Report Finds Mine Safety Agency ‘Negligent’ in Approving Crandall Canyon Plan

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/04/01/report-finds-mine-safety-agency-negligent-in-approving-crandall-canyon-plan/

by Mike Hall, Apr 1, 2008

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) was “negligent” when it approved a mining plan that most mine safety experts believe played a major role in the Crandall Canyon coal mine disaster that killed six miners last August, a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Inspector General’s office finds. Three rescue workers were killed several days later attempting to reach the workers.


The report does not pinpoint a cause for the deadly collapse but does charge MSHA with failure to “do everything appropriate” to protect the miners. MSHA approved the plan that called for “retreat mining,” where pillars of coal left in previously mined areas to support the mine roof are pulled down, allowing the roof to collapse and the recovery of more coal. According to the report:

MSHA’s actions and inactions, taken as a whole, lead us to conclude that lacked care and attention in fulfilling its responsibilities to protect miners….MSHA could not show how it analyzed roof control plans, the criteria it measured the plans against, the rationale for approving the plans, that the plans were properly implemented or that the plans continued to protect miners over time. These deficiencies evidence the agency’s serious and systemic lack of diligence in protecting miners, and we do not believe it is misleading to use the term “negligent.”

Following the Aug. 6 collapse, Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corp., which owned the mine, denied retreat mining was being used in the area where the six—whose bodies remain entombed in the now shut mine—were killed.


The report also raised concerns that company officials may have pressured MSHA to approve the plan. In a memo to MSHA two days before the safety agency approved a retreat mining plan, a Murray company official wrote:

I have a fire under my ass to get this approved. I need your help.

Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says the report confirms what the union has alleged for years—that the relationship between mine owners and MSHA is too cozy.

FULL story at link.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Hmm and which Bush crony former lobbyist runs the "mine safety" division?

[Omaha Steve]

2. Richard Stickler

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/08/bush-wage-and-hour-no... /

DeCamp never won Senate confirmation for the Wage and Hour post, so in August 2006, President Bush circumvented the Senate and used a recess appointment to put him in the job. It’s the same tactic he’s used for other controversial nominees, including Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) chief Richard Stickler.

Then W cut the mine safety budget for this year!

[MidwestTransplant]

3. How Republicans can even be viable in WV is beyond me.