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Vol. 72/No. 21      May 26, 2008

 
Gov’t report blames company
for fatal Utah mine collapse
 
BY VED DOOKHUN  
A congressional investigation into a fatal August collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine outside Huntington, Utah—which killed six miners and three rescue workers—found management liable for concealing information on a smaller collapse there months earlier.

The Committee on Education and Labor’s May 8 report says mine management did not report the severity of a collapse in March to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). After the collapse, the company shut down retreat mining in the area.

The same congressional committee sent a letter to the Department of Justice April 29 requesting a criminal investigation to determine whether Laine Adair, general manager of Genwall Resources, which operated the Crandall Canyon mine, willfully concealed the facts surrounding the March collapse “individually or in conspiracy with others.”

The report claims that had MSHA been informed, the agency most likely would not have approved the company’s request to retreat mine in the section where the fatal collapse occurred five months later.

But, according to the Department of Labor’s inspector general, MSHA did know about the conditions in the mine prior to the collapse.

A March 31 Labor Department report found that MSHA did not document how it evaluated the company’s plan to mine barrier pillars, called retreat mining, or on what basis it approved those plans. Barriers are left behind to support the roof and stabilize the mine after coal has been removed from an area. Retreat mining allows the company to maximize the amount of coal it extracts by removing the support pillars as miners retreat toward the entrance of the mine, leaving the unsupported roof to collapse.

The Labor Department report found that MSHA had enough information to warrant further inquiries before granting approval to mine the pillars in an area only 900 feet from the site of the March collapse. According to the report, the MSHA inspector did not even examine the collapsed site before approving the new plan.

The Labor Department report also states that MSHA could not show that the process was free of influence by the mine’s owner, Robert Murray.

In a related development, family members of seven of the nine victims and two of the miners injured in the rescue filed suit in March against Murray Energy Corp., its consultants, and two utility companies partly owned by Murray Energy. The lawsuit claims the decision by Murray Energy management to mine coal from the barrier pillars demonstrated “greedy determination to mine the easily accessible coal without regard to safety.”

Also in March, MSHA fined Murray subsidiary UtahAmerican Energy $420,000 for safety violations involving explosive hazards at its Tower mine north of Price, Utah. The company shut down the Tower mine and offered to transfer miners to other mines operated by Murray Energy in Ohio and Illinois. The Tower mine, which employed 200 people, is the deepest in the country.

Utah Energy was also fined for safety violations at its West Ridge mine, Murray Energy’s third mine in Utah.  
 
 
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