US Representative Nick Rahall penned a letter late last week to MSHA head Richard Stickler urging the agency to "investigate its lack of quarterly inspections at those mines and to act to ensure that all mines receive their legally required full inspections".

He cited a roof fall death September 5 at a bronzite operation in Mingo County, West Virginia owned by Consol of Kentucky. "Immediately after…it was revealed that MSHA had not conducted a single quarterly inspection this year," Rahall wrote, adding that the federal group needs to explain how the lapse could have occurred.

"Now, this past Sunday, a miner died at the Mountaineer II Mine in Logan County, and, once again, we are learning about similar failures by MSHA to conduct proper inspections," he added. "If the media can conduct a fairly simple review of MSHA's website and learn that the agency is not completing quarterly inspections, certainly MSHA can do the same and can act on that information to correct these lapses."

Rahall said he and the mining community now want to know how deep the issue extends. "I am compelled to ask how many mines in West Virginia have not received the quarterly inspections required, and to ask what MSHA is doing to ensure that its district managers and inspectors are actually going into the mines and conducting regular and thorough safety checks."

The mines are both in areas represented by the politician, and he has demanded the situation be immediately investigated and the answers reported back to him "before another tragedy occurs and MSHA is further shamed by its inability to carry out its mission to ensure the health and safety of our nation's miners," he said.

"Conducting inspections is MSHA's most fundamental responsibility, and I cannot fathom what the agency is doing if it is not fulfilling this basic duty."