Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
It was a day of reckoning over last year's deadly Crandall Canyon mine disaster. One report released Thursday blasts the company that operated the mine, while another takes the federal mine safety agency to task.
Federal regulators blame Murray Energy for the mine collapse that killed nine Utahns last summer. Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) officials released their report Thursday in Price.
An independent report released Thursday evening in Washington D.C. for the Department of Labor is highly critical of MSHA for inadequate inspections before the collapse and how the agency handled the mine crisis.
Earlier in the day, MSHA blamed the mine owner for safety violations and not reporting three bumps in the mine that could have been a warning to the disastrous collapse.
The agency is fining Murray Energy affiliate Genwal Resources Inc. $1.6 million for violations called "highly negligent" and showing reckless disregard for safety.
"GRI (Genwal Resources Inc.) misled MSHA about the extent of the March 10 burst and failed to immediately inform MSHA of the March 7 and August 3 bursts. Also, GRI failed to adequately revise its roof-control plan after the March 7, March 10 and August 3 bursts," said Richard Gates, lead investigator for MSHA.
The investigation uncovered a long list of violations from the mining company, which MSHA says compromised safety and resulted in the deaths of six miners and three rescuers.
MSHA also fined an engineering firm $220,000 for giving a faulty analysis of the mining plan.
The investigation confirmed the collapse happened exactly where the miners were working, that no earthquake was involved, and the collapse was the direct result of retreat mining.
MSHA chief Richard Stickler said the mine was primed for a collapse because of poor engineering. "First of all, it was not -- and I'll repeat -- not a natural occurring earthquake, but in fact it was a catastrophic outburst of the coal pillars that were used to support the ground above the coal seam," he said.
Family members believe the report was informative about what really happened to their loved ones.
"I feel better about knowing pretty much what happened, and I think I am totally convinced that those boys were killed instantly and there was nothing they could do about it. And the rescue part, those trying to move the debris to get to those six guys, weakened and caused the other bounce," said Frank Allred, whose brother was killed in the collapse.
Some family members say they wanted to see what was in the report, but it was still difficult to take in.
"Just the pictures of the mine and the accident that killed my husband, that was hard seeing those pictures because every time you see, they blacked out the faces. And you would see them, you could just picture it being your husband. That was tough, that was really tough," said Wendy Black, whose husband was killed in the collapse.
The report also lists several recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy and on how to handle a mine emergency.
Scott Matheson, chairman of Utah Mine Safety Commission, said he had doubts about the federal agency's ability to assess its own performance policing Murray Energy and believes an independent agency should have conducted the investigation.
"I just think as a matter of good government and policy, having some independence would make sense," said Matheson, a former dean of the University of Utah law school and professor there.
The Department of Labor's report faulted MSHA for failing to properly evaluate the engineering and roof-control plans at Crandall Canyon. That report critcizes the MSHA mining plan approval process prior to the Aug. 6 accident and said mine inspections were inadequate.
The report is also critical of MSHA's rescue operations following the disaster, citing everything from the agency's failure to clearly identify a person "in charge" of the incident, the lack of an established command center and its communications with the families of the trapped miners as deficiencies.
The report was conducted by an independent review team. It says the cumulative problems contributed to the Aug. 6th accident and may have also affected the outcome of the Aug. 16th accident, which killed three rescuers.
Genwal Resources, the subsidary company of Murray Energy which operates the Crandall Canyon mine, released a statement today about the MSHA report. It reads that safety is a "constant concern" and that the company cooperated extensively with MSHA's investigation.
But it also says the report "does not have the benefit of all of the facts and appears to have been tainted ... by ... relentless political clamoring to lay blame."
To read the entire response from Murray Energy, click the corresponding related link to the right of the story.
We haven't heard the end of Crandall Canyon. The families have filed lawsuits, Congress is still investigating and there is talk of possible criminal indictments before this is all over.
The six miners entombed in Crandall Canyon from the initial collapse are Kerry Allred, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Don Erickson, Manuel Sanchez and Brandon Phillips. More than a week after that, Gary Jensen, Brandon Kimber and Dale Black died trying to rescue their colleagues. Five other miners and an MSHA inpsector were hurt.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
(The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
