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‘What Is the Problem at MSHA? What the Hell Is the Problem at MSHA?’ |
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That query from Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) to Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) chief Richard Stickler was just one of dozens of pointed and critical questions from members of a Senate subcommittee looking into the deadly Crandall Canyon Mine disaster that trapped and presumably claimed the lives of six Utah miners and killed three rescue workers last month.
Much of this morning’s hearing centered on a controversial mining plan submitted by Murray Energy Corp. and approved by MSHA that called for the use of “retreat mining“—a mining method most safety experts say is much more dangerous than conventional methods. That belief is boosted by the fact that the mine’s previous owner had ruled against its use because of safety concerns, says Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts.
Stickler, Roberts and former MSHA administrator J. Davitt McAteer were among the witnesses at the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing. Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray turned down the subcommittee’s request to testify and now may be forced to appear. Says Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.):
First he says he’s too busy and now he says he’s too sick. I’m personally convinced that we need and will issue a subpoena here.
When subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) asked Stickler if he “stands behind” the mining plan MSHA approved, Stickler refused to say “yes” or “no.” He told the panel he would have to wait until the MSHA investigation is further along before answering.
However, he did say the coal company did not inform MSHA of a series of “bumps” and “bounces”—when extreme pressure causes the walls of a mine to explode—in the area near where the retreat mining was to take place and near where the six were working. McAteer said Murray Energy’s withholding of that data:
…suggests an effort not comply or coordinate with MSHA.
Both he and Roberts unequivocally said Murray’s mining plan should never have been approved. Said McAteer:
Retreat mining, generally speaking, is the most dangerous type of mining. So you take the most dangerous type of mining in and around areas prone to bumps and bursts, with 3,000 feet of mountain above….Now, you’ve created an ultra-dangerous circumstance.
Roberts said the mine’s previous owner, Andalex Resources, already had extracted all the coal that could be mined safely.
In essence, the only coal remaining in the mine was the barriers and pillars necessary to support the roof of the mine’s main entrance….There can be no doubt that the mountain over the mine was exerting extreme pressure on the remaining coal, which was supporting the mine roof. Murray Energy was extracting that coal, using the pillar extraction method [retreat mining], at the time of the catastrophic collapse.
Before Murray Energy took over the mine, according to Roberts’ testimony, Andalex filed a report with the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining that said:
Although maximum recovery is a design criteria, other considerations must be looked at in the final analysis in the extraction of coal. These factors include the insurance of protection of personnel and the environment. Solid coal barriers will be left to protect the main entries from the mined out panels and to guarantee stability of the main entries for the life of the mine.
Said Roberts:
Despite this assessment, Murray Energy submitted a plan to MSHA for approval to mine all remaining coal reserves, including the barrier pillars. The agency took just seven business days to approve the request….MSHA’s best chance for saving the miners was on June 15, not Aug. 6 or 7. But when MSHA approved the Crandall Canyon mining plan on June 15, that chance was lost.
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Try to remember, businesses are out for only the money. Without unions, there is no safety, no decent wages, no nothing but a meager existence for workers.
I agree with the statement from John Edwards. The people on MSHA must be replaced with experienced people from the field, who work for the good of the Miners, rather than just to service the Coal Industry.
I think too many people appointed by the current administration have forgotten that they are supposed to serve the American people, and not the interests of big business.
I cannot imagine the pain of those families whose men will be buried in the Utah mine forever, with no more effort to bring them out. They may have written notes to their loved ones, like the men in the Sago mine did. It is a disgrace to leave those miners buried in the mine.
Corporate greed has friends in high places. That a mining operation would even be allowed under the conditions that existed in the Utah mine amazes and astounds me! The families of those miners did not know, I’m certain, that they sent their loved ones off to work under extremely volatile, dangerous conditions every day.
Human lives are not dispensable. They should never be a cost of doing business, or considered “collateral damage”. My heart goes out to the surviving families, the spouses and children who were robbed by this tragic incidence.
Mine safety shouldn’t have been ignored, and it certainly shouldn’t be retreating back to the dark ages. There are plenty of technological advances, which have lessened accidents and improved safety over the years. High risk techniques simply should not be allowed ; the human cost is greater than the value of the resource mined.
Oh, please, save us from self-serving congressional types. While wasting further time and resources investigating once again a mine disaster, they could easily paste “Sago Mine” report over this no-doubt bogus, ineffective, report following these hearings. By the way, what came out of all the posturing by political types after the Sago disaster?
I resigned from the federal government after 10 years of enforcing (or trying to enforce) laws.
An extremely large and politically influential company decided I was being an annoyance in my efforts at enforcing the law. Those employees who dared defy the company and report possible violations of law paid dearly for their brazen behavior.
After insisting violations be corrected, and not with the token offerings they made, a fatal call from on high advised my supervisor to make me back off.
Moral of the story: A law is a law only if the present powers or their influential friends allow it to be an enforceable law.
This has been the game in D.C. forever, but this administration doesn’t even try to hide their selective enforcement practices.
I can’t work for someone who buries their morals to appease the campaign financiers.
Senator Byrd will huff and puff and make the halls of congress shake with his rhetoric. As with any strong wind, his will eventually blow itself out and fade into history with little or no long-term resolutions.
Oh, yeah!. Reagan was president when this miscarriage of law occurred. Bush is just carrying on a government tradition, with a slight change-he doesn’t care who knows his feelings for federal laws and the little guy they were meant to protect.
Where the hell is Robert Murray? Why isn’t he being forced to testify before the Senate panel? Can’t they issue a subpoena?