Crandall Mine owners, MSHA condemned
But a separate report, also released Thursday, blasted MSHA itself for what it called multiple failures of the agency during the Crandall Canyon plan approval process, inspection activities and rescue attempt.
That report, prepared for Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, said MSHA "failed to fully meet its responsibility by approving the roof control plans for mining the north and south barriers" within the mine.
"MSHA's failure to adequately evaluate the roof control plans contributed to the occurrence of the Aug. 6th accident," authors of the report wrote for an independent review team within the Labor Department.
On Aug. 6, 2007, six miners were trapped by a catastrophic collapse within the Crandall Canyon Mine in Emery County. After 10 days of digging, trying to reach the men, three more men were killed in another collapse.
Thursday's release of the reports left unanswered questions about why miners went after sections of coal that were supposed to have been left untouched. And there were anger and tears from family members who lost loved ones as they were taken back in time to nearly one year ago to the tragedies.
"It was a catastrophic outburst of the coal pillars that were used to support the group above the coal seam," explained Richard Stickler, acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health during a press briefing detailing the long-awaited report.
A MSHA briefing for families Thursday morning corroborated for some that the Crandall Canyon mining plan was "flawed" prior to the Aug. 6 collapse. Coal was reportedly being mined from an area where the plan prohibited removing structures meant to support a mountain of rock and coal above those miners.
There were reports Thursday that critical information about geologic "bounces" in March and early August was either not reported or inadequately submitted to MSHA.
MSHA is proposing what officials called the highest fine amount for a coal-mining-related incident in history and the second highest in mining history.
MSHA is proposing to fine mine operator Genwal Resources Inc., owned by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, $1.6 million, while also fining mine engineering firm Agapito Associates Inc. $220,000 for its "flawed engineering analysis." In total, 21 citations or violations were issued — 10 of those (nine to Genwal and one to Agapito) relating directly to the accident. Those fines are subject to appeal.
Recent comments
Kevin Anderson a murray lackie said the msha report was tainted and...
Frank T | July 28, 2008 at 7:59 p.m.
M. Packard, you are quite the Monday morning armchair warrior! I...
Rock Dr | July 28, 2008 at 5:40 p.m.
Well this would not have happened if you baby boomers would not have...
Phil | July 25, 2008 at 10:23 p.m.
