Appeals court reverses $162 fine against Colorado mining company

The fight over a $162 fine against a large underground coal mining company in Colorado has led the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the decision of an Administrative Law Judge.

Peabody Twentymile Mining LLC, operator of the Foidel Creek Mine near Steamboat Springs in northwest Colorado challenged the ALJ’s ruling which was based on the mine’s use of more than 1,000 ventilation stoppings. The stoppings separate the fresh intake air from the air flowing out of the mine.

In 2014, an inspector for the Mine Safety and Health Administration issued a citation to Peabody Twentymile for a violation of the federal law requiring permanent ventilation stoppings to be “constructed in a traditionally accepted method and of materials that have been demonstrated to perform adequately.”

MSHA alleged Peabody Twentymile was using polyurethane spray foam to seal the perimeter of a permanent concrete block ventilation stopping. Peabody Twentymile unsuccessfully contested the citation and civil penalty before an administrative law judge.

The ALJ relied on the preamble to the ventilation stopping regulation, which listed six “traditionally accepted construction methods,” to determine that Peabody Twentymile’s method of constructing concrete block stoppings was not “traditionally accepted” and was subject to a $162 fine.

Peabody Twentymile then petitioned the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission for review, and the Commission issued an evenly split decision, causing the ALJ’s decision to stand. Peabody Twentymile thereafter petitioned the Tenth Circuit for review of the ALJ’s decision.

The Tenth Circuit concluded Peabody Twentymile’s construction method was “traditionally accepted” by MSHA under the unambiguous meaning of that phrase, it reversed the ALJ’s decision and vacated the citation.