Officials from the US Department of Labor have been granted a permanent injunction that prohibits Maine quarry owner Conrad J Smith from hindering or preventing Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) officials from inspecting and enforcing safety measures at his quarry.
As part of the settlement last month at the US District Court in Bangor, Smith agreed to correct cited safety violations inspectors had identified over the past two years at the Brown’s Meadow Quarry in Bangor, Maine.
Following up an anonymous tip, a mines inspector in 2015 noticed the rim of the quarry pit lacked guardrails, in contravention of US regulations, and that there were several people and plant, along with a “significant amount” of aggregate, in a pit that was not supposed to be active.
When the inspector tried to press these matters with Smith, the complaint papers allege, the quarry operator “turned his backside” to the inspector, “and bent over and exposed half of his naked posterior. “I’m bending over now. Give me what you want,’” Smith purportedly mocked.
Smith subsequently thwarted a follow-up visit by two federal inspectors, closing off access to the quarry.
“Everything has all been fixed,” Smith was quoted as saying in the Bangor Daily News. “It’s just petty little stuff that I never objected to fixing. My biggest problem has been [the inspectors].”
The Department of Labor was granted a temporary restraining order against Smith in November 2015 prohibiting him from obstructing further investigations and enforcement actions.
In 2010, Brown’s Meadow Quarry was accused of having no mandated safety chains on high pressure air lines, no railings or warning signs in particular locations within the pit, unlabelled power switches and unsecured oxygen tanks.
However, a year later, federal bureaucrats dropped legal action against Smith when they were convinced he was being more co-operative with MSHA inspections.
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