Utah Mine Safety Commission presents findings

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Jed Boal reporting Utah does little to promote mine safety and needs to take many steps to make the industry safer. Those were the conclusion of a commission which examined Utah mining after the Crandall Canyon mine disaster.

Six miners died in the mine collapse outside Huntington in August 2006. A week later, three rescuers also died. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. appointed a commission to come up with recommendations to make mining safer in Utah.

Today the Utah Mine Safety Commission presented 90 pages and 45 recommendations--many of which call for immediate action from the governor and the legislature. Commission chairman Scott Matheson Jr. says, taken as a whole, the recommendations could help prevent future mine collapses.

After the Crandall Canyon mine disaster, the commission was charged to determine whether the state does everything it should to promote mine safety. "The answer is clearly ‘no.' We have learned in this process that the state of Utah does about as little as any other state to promote mine safety," Matheson said.

Among the key recommendations: Establish an Office of Coal Mine Safety and initiate a one-year, state-federal partnership with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

"This collaboration should enhance safety in the short run and answer whether a continuing partnership or a separate state agency would be best for the long run," Matheson said.

The commission also recommends immediately establishing a Coal Mine Safety Ombudsman Alert System to enable any person, especially miners, to report concerns confidentially. "We're looking at ways to accommodate what MSHA has suggested to us, which is to get another pair of eyes looking at these issues," Matheson explained.

All of the recommendations would better involve the state and provide more independent review. "Clearly we have been pointed out as a state that is deficient to a state that, moving forward, embraces best practices," Huntsman said.

The recommendations also establish a blueprint for emergency response and family support in the event of a major disaster. "I think as a result of this report, and implementation of a lot of this report, we will have well-trained miners. Well-trained miners are the safest miners in the world," Sen. Mike Dmitrich said.

Matheson called it a long to do list. The governor wants to implement several of the recommendations immediately.

To see the entire report, click the related link titled "Utah Mine Safety Commission Web site."