Miners file case against West Virginia coal safety officials over silica dust

The United Mine Workers of America and 52 miners have filed a lawsuit against the state Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety, asking it pass a limit on the amount of silica dust being produced in coal mines. 

The union and the miners filed an emergency petition with the West Virginia Supreme Court on Oct. 29 to mandate that the board pass regulations limiting the amount of silica dust in coal mines. 

The suit is the latest salvo in a decades-long fight to limit the dust, which has driven the number of cases of black lung to a high not seen since the 1970s. 

Attorney Sam Petsonk, representing the miners, said silica dust rules were supposed to be passed in the state back in the 1980s, but didn’t come to fruition.

“The industry found one way after another to prolong and delay and distract and dodge any trick in the book,” he said. “They have fought dust regulation with a fiery vengeance.” 

The petition describes miners, some as young as their 30s, developing pneumoconiosis, due to the mining of thin-seam coal, which requires more sandstone to be cut in order to be extracted. 

Pneumoconiosis is when dust — from coal and rock — are breathed in over a prolonged amount of time, slowly destroying the lungs. 

History buffs may recall cutting sandstone led to the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster, in which hundreds of men died from inhaling silica while cutting a tunnel in Fayette County back during the Great Depression. 

Compounding that, the suit states coal operators have a financial incentive to mine thin-seam coal due to a tax credit passed in the 1990s, which charged a reduced severance on the coal. 

In 2024, federal regulators with the Mine Safety and Health Administration passed a rule to limit the amount of silica dust in the air, with it set to take effect in 2025. But after President Donald Trump won a second-term, the agency reversed course and indefinitely delayed implementation. 

Petsonk said the lawsuit is a way to kick the process into gear, in light of federal inaction. He said past efforts have seen the state be pushed to adopt new safety standards, and in turn the MSHA followed suit. 

“That’s what, unfortunately, may have to happen at this time as well, given MSHA’s abandonment of the silica rule,” he said. 

Thomas Clark, the administrator of the Coal Health and Safety Board did not respond after being left a voicemail. John F. Willems, assistant state attorney general representing the agency, forwarded a request to comment to media liaison, noting that person would not be in the office until Friday. 

Jared Hunt, spokesman for the West Virginia Supreme Court, confirmed the case has been docketed, but said it would likely be heard next year.