SALT LAKE CITY—A judge has ruled that federal regulators were justified in shutting down major operations at a troubled Utah coal mine.
Administrative Law Judge Richard Manning on Thursday found some fault with the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s decision but concluded the agency acted reasonably at the West Ridge mine near Price.
MSHA said the judge vindicated its position that a section of West Ridge was too dangerous for longwall mining. That section, nearly 3,000 feet deep, experienced several bounces or violent releases of energy from the weight of a mountain above. An early bounce Jan. 31 left a worker with a broken rib.
A lawyer for UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., said a compromise was possible that could allow major operations to resume at West Ridge.
At first, MSHA’s Denver managers allowed West Ridge to mine the section of the troubled longwall panel by remote control. But after more bounces, top administrators in Arlington, Va., overruled the district office Feb. 13 and ordered West Ridge to stop mining the 800-foot panel.
Manning wrote in his 18-page decision that it was “rather surprising” that MSHA administrators made the “flawed” decision without carefully evaluating conditions at the mine.
Nonetheless, Manning said MSHA has “broad discretionary authority” and he couldn’t find that it acted unreasonably.
Mine managers argued that many of the bounces at issue were harmless releases of energy that allowed coal to slowly crumble off the face of the longwall panel, rather than violent bounces that can turn chunks of coal into lethal projectiles.
“It wasn’t really bouncing. These were just normal noises and pops,” said Kevin Anderson, a Salt Lake City attorney for the coal company.
Anderson said two days of hearings last week revealed problems in communication between regulators and the coal company that could be easily resolved, letting West Ridge resume longwall mining. West Ridge also could move equipment to another longwall panel, but says it doesn’t want to abandon the coal where it was working.
Relations between top MSHA administrators and Murray Energy have been tense since the collapse of another company mine in Utah. The Crandall Canyon disaster of 2007 killed six miners and three others died in a rescue effort 10 days later. MSHA formally asked federal prosecutors to look at bringing criminal charges against the company for that collapse. U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman said his review will take several more months.
MSHA declared victory Thursday in the legal battle at West Ridge.
“We are extremely pleased with Judge Manning’s ruling today affirming the reasonableness of MSHA’s judgment that continued longwall mining in ‘Panel 13’ posed too great a risk to miners at the West Ridge mine,” Michael A. Davis, MSHA’s deputy assistant secretary for operations, said in a statement.
Davis said other mining at West Ridge was not affected by the order Manning ruled on Thursday.
