Federal Agency Decisions
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Basin Resources, Inc.
Mixed citation results with $25,601 penalty
Basin Resources contested penalties for safety violations at the Golden Eagle Mine, including ventilation, guarding, escapeway, roof-control, and coal-dust conditions. Judge Richard W. Manning vacated one citation, affirmed most of the remaining findings, modified one unwarrantable-failure order to…
Broken Hill Mining Company
Commission affirms $1,000 penalty
Broken Hill Mining was assessed a penalty after MSHA found that a miner carried a cigarette lighter underground, which the Commission treated as evidence of an inadequate smoking-material search program. The Commission affirmed a $1,000 penalty after finding that the judge properly considered the…
J B D Mining Company, Inc.
Three citations affirmed
J B D Mining Company received three citations at its Harlan No. 1 Mine. The first involved travel under unsupported roof, the second involved smoking materials found underground, and the third involved missing site-specific training for a contractor employee. Judge Arthur J. Amchan found all three…
Alpha Mining Company
Smoking-material citations mixed
The Secretary charged Alpha Mining Company and two employees after inspectors found cigarettes, cigarette packs, cigarette butts, and a lighter during an underground inspection at the Alpha No. 1 Mine. Judge Gary Melick vacated the citation against Robert Hardin, finding that an empty cigarette…
Cougar Coal Company
Smoking-sweep interference citation affirmed
Cougar Coal Company told an underground foreman that MSHA inspectors were at the mine during a surprise inspection intended to find smoking materials. Judge Arthur J. Amchan held that the warning interfered with MSHA's reasonable inspection technique and violated the Mine Act's right-of-entry…
Ebenezer Coal Company, Inc.
Smoking-material citation modified and $250 penalty assessed
During an MSHA smoking sweep, an inspector found an unopened pack of cigarettes in a miner's lunch bag underground at Ebenezer Coal's No. 1 Mine. The company conceded a significant and substantial violation, but disputed the findings of high negligence, highly likely injury, and the proposed $2,500…
Broken Hill Mining Company
One citation modified and one vacated
Broken Hill Mining Company and employee Donald Kidd faced separate citations after a lighter was found in Kidd's lunch bucket at the No. 1 Mine. Judge T. Todd Hodgdon found that the evidence did not prove Kidd willfully carried the lighter underground, so he vacated Kidd's citation and dismissed…
Mingo Logan Coal Company
Smoking-materials citation affirmed
Mingo Logan Coal Company operated the Mountaineer Mine, where a contractor was mining in an underground section. Inspectors found 13 cigarettes and a butane lighter on a roof bolter and issued a citation under the rule barring smoking materials underground. Judge William Fauver held the mine…
Magic Coal Company
Settlement approved with $2,389 in penalties
Magic Coal agreed to settle eight alleged safety violations and one training order across three dockets. The violations involved electrical equipment, fire drills, high-voltage cable guarding, a smoking-program record, trailing-cable protection, ventilation-plan air movement, and miner refresher…
Larry D. Irvin, Employed by New Horizons Coal, Inc.
Underground-smoking citation affirmed and $250 assessed
Larry D. Irvin was working underground at the Dulcimer No. 7 Mine when an inspector observed what he believed was a lighted cigarette and smelled cigarette smoke. A search found no cigarette or other smoking materials, and Irvin denied smoking, but the ALJ credited the inspector's testimony and…
M A G Incorporated
Settlements totaling $21,000 approved across 14 dockets
M A G Incorporated contested 54 alleged safety and health violations across 14 dockets at Alloy Deep Mine No. 2. The parties reported that the operator was a small mine with poor financial condition, that no accidents or injuries resulted from the cited conditions, and that all conditions were…
Energy Mining Corporation and/or Utah Power & Light Company
Wilberg Mine settlement approved
These consolidated contest and civil penalty proceedings arose from the Wilberg Mine fire disaster in Utah. The ALJ approved a settlement resolving 24 alleged violations in three civil penalty dockets, reducing the outstanding total from $106,749 to a voluntary payment of $95,000. The order…
What these documents are
- The agencies: Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). Each decision page names its agency.
- Commission and Board decisions: Rulings by the agency's highest review level (the Commission at OSHRC and FMSHRC, the Environmental Appeals Board at EPA). These are citable as precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by the agency's Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order that binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent: under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j) at OSHRC, and after the 40-day window of 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) at FMSHRC.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official public release from the deciding agency, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.