Bituminous Coal Operators Association

After the coal industry challenged that policy, the U.S. Coiut of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that independent construction contractors could be held liable as operators imder the Coal Act, but that a mine owner also could be held responsible for violations of its contractors (Bituminous Coal Operators Association [BCOA] 1977). When the Mine Act was passed in 1977, amending the Coal Act, the current language expressly adding independent contractors to the definition of operator was included and the legislative history stated that this was intended to be consistent with the BCOA holding in the Fourth Circuit. 

Bituminous Coal Operators Association v. Secretary of Interior. 547 F.2d 240 (4th Cir. 1977). 

Operations of the pilot plants on the various coals have indicated that the younger subbituminous coals and lignites are more difficult to process than are the bituminous coals. This is believed to be primarily due to the higher oxygen and/or organically associated calcium content of younger coals. 

Over time, federal regulatory poHcy on the issue of independent contractor liability ran from one extreme to the other under the 1969 Coal Act at one point, the Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals (Affinity Mining Co. 1973) held that the key to Hability as an operator was determined by the locus of responsibihty for the health and safety of the miners in question, and that while more than one person may fall technically within the definition of operator, only the one responsible for the violations and the safety of employees can be the person served with notices and orders and against whom civil penalties may be assessed. At the other end of the spectrum, after a district court ruling that independent construction contractors were not within the definition of operator and could not be held liable for violations, the Secretary of the Interior (before that district court judgment was reversed in the D.C. Circuit) instructed all federal mine safety inspectors to issue citations for independent contractor violations only to the operator who hired the contractor (Association of Bituminous Contractors 1975). 

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