[NYTr] Danger Signs at Crandall Canyon Mine Raised Five Months Ago

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFL-CIO Blog - Aug 14, 2007
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/08/14/danger-signs-at-crandall-canyon-mine-raised-five-months-ago/

Danger Signs at Crandall Canyon Mine Raised Five Months Ago

by Mike Hall

Danger signs surfaced five months ago about the Utah coal mine
where six miners have been trapped for more than a week, the Salt
Lake City Tribune reports.

Mine safety experts also are questioning approval by the federal
Mine Safety and Health Administration of retreat mining at the
Crandall Canyon Mine. And last week, CNN.com reported that miners
there were concerned about safety but feared reprisals if they
spoke out.

On Sunday, the Tribune reported on a memo it had obtained that:

shows that mine owners were trying to work around poor roof
conditions before halting mining of the northern tunnels in
early March after a large bump occurredresulting in heavy
damage in those tunnels.

A bump or bounce occurs when the intense pressure on the coal
pillars supporting the mine causes the pillars to burst, sending
coal and rock flying with explosive force, according to that
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The memo was prepared by a mining engineering firm hired by Utah
American, a mining subsidiary of Murray Energy, to study its
retreat mining plans. Murray Energy, headed by CEO Robert Murray,
owns the Crandall Canyon Mine.

Retreat mining, which most safety experts say adds additional
risks to mining, involves pulling pillars of unmined coal from a
worked-out section of the mine. Pillars that had been used to
help support the mine roof are pulled to recover the coal as
miners retreat from the mined-out area. MSHA approved the retreat
mining plan.

Robert Ferriter, who heads the mine safety program at the
Colorado School of Mines, says the retreat mining plan at
Crandall Canyon is dangerous.

Damn dangerous I would say. What is MSHA doing in all this? They
are the ones who are supposed to catch this sort of thing.

The memo noted problems between crosscuts 133 and 138, or
passages cut across the main entry tunnel. The paper said rescue
workers believe the miners were trapped Aug. 6 in a catastrophic
cave-in near crosscut 138 on the south side of the main
corridor.

According to the Tribune:

The miners were working in a spot about 900 feet from where the
dangerous roof conditions were noted in March, according to a
detailed map of the mine. The damage from Mondays cave-in
stretched hundreds of yards, with rubble blocking entries more
than half a mile away and numerous additional bumps making rescue
work unsafe.

Murray, who told the Tribune he was not aware of the problems
pinpointed in March, has denied that retreat mining was involved
in the disaster and has dismissed the safety claims.

Two holes have been drilled from above the mine to the areas
where the miners  may have been trapped, but cameras and
listening devices have shown no signs of life. A third, larger
hole is being drilled today in hopes of gathering more
information.

Meanwhile, CNN.com reports that Crandall Canyon miners were
concerned about safety but afraid to speak up for fear of losing
their jobs:

Asked why they did not complain about their safety concerns,
several miners said complaining means the loss of a job.

Murray denied that. If youre getting that from the community,
then those miners must work for another mining company. I dont
operate that way, he said.

Not so, said Paul Riddle, who used to work in one of Murrays
mines. Always profits before safety, thats my opinion, my
feeling, my experience, he said.

Miners who work for Murray are sometimes forced to push the
envelope when it comes to safety, he said, and are afraid to
speak up for fear of being fired.

Im not the only one, he said. There are many, many people
that feel this way and are afraid to speak up.