Another Murray mine facing fines
Mine Safety and Health Administration Coal Administrator Kevin Stricklin said Thursday that operators of the West Ridge Mine in Carbon County are being charged with two high-level violations for reckless disregard of safety.
The citations "are going through assessments and then to the Solicitor's Office to make sure all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed," Stricklin said. The exact amount of the penalties has not yet been determined.
Stricklin was in Salt Lake City on Thursday to attend a University of Utah presentation and discussion on the state's deep coal mining. In an interview prior to the presentation, he said the West Ridge violations occurred after the Crandall Canyon Mine accident last August.
When the Crandall Canyon Mine in Emery County collapsed last August, six miners were trapped, and their bodies were never recovered. Days later, three rescuers were killed trying to reach them. The mine has since been shuttered.
A U.S. Senate committee report released this month blamed Murray Energy and MSHA for the disaster. In approving the mine's operations plan, MSHA "unconscionably failed to protect miners by hastily rubber-stamping the plan," the report said.
Last week, Murray Energy subsidiary Andalex Resources Inc. was fined $420,300 for "excessive accumulations of hydraulic oil and fine coal particles (that) covered the hoses, electrical conduit and tram motors on electric equipment," according to an MSHA press release.
Stricklin said a 104-D citation is issued when there are repeated violations that the operator was aware of that were so blatant that corrective action must be taken.
"What that does is it shuts mining down until it's corrected," he said.
In the case of Andalex, Stricklin said, the company's three flagrant negligence violations within a 15-month period prompted the severe penalties. The two initial violations occurred prior to the Crandall Canyon disaster last summer.
After Congress in late 2006 passed the Mine Safety and New Emergency Response Act, known as the MINER Act, MSHA implemented increased penalties for mine-safety violations.
In the wake of the Crandall Canyon disaster, the state of Utah formed a blue-ribbon panel to develop recommendations to improve mine safety. Stricklin said he agreed with the recommendations the commission submitted to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. He said MSHA is working with the state to implement a safety hotline that would allow whistle blowers to anonymously submit information to officials regarding mine safety.
As for the Crandall Canyon Mine investigation, Stricklin said the final report on the accident should be completed by this summer.
"The interviews have been completed, they're reviewing all the paperwork and are actually drafting the report right now," he said.
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