Crandall Canyon Mother: ‘Hard to Have Hope When You Have Your Heart Broken’

by Mike Hall, Oct 3, 2007

With her grandson Gage on her lap and a photo of her son Brandon—one of six coal miners killed Aug. 6 at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah—in front of her, Shelia Phillips told the House Education and Labor Committee this morning that they were there because:

We want to make the mines safer so this doesn’t happen to anyone else. It’s hard to have hope when you have your heart broken every day watching your grandson grow up without a dad.

Phillips and several other family members—including the wife of one of the three rescue workers killed Aug. 16—spoke out against the treatment they received from mine co-owner Robert Murray following the disaster; the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA’s) approval of a mining plan that many experts believe played a major role in the mine collapse that trapped the six. They also said they believed if Crandall Canyon had been a union mine, the disaster may not have happened.

Steve Allred has spent nearly 30 years digging coal in union mines. His brother Kerry was killed at Crandall Canyon. Allred told the lawmakers:

At Crandall Canyon, had the mine owner been held accountable by the United Mine Workers (UMWA) and MSHA, my brother would not have died. If the UMWA had been there, those pillars would not have come down and the miners who were concerned about the mountain coming down on top of them, they would have had a voice.

MSHA approved a mining plan that allowed Murray Energy Corp. to pull down the pillars of coal that the mine’s previous owners had left because of safety concerns and to support the mine roof. The process is called retreat mining and most safety experts believe it is more dangerous than other mining methods. UMWA President Cecil Roberts told the committee:

It is deeply distressing that Murray Energy sought to mine the barrier pillars supporting the mountain above the mine. That plan should never have been submitted. Further, and perhaps more importantly, MSHA should never have approved any such request.

It is high time for mine operators and MSHA to realize that miners’ lives, not the mining product, is the most valuable resource of the mining industry. Only when they come to this conclusion will the needless loss of life in our nation’s coalfields end.

Yesterday, Kevin Stricklin, MSHA’s administrator for coal mine Safety and Health, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which is probing the Crandall Canyon disaster that MSHA has rescinded retreat mining approvals at eight similar western coal mines. Those plans are being reviewed for a safety, he said.

At that hearing, committee chairman Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) revealed that a just unearthed January 2005 memo from a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) inspector called the mine unsafe. BLM inspector Stephen Falk wrote:

Weight on the pillars is substantial and dangerous conditions are present. Mining any of the coal in the pillars will result in hazardous mining conditions such as pillar burst and roof falls.  I agree that further mining in this area would be dangerous and most likely too expensive to rehabilitate.

Said Kennedy:

At Crandall Canyon, MSHA apparently missed the warning flags about serious safety problems.

Crandall Canyon miner Jose Luis Payan, whose brother Juan Carlos Payan died in the collapse, told the House committee that miners were very concerned about their safety at the mine.

 The mine was making us nervous. The bump in March of this year was very scary. It required us to clean the mine floor from the coal that exploded from the sides and roof of the mine. The bump also damaged the conveyor and some equipment. Many left the mine. We trusted the mine owners, that they would not mine in dangerous conditions. Our trust was misplaced. 

MSHA needs to be investigated to determine whether it was independent and proper in approving the mining of the barriers and in the rescue operations.  

Explosive mine “bumps” carry tremendous force and are the suspected cause of the initial collapse and an Aug. 16 “bump” is what killed the three rescuers.  

During the rescue attempts, the families say there was a lack of communication and information from Murray—who basked in the media spotlight, conducting press tours of the rescue operation and granting interviews. Mike Marasco, Kerry Allred’s son-in-law told the panel. 

The families from day one have been let down my Mr. Murray and MSHA. They told us what they thought we wanted to hear and not the facts. All we heard was “earthquake, earthquake, earthquake” Murray more than once yelled at us when we asked questions.

Despite scientific evidence that an earthquake was not the cause of the mine collapse, Murray repeatedly told reporters that an earthquake was the culprit. Phillips told about an especially cruel outburst. As attempts were being made to drill from above ground to reach the miners, she asked Murray why just one hole was being drilled.

He said, “I could drill a thousand holes and it wouldn’t make any difference.” Well I want to know where my son is in that hole so I can leave a marker on that mountain.

Last year Congress passed new mine safety laws—the MINER Act—following coal mine disasters at Sago where 12 West Virginia miners died, at the Darby Mine in Kentucky where five were killed and Aracoma where two West Virginia miners died. Overall in 2006, 47 coal  miners were killed on the job, the most since 1996.

Roberts said one of the provisions of the new law was to 

…ensure that families would be treated with the dignity they deserve and would be kept informed of the most accurate information available. This did not happen at Crandall Canyon. Like the Sago families last year, they were held almost as captives, awaiting any bits of information–or misinformation–delivered by the coal operator.

How is it possible MSHA could get it so wrong in Utah? How could it ignore the mandates of Congress, which require the agency to take charge of incidents like Crandall Canyon and serve as the liaison with the families and the press? By allowing this mine owner to take center stage and deliver misinformation to the public and treat the families with an attitude verging on contempt, MSHA ignored the directives of the MINER Act.

Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) said the Department of Labor “has not been fully cooperative” with the committee’s request for information on the Crandall Canyon disaster. Last week, the committee issued a subpoena for the documents.

We will not be deterred from getting all the facts and we will not tolerate obstruction or delay by the company or the department.

He also said the committee plans to vote on tougher new mine safety laws later this fall.

In a related development, a coalition of news media groups filed suit in federal court to open MSHA’s Crandall Canyon investigation to the public and asked for the transcripts of an hearings that may have already taken place. The Salt Lake City Tribune reports:

The lawsuit filed Monday states that MSHA itself has been publicly accused of bearing “some significant responsibility for the accident” and for engaging in questionable activity in its various statutory roles after the accident.

As Marasco told the committee:

the investigation amounts to MSHA investigating itself.

Said Roberts:

Something must be done to change the status quo. Leaders must be held accountable for their actions and inactions. The miners of this nation can no longer be asked to sacrifice their safety when their employers are focused on monetary profit with little regard to their employees’ well-being. 

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