Section 690-218 - Preshift examination at fixed intervals(a) Examinations and intervals.--(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), a certified person designated by the operator must make a preshift examination within three hours preceding the beginning of any eight-hour interval during which any person is scheduled to work or travel underground. No person other than certified examiners may enter or remain in any underground area unless a preshift examination has been completed for the established eight-hour interval. The operator must establish eight-hour intervals of time subject to the required preshift examinations.(2) Preshift examinations of areas where pumpers are scheduled to work or travel shall not be required prior to the pumper entering the areas if the pumper is a certified person and the pumper conducts an examination for hazardous conditions, tests for methane and oxygen deficiency and determines if the air is moving in its proper direction in the area where the pumper works or travels. The examination of the area must be completed before the pumper performs any other work. A record of all hazardous conditions found by the pumper shall be made and retained in a record book.(b) Duties of person conducting preshift examination.--The person conducting the preshift examination shall examine for hazardous conditions, test for methane and oxygen deficiency and determine if the air is moving in its proper direction and volume at the following locations: (1) Roadways, travelways and track haulageways where persons are scheduled, prior to the beginning of the preshift examination, to work or travel during the oncoming shift.(2) Belt conveyors that will be energized during the oncoming shift.(3) Working sections and areas where mechanized mining equipment is being installed or removed if anyone is scheduled to work on the section or in the area during the oncoming shift. The scope of the examination shall include the working places, approaches to worked-out areas and ventilation controls on these sections and in these areas, and the examination shall include tests of the roof, face and rib conditions on these sections and in these areas.(4) Approaches to worked-out areas along intake air courses and at the entries used to carry air into worked-out areas if the intake air passing the approaches is used to ventilate working sections where anyone is scheduled to work during the oncoming shift. The examination of the approaches to the worked-out areas shall be made in the intake air course immediately inby and outby each entry used to carry air into the worked-out area. An examination of the entries used to carry air into the worked-out areas shall be conducted at a point immediately inby the intersection of each entry with the intake air course.(5) Areas where trolley wires or trolley feeder wires are to be or will remain energized during the oncoming shift.(6) High spots along intake air courses where methane is likely to accumulate, if equipment will be operated in the area during the shift.(7) Underground transformer stations, battery charging stations, substations, rectifiers, electrically operated submersible pumps, permissible pumps and associated permissible switch gear, compressor stations that will be energized during the oncoming shift, electrical pumps located on or near the section or that move as the section advances and retreats and small electrical portable pumps.(8) Other areas where work or travel during the oncoming shift is scheduled prior to the beginning of the preshift examination.(c) Air volume determination.--The person conducting the preshift examination shall determine the volume of air entering each of the following areas if anyone is scheduled to work in the areas during the oncoming shift: (1) In the last open crosscut of each set of entries or rooms on each working section and areas where mechanized mining equipment is being installed or removed. The last open crosscut is the crosscut in the line of pillars containing the permanent stoppings that separate the intake air courses and the return air courses.(2) On each longwall or shortwall in the intake entry or entries at the intake end of the longwall or shortwall face immediately outby the face and the velocity of air at each end of the face at the locations specified in the approved ventilation plan.(3) At the intake end of any pillar line: (i) if a single split of air is used, in the intake entry furthest from the return air course, immediately outby the first open crosscut outby the line of pillars being mined; or(ii) if a split system is used, in the intake entries of each split immediately inby the split point.(d) Certification.--At each working place examined, the person doing the preshift examination shall certify, by initials, date and the time, that the examination was made. In areas required to be examined outby a working section, the certified person shall certify, by initials, date and the time, at enough locations to show that the entire area has been examined.(e) Sign posting.--If the mine examiner, in making his examination, finds a condition which he considers to be dangerous to persons who may enter or be in such area, the mine examiner shall indicate such dangerous place by posting a "danger" sign conspicuously at a point which persons entering such dangerous place would be required to pass. No person, other than Federal or State mine inspectors, the mine foreman or his assistant or persons authorized by the mine foreman or his assistant to enter such place for the purpose of eliminating the dangerous condition therein shall enter such place while such sign is posted.(f) Recordkeeping.--A record of the results of each preshift examination, including a record of hazardous conditions and their locations found by the examiner during each examination and of the results and locations of air and methane measurements, shall be made on the surface before any persons, other than certified persons conducting examinations required by this subpart, enter any underground area of the mine. The results of methane tests shall be recorded as the percentage of methane measured by the examiner. The record shall be made by the certified person who made the examination. If the examiner has called out the examination from underground and will not complete surface record books personally, the examiner shall enter a record of examination in a record book kept in a fireproof vault underground and sign the same. When a station is located in a mine, it shall be the duty of a mine examiner to also sign a report entered in the record book in the mine office on the surface. A record shall also be made by a certified person of the action taken to correct hazardous conditions found during the preshift examination. All preshift and corrective action records shall be countersigned by the mine foreman or equivalent mine official by the end of the mine foreman's or equivalent mine official's next regularly scheduled working shift. The records required by this section shall be made in a secure book that is not susceptible to alteration or electronically in a computer system so as to be secure and not susceptible to alteration.(g) Second examination.--A second examination by the same or other mine examiner shall be made during working hours of every working place where individuals are employed, and a report of said examination shall be made in the mine examiner report book in the same manner as the first examination.(h) Retention period.--Records shall be retained at a surface location at the mine for at least one year and shall be made available for inspection by the mine inspector and the representative of miners, if applicable.(i) Additional examination.--An additional examination of the working section for persons entering the mine more than three hours after the start of an eight-hour cycle and entering such working section shall be done if persons have not been present in such working section during the three-hour period after the start of the eight-hour period, provided that the entry after the start of the eight-hour cycle is not occasioned by training of the miners or a fan check. A certified person shall examine the working section for hazardous conditions, determine whether the air is traveling in its proper direction and at its normal volume and test for methane and oxygen deficiency. Such examination does not include the travelways to such area where persons regularly travel in the mine.(j) Certification in working section.--In each working section examined, the person doing the examination shall certify, by initials, date and the time, that the examination was made.(k) Recordkeeping.--A record of the results of each examination, including a record of hazardous conditions and their locations found by the examiner during each examination and of the results and locations of air and methane measurements, shall be made on the surface before any persons, other than certified persons conducting examinations, enter the working section. The results of methane tests shall be recorded as the percentage of methane measured by the examiner. The record shall be made by the certified person who made the examination. If the examiner has called out his examination from underground and will not complete surface record books personally, the examiner shall enter a record of examination in a record book kept in a fireproof vault underground and sign the same. When a station is located in a mine, it shall be the duty of a mine examiner to also sign a report entered in the record book in the mine office on the surface. A record shall also be made by a certified person of the action taken to correct hazardous conditions found during the examination. All examinations and corrective action records shall be countersigned by the mine foreman or equivalent mine official by the end of the mine foreman's or equivalent mine official's next regularly scheduled working shift. The records required by this section shall be made in a secure book that is not susceptible to alteration or electronically in a computer system so as to be secure and not susceptible to alteration.(l) Retention period.--Records shall be retained at a surface location at the mine for at least one year and shall be made available for inspection by the mine inspector and the representative of miners.2008, July 7, P.L. 654, No. 55, §218, effective in 180 days [ 1/5/2009].