A Resource Blog on MSHA and Above Ground Aggregate Mines

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Hi,

Thanks for stopping by to take a look! We hope that you will find some useful information as you browse this site. We welcome you as part of this informal group where we can communicate about what is going on in the industry regarding MSHA. Please feel free to leave your comments (but remember that MSHA does read this site too.) To contact us through the phone or email with your stories and concerns, call Cary or Kathy Matthews, at 541-536-1771 or 541-410-4673 (Cary's cell). Our fax number is 541-536-1772. You can email us at: lapineredimixinc@hotmail.com

New blog posts are featured on this page, and other information is found by category by clicking on the pages links above.

We encourage you to join up with your local aggregate association, because there is strength in numbers. If there is not one in your area yet, please consider forming one.

Take care, and remember to be in contact with your state officials to voice your concerns about MSHA. Our tax dollars pay for MSHA, which is under the Department of Labor. Our fine money goes into the general fund, and we cannot afford to keep paying out costly fines on the more and more frequent trivial citations to essentially support government spending. At least that is how I feel about it.

~ Kathy


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Sunday, April 18, 2010

HONK SO YOU DON'T GET FINED:


Remember to honk your horn if you move your vehicle (car, pickup, truck, loader, etc.) when you move either forward or backward at your mine site. Also, even personal vehicles need to be chocked when you are in the mining area. The rules say that if you are on flat ground, you don't need to, but do it anyway because some inspectors are handing out citations even then.

In addition, make sure that your toilets are flushed. Apparently, "if it's yellow, let it mellow" does not fly with some MSHA inspectors. Speaking of bathrooms, another operator who had 3 guys out in the woods rock crushing got fined for not having an outhouse available.

Keep the garbage can lids in your break room covered at all times. An Oregon mining operation got a ticket for an empty potato chip wrapper in an uncovered kitchen garbage can. True story.

Then MSHA complains that everybody is fighting their citations and clogging up the court system for years. Even the little tickets above can go toward a Pattern of Violations history.



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