Mine Safety and Health Administration September 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 101(c) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 and 30 CFR part 44 govern the application, processing, and disposition of petitions for modification. This notice is a summary of petitions for modification submitted to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) by the parties listed below to modify the application of existing mandatory safety standards codified in Title 30 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is soliciting comments concerning the proposed extension of an existing information collection, OMB Control Number 1219-0145. This information collection was originally titled Safety Standards Regarding Technical Study Panel Recommendations on the Utilization of Belt Air and the Composition and Fire Retardant Properties of Belt Materials in Underground Coal Mining. OMB 1219-0145 has been renamed Automatic Fire Sensor and Warning Device Systems; Examination and Test Requirements to reflect that the information collection is only for extending the approval of the information collection related to 30 CFR Sec. Sec. 75.1103-8(b) and (c). MSHA expects to subsume these provisions into OMB 1219-0054, Fire Protection (Underground Coal Mines) when that package is renewed in January 2013. No provisions will then remain in OMB 1219-0145 and the package will be discontinued. Other provisions of the original OMB 1219-0145 package have been subsumed into existing information collection packages as follows: OMB 1219-0009 subsumed Sec. 48.27(a) Training of miners assigned to a task in July 2011; OMB 1219-0073 subsumed Sec. 75.1103-5(a)(2)(ii) Automatic fire sensor and warning device systems and the package is at OMB for its 3-year review; OMB 1219-0088 subsumed Sec. Sec. 75.350(a)(2), 75.350(b), 75.350(b)(7), 75.350(b)(8), 75.350(d)(1), and 75.350(e)(1)(v) Belt air course ventilation; Sec. 75.351(e)(1)(v) Atmospheric monitoring systems (AMS); Sec. Sec. 75.370(a)(3) and (f) Mine ventilation plan submission and approval; Sec. Sec. 75.371(jj), 75.371(mm), 75.371(nn), and 75.371(yy) Mine ventilation plan contents; Sec. 75.380(f)(1) Escapeways; bituminous and lignite mines; Sec. 75.381(e) Escapeways; anthracite mines; and Sec. 75.1103-5(a) Automatic fire warning devices; actions, response in October 2010; OMB 1219-0127 subsumed Sec. 75.156 AMS operator, qualifications and the package is at OMB for its 3-year review. The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden conducts a pre-clearance consultation program to provide the general public and Federal and state agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed or continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA95) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program helps ensure that requested information collections are in formats appropriate to the mining community, that reporting is minimal, collection instruments are clearly understood, and that the impact of collection requirements can be properly assessed.