be used to drive the focus of the training that theyre doing to really go after the things that cause the safety issues KANARIS It would be nice if they gave you some leeway or give you some time to correct the problem instead of just citing Kanaris LOPEZ Yeah thats where their hands are a little bit tied because technically if an inspector sees a violation he has to cite it FALVEY STEEL CASTINGS Serving the industry since 1960 Best Service Best Quality Best Price 781 767 6210 falveysteel com 50 PIT QUARRY May 2018 pitandquarry com