Federal reviews make clear that a dozen years of aggressive and irresponsible mining combined with impotent regulatory efforts led to the Crandall Canyon disaster last summer in Utah, the most vast mining collapse in 50 years.
A criminal inquiry is possible. Furthermore, modification of mining laws and enforcement practices at the Mine Safety and Health Administration are necessary to prevent greed from overriding basic worker safety in the future.
As the world’s energy problems deepen and production pressures increase, safety issues and staffing at regulatory agencies need to keep pace. Colorado is rich with energy and mineral resources and those concerns have special resonance here.
Last August, the world watched in horror as six miners and three rescue personnel lost their lives in two coal mine collapses, which brought down an area as big as 63 football fields. The primary collapse measured 3.9 on the Richter scale, as measured 140 miles away in Salt Lake City.
A federal investigative report revealed that underground pillars — essentially unmined areas that support the mine roof — were whittled down beyond safe limits in order to dig more coal from the mine.
Federal reviews of the disaster found that dangerous signs of the mine’s instability began appearing months before the disaster.
Support pillars began collapsing as early as March 2007, according to the report. Mine operators failed to notify the mine safety administration, known as MSHA.
That is an unconscionable dereliction by mine operator Genwal Resources, a subsidiary of the Murray Energy Corporation. Genwal was fined $1.6 million by MSHA.
But there is plenty of blame to go around. Mine consulting company Agapito Associates, based in Grand Junction, was fined $220,000 for providing a flawed engineering analysis of the mine, which contributed to the mine failure, according to a federal review.
Furthermore, mining monitors never should have accepted the plan. An earlier report from the Labor Department’s inspector general said MSHA did not have a rigorous mining plan review process to ensure that mine roofs were stable.
The Labor Department’s watchdog also found that MSHA did not perform all required inspections of the nation’s underground coal mines in 2006 because of a lack of resources.
MSHA has shown some willingness to reform. In the year since the Crandall Canyon collapse, MSHA has hired another 170 inspectors and has increased reviews of deep-mining practices.
Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, has proposed a bill that would strengthen mine safety regulations. However, the bill is opposed by Richard Stickler, MSHA director, because he contends it does not allow enough flexibility in implementing improvements and imposed an unrealistic time frame.
In any case, Miller’s bill ought to be a starting point for discussion. Certainly, the systemic failures that led to the Crandall Canyon disaster demonstrate the need for more vigilant oversight.
