Safety Citations at Four Utah Mines Exceed Sago

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Four Utah mines each violated federal safety rules more often the past two years than West Virginia's Sago Mine, where 12 miners died this month when they were trapped underground.

The Virginia mine was cited 276 times in the last two years for safety violations, 120 of them deemed serious by federal mine safety officials.

Utah's Dugout Canyon, Aberdeen, West Ridge and SUFCO mines were each cited at least 290 times. At Aberdeen, 184 of those violations were rated "significant and substantial." At Dugout Canyon, 155 were given the same rating, according to a copyrighted story in The Salt Lake Tribune on Sunday. The newspaper compiled the analysis of federal mining data.

West Ridge and SUFCO each had fewer serious violations than Sago.

Mine operators say safety is their first priority, but others fear that coal workers are at serious risk.

"It's almost a joke," said Mike Dalpiaz, international vice president of the United Mine Workers union, which is based in Price and covers the western United States. "Our coal is at such a primo throughout the country that (operators say), 'If I can mine this stuff, and violate the law and still make a huge profit, why not just do it?' We are a dynamite keg waiting to blow up."

In two years, the Dugout Canyon Mine near Price had 73 violations for accumulation of combustible materials, a serious risk to miners, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Three other mines in Utah had more than 50 similar violations.

All told, 13 Utah mines had 2,615 citations, 936 of them classified as serious, in 2004 and 2005, and they paid $307,000 in fines.

A mine such as Dugout Canyon should be a red flag for more enforcement action, said Tony Oppegard, a top official in MSHA during the Clinton administration.

"Basically, if you see 73 accumulation violations, that's a sign of a mine operator who is not too concerned with safety," Oppegard said. "It's troubling if you see that many."

Combustible materials, usually a collection of coal dust, create a volatile situation and could make any small fire a disaster, Oppegard said.

Utah ranked 15th in the nation for coal production last year, with some 21 million tons. Sixteen miners in Utah have died while working since 1993, ranking it sixth in the nation for fatalities. The most recent Utah miner deaths were in 2004.

Mine owners dispute that there is any serious problem with their operations.

"Every operator in Utah wants to have a safe operation," said David Litvin, president of the Utah Mining Association. "It's paramount. The No. 1 value in mining is to be safe."

Arch Coal, which operates the Dugout Canyon, SUFCo and Skyline mines through its company Canyon Fuel, said it has a "strong safety culture."

"That means the mines regularly go above and beyond what's required by law to ensure the health and safety of our employees," spokeswoman Kim Link said in a statement.

"Canyon Fuel's mines are in the top tier of all underground coal mines across the country in terms of lost-time injuries and accidents, and we make additional improvements year after year," the statement said.

Pacificorp, which operates the Deer Creek mine, defends its record as well. Company spokesman Dave Eskelsen says, "Safety is always the primary concern."

"We try to exceed applicable safety standards," he said, noting the mine has two award-winning rescue teams and was ranked No. 1 for safety in 1995 and 1996 by federal regulators.

In the past 10 years, Eskelsen said, the accident rate at Deer Creek has been below the national average and often half the national average. The violations for combustible materials, he added, occasionally happen because the mine is so large and it's a "continuous process" to ensure everything is always perfect.

"You're always going to get a certain number of citations," Eskelsen says. "It's similar to what might happen if a traffic officer sat behind each of us as we were driving."

Despite numerous citations for combustible materials in Utah, federal inspectors did not file what's called a citation for a pattern of violations, a more serious order that increases the chance a mine must be closed until the problems are fixed.

Congress, when it passed the mine safety act in 1977, said the citation should be issued when inspectors could establish a "pattern of health and safety violations which are of such a nature as could significantly and substantially contribute to the cause and effect of mine health and safety hazards."

Ellen Smith, editor of Mine Safety and Health News, said as far as she can tell, MSHA has never issued a pattern-of-violations citation.

MSHA said the agency has not issued such a citation for at least five years.

Most mine owners take violations seriously, she added, but some don't. "It's not a great incentive when you get a $400 fine and you're told to fix it and you fix it and the problem happens again," Smith says. "This is what we see in some of these problem mines."

Mine deaths have gone down significantly since the early and mid-1900s with new technology and stricter regulations.

Mining safety nationwide received a large boost after the deaths of 27 Utah miners in the 1984 Wilberg Mine disaster. Afterward, all U.S. coal mines were better designed, with escape paths throughout, better warning systems and better breathing apparatuses.

Still, state government leaves inspections and enforcement to federal regulators. Though Utah has an agency to handle reclamation of old mines, there is no state agency charged with overseeing mine safety, according to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s deputy chief of staff, Mike Mower.

Mower adds, though, that the governor's office has instructed the state's Division of Oil, Gas and Mining to work closely with MSHA to ensure mine safety.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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