The program was originally announced last month and came in response to worrying statistics coming from the industry.
“Since January 2012, 34 North Dakota workers in the oil and gas and construction industries have died because of work-related injuries,” the regulator said.
“During that period, their deaths accounted for 87% of all North Dakota fatalities investigated by the US Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration.”
The program was set up to temporarily bring in additional investigators from throughout the US to increase OSHA's field presence in North Dakota.
The enforcement effort will result in the conducting of additional inspections of work sites and will also look into the practice of fraccing specifically, sampling gasses and fluid which could be hazardous to workers and the environment.
