Senate Bill No. 704
(By Senator Caruth)
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[Introduced March 23, 2009; referred to the Committee on Energy,
Industry and Mining; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §22A-1-2 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the definitions of "mine" and
"work of preparing the coal".
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22A-1-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. OFFICE OF MINERS' HEALTH, SAFETY AND TRAINING;
ADMINISTRATION; ENFORCEMENT.
§22A-1-2. Definitions.
Unless the context in which used clearly requires a different
meaning, the following definitions apply to this chapter:
(a)
General. --
(1) Accident: The term "accident" means any mine explosion,
mine ignition, mine fire, or mine inundation, or injury to, or
death of any person.
(2) Agent: The term "agent" means any person charged with
responsibility for the operation of all or a part of a mine or the
supervision of the miners in a mine.
(3) Approved: The term "approved" means in strict compliance
with mining law, or, in the absence of law, accepted by a
recognized standardizing body or organization whose approval is
generally recognized as authoritative on the subject.
(4) Face equipment: The term "face equipment" means mobile or
portable mining machinery having electric motors or accessory
equipment normally installed or operated inby the last open
crosscut in an entry or room.
(5) Imminent danger: The term "imminent danger" means the
existence of any condition or practice in a coal mine which could
reasonably be expected to cause death or serious physical harm
before such condition or practice can be abated.
(6) Mine: The term "mine" includes the shafts, slopes, drifts
or inclines connected with, or intended in the future to be
connected with, excavations penetrating coal seams or strata, which
excavations are ventilated by one general air current or divisions
thereof, and connected by one general system of mine haulage over
which coal may be delivered to one or more points outside the mine,
and the surface structures or equipment connected or associated
therewith which contribute directly or indirectly to the mining,
preparation or handling of coal, or construction thereof.
The term "mine" does not include barges or other water vessels together with
the walkways, ramps, bridges, wharves, bulkheads, piers, quays,
docks and other berthing locations associated with the primary
movement of cargo or materials from shore to vessel and other
structures connecting such barges or other water vessels to the
shore or to each other or otherwise associated with the loading or
transport of finished product onto a barge or other water vessel
for placement into the stream of commerce.
(7) Miner: The term "miner" means any individual working in
a coal mine.
(8) Operator: The term "operator" means any firm,
corporation, partnership or individual operating any coal mine, or
part thereof, or engaged in the construction of any facility
associated with a coal mine.
(9) Permissible: The term "permissible" means any equipment,
device or explosive that has been approved as permissible by the
federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and/or the United
States Bureau of Mines and meets all requirements, restrictions,
exceptions, limitations and conditions attached to such
classification by that agency or the bureau.
(10) Person: The term "person" means any individual,
partnership, association, corporation, firm, subsidiary of a
corporation or other organization.
(11) Work of preparing the coal: The term "work of preparing the coal" means the breaking, crushing, sizing, cleaning, washing,
drying, mixing, storing and loading of bituminous coal or lignite
and such other work of preparing such coal as is usually done by
the operator of the coal mine.
The term "work of preparing the
coal" does not include the loading or other handling of finished
product onto any barge or other water vessel for placement into the
stream of commerce.
(b)
Office of miners' health, safety and training. --
(1) Board of appeals: The term "board of appeals" means as
provided
for in article five of this chapter.
(2) Director: The term "director" means the Director of the
Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training provided
for in
section three of this article.
(3) Mine inspector: The term "mine inspector" means a state
mine inspector provided
for in section eight of this article.
(4) Mine inspectors' examining board: The term "mine
inspectors' examining board" shall mean the mine inspectors'
examining board provided
for in article nine of this chapter.
(5) Office: The term "office" means, when referring to a
specific office, the Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training
provided
for in this article. The term "office", when used
generically, includes any office, board, agency, unit,
organizational entity or component thereof.
(c)
Mine areas. --
(1) Abandoned workings: The term "abandoned workings" means
excavation, either caved or sealed, that is deserted and in which
further mining is not intended, or open workings which are
ventilated and not inspected regularly.
(2) Active workings: The term "active workings" means all
places in a mine that are ventilated and inspected regularly.
(3) Drift: The term "drift" means a horizontal or
approximately horizontal opening through the strata or in a coal
seam and used for the same purposes as a shaft.
(4) Excavations and workings: The term "excavations and
workings" means any or all parts of a mine excavated or being
excavated, including shafts, slopes, drifts, tunnels, entries,
rooms and working places, whether abandoned or in use.
(5) Inactive workings: The term "inactive workings" includes
all portions of a mine in which operations have been suspended for
an indefinite period, but have not been abandoned.
(6) Mechanical working section: The term "mechanical working
section" means an area of a mine: (A) In which coal is loaded
mechanically; (B) which is comprised of a number of working places
that are generally contiguous; and (C) which is of such size to
permit necessary supervision during shift operation, including
preshift and on-shift examinations and tests required by law.
(7) Panel: The term "panel" means workings that are or have
been developed off of submain entries which do not exceed three thousand feet in length.
(8) Return air: The term "return air" means a volume of air
that has passed through and ventilated all the working places in a
mine section.
(9) Shaft: The term "shaft" means a vertical opening through
the strata that is or may be used for the purpose of ventilation,
drainage, and the hoisting and transportation of individuals and
material, in connection with the mining of coal.
(10) Slope: The term "slope" means a plane or incline
roadway, usually driven to a coal seam from the surface and used
for the same purposes as a shaft.
(11) Working face: The term "working face" means any place in
a coal mine in which work of extracting coal from its natural
deposit in the earth is performed during the mining cycle.
(12) Working place: The term "working place" means the area
of a coal mine inby the last open crosscut.
(13) Working section: The term "working section" means all
areas of the coal mine from the loading point of the section to and
including the working faces.
(14) Working unit: The term "working unit" means an area of
a mine in which coal is mined with a set of production equipment;
a conventional mining unit by a single loading machine; a
continuous mining unit by a single continuous mining machine, which
is comprised of a number of working places.
(d)
Mine personnel. --
(1) Assistant mine foreman: The term "assistant mine foreman"
means a certified person designated to assist the mine foreman in
the supervision of a portion or the whole of a mine or of the
persons employed therein.
(2) Certified electrician: The term "certified electrician"
means any person who is qualified as a mine electrician and who has
passed an examination given by the office, or has at least three
years of experience in performing electrical work underground in a
coal mine, in the surface work areas of an underground coal mine,
in a surface coal mine, in a noncoal mine, in the mine equipment
manufacturing industry or in any other industry using or
manufacturing similar equipment, and has satisfactorily completed
a coal mine electrical training program approved by the office or
any person who is qualified as a mine electrician in any state that
recognizes certified electricians licensed in West Virginia.
(3) Certified person: The term "certified person", when used
to designate the kind of person to whom the performance of a duty
in connection with the operation of a mine shall be assigned, means
a person who is qualified under the provisions of this law to
perform such duty.
(4) Interested persons: The term "interested persons"
includes the operator, members of any mine safety committee at the
mine affected and other duly authorized representatives of the mine workers and the office.
(5) Mine foreman: The term "mine foreman" means the certified
person whom the operator or superintendent shall place in charge of
the inside workings of the mine and of the persons employed
therein.
(6) Qualified person: The term "qualified person" means a
person who has completed an examination and is considered qualified
on record by the office.
(7) Shot firer: The term "shot firer" means any person having
had at least two years of practical experience in coal mines, who
has a knowledge of ventilation, mine roof and timbering, and who
has demonstrated his or her knowledge of mine gases, the use of a
flame safety lamp, and other approved detecting devices by
examination and certification given him or her by the office.
(8) Superintendent: The term "superintendent" means the
person who has, on behalf of the operator, immediate supervision of
one or more mines.
(9) Supervisor: The term "supervisor" means a superintendent,
mine foreman, assistant mine foreman or any person specifically
designated by the superintendent or mine foreman to supervise work
or employees and who is acting pursuant to such specific
designation and instructions.
(e)
Electrical. --
(1) Armored cable: The term "armored cable" means a cable provided with a wrapping of metal, usually steel wires or tapes,
primarily for the purpose of mechanical protection.
(2) Borehole cable: The term "borehole cable" means a cable
designed for vertical suspension in a borehole or shaft and used
for power circuits in the mine.
(3) Branch circuit: The term "branch circuit" means any
circuit, alternating current or direct current, connected to and
leading from the main power lines.
(4) Cable: The term "cable" means a standard conductor
(single conductor cable) or a combination of conductors insulated
from one another (multiple conductor cable).
(5) Circuit breaker: The term "circuit breaker" means a
device for interrupting a circuit between separable contacts under
normal or abnormal conditions.
(6) Delta connected: The term "delta connected" means a power
system in which the windings or transformers or a.c. generators are
connected to form a triangular phase relationship, and with phase
conductors connected to each point of the triangle.
(7) Effectively grounded: The term "effectively grounded" is
an expression which means grounded through a grounding connection
of sufficiently low impedance (inherent or intentionally added or
both) so that fault grounds which may occur cannot build up
voltages in excess of limits established for apparatus, circuits or
systems so grounded.
(8) Flame-resistant cable, portable: The term "flame-
resistant cable, portable" means a portable flame-resistant cable
that has passed the flame tests of the federal Mine Safety and
Health Administration.
(9) Ground or grounding conductor (mining): The term "ground
or grounding conductor (mining)", also referred to as a safety
ground conductor, safety ground and frame ground, means a metallic
conductor used to connect the metal frame or enclosure of any
equipment, device or wiring system with a mine track or other
effective grounding medium.
(10) Grounded (earthed): The term "grounded (earthed)" means
that the system, circuit or apparatus referred to is provided with
a ground.
(11) High voltage: The term "high voltage" means voltages of
more than one thousand volts.
(12) Lightning arrestor: The term "lightning arrestor" means
a protective device for limiting surge voltage on equipment by
discharging or by passing surge current; it prevents continued flow
of follow current to ground and is capable of repeating these
functions as specified.
(13) Low voltage: The term "low voltage" means up to and
including six hundred sixty volts.
(14) Medium voltage: The term "medium voltage" means voltages
from six hundred sixty-one to one thousand volts.
(15) Mine power center or distribution center: The term "mine
power center or distribution center" means a combined transformer
or distribution unit, complete within a metal enclosure from which
one or more low-voltage power circuits are taken.
(16) Neutral (derived): The term "neutral (derived)" means a
neutral point or connection established by the addition of a
"zig-zag" or grounding transformer to a normally underground power
system.
(17) Neutral point: The term "neutral point" means the
connection point of transformer or generator windings from which
the voltage to ground is nominally zero, and is the point generally
used for system groundings in wye-connected a.c. power system.
(18) Portable (trailing) cable: The term "portable (trailing)
cable" means a flexible cable or cord used for connecting mobile,
portable or stationary equipment in mines to a trolley system or
other external source of electric energy where permanent mine
wiring is prohibited or is impracticable.
(19) Wye-connected: The term "wye-connected" means a power
system connection in which one end of each phase windings or
transformers or a.c. generators are connected together to form a
neutral point, and a neutral conductor may or may not be connected
to the neutral point, and the neutral point may or may not be
grounded.
(20) Zig-zag transformer (grounding transformer): The term "zig-zag transformer (grounding transformer)" means a transformer
intended primarily to provide a neutral point for grounding
purposes.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to amend the definition of
the term "mine" and the term "work of preparing the coal" to
exclude barges and other water vessels that transport finished coal
product, the structures associated with it and the process of
loading of barges and other water vessels.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.